Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other foreign terrorists should be tried by military commissions, not civilian criminal courts, according to new legislation introduced by Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX01) and supported by John Carter (R-TX31).

“The acts perpetrated by these prisoners were acts of war by foreign nationals,” says Carter, like Gohmert, a former Texas state judge. “Trying these cases in civilian U.S. courts is not just legally inappropriate, but a reckless endangerment of public safety and the intelligence resources of the United States.”

Carter today co-sponsored Gohmert’s bill which amends the Military Commissions Act of 2009 to make it mandatory that all alien unprivileged enemy belligerents subject to trial stand trial in a military commission, not in civilian court. 

Mohammed and his co-conspirators were originally charged in a military commission, as was approved by Congress and the federal courts. While Attorney General Eric holder has confirmed he will use military commissions to try other Guantanamo prisoners, he moved the Mohammed case to civilian court in New York City, where it will be subject to civil court rules that may force public disclosure of critical U.S. intelligence resources.