Attorney General must go, say Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty

The acquittal of Ahmed Ghailani on Wednesday of all but one of the charges is a failure by the Department of Justice, President Barack Obama and his Attorney General, Eric Holder, according to U.S. law enforcement and military officials across the nation. A jury convicted Ghailani of only one conspiracy count.

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Many Americans are angry over this latest failure by the Obama Administration. For example, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is outraged that convicted terrorist Ahmed Ghailani was acquitted in civilian court of all but one of the 286 charges against him. "It's clear to me that Attorney General [Eric] Holder should resign," said Gingrich during an interview on Newsmax.TV. "His rulings have been wrong. They've endangered our national security. They allowed a federal judge to throw out most of the evidence." Terrorism cases shouldn't be tried in civilian courts, said an angry Gingrich. It's clear to me that Attorney General [Eric] Holder should resign," Gingrich told Newsmax.TV in an exclusive interview. Meanwhile, in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt at the Republican Governor’s Association convention in San Diego last Friday, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty opined that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder should resign because he wasn’t able to prosecute Guantanamo Bay prisoner Ghailani effectively in civilian court. The Ghailani case proves the point that civilian trials are not the place to try terrorists being held at a military detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to the nation’s leading pro-troop organization, Move America Forward. “We visited Guantanamo in 2008 and ever since, we’ve been saying that it’s the best place to house the terrorists and that the military tribunal system set up there, while not perfect, is the most effective way to prosecute terrorists. The case of Ahmed Ghailani serves as proof of this," said Danny Gonzalez, Director of Communications for the Move America Forward and one of the 9 MAF staffers who visited the detention facility in 2008. "The Department of Justice bungled this case by insisting on trying Ghailani in civilian court, thereby eliminating their own key witness,” Gonzalez said. Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to prosecute murderous, fanatical terrorists—including the 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- in civilian courts infuriated many Americans, but to no avail. In fact, Holder practically guaranteed Americans that there would be convictions of terror suspects tried in civilian rather than military courts. "Does his stubborn prosecution of Guantanamo imprisoned terrorists in New York City -- a mere few blocks from 9-11's Ground Zero -- speak volumes about his ignorance of the true nature of the threat of terrorism? Or is there a hidden agenda at work within his Justice Department?" asks former NYPD detective Michael Snopes. In a statement released by the Justice Department hours after the Ghailani verdict, Matthew Miller, Director of Public Affairs, said, "We respect the jury’s verdict and are pleased that Ahmed Ghailani now faces a minimum of 20 years in prison and a potential life sentence for his role in the embassy bombings." But Det. Snopes believes the Justice Department officials are deceptive in this one sentence press release. "There were more than 280 counts in the original indictment. And they're boasting about getting a guilty verdict on one single count? It's a scam on the American public," he said. “If Ghailani had been allowed to be tried by a military tribunal, we would have gotten a conviction on terror charges. The conviction on one conspiracy charge that the Department of Justice is heralding as a victory is nothing more than a slap on the wrist when you consider what this terrorist deserves. Ghailani is responsible for the deaths of over 200 Americans and deserves a lot more than a 20 year sentence, but unfortunately for the American people, justice was not served today," Gonzalez said. "We hope this is the last time the Obama administration attempts to try a GITMO terrorist in civilian court and we strongly urge the use of military tribunals to obtain convictions of known terrorist and their collaborators held at Guantanamo Bay,” concluded Gonzalez. Ghailani was a key component of the bombing of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 -- bombings that killed hundreds of innocent people, including 12 Americans. These bombings were considered some of the worst acts of terrorism against U.S. targets pre-9/11. With the trial moved to civilian court, the prosecution’s key witness was barred from testifying after a judge ruled that military interrogators used coercive tactics to extract the information from Ghailani himself that led to tracking down the key witness for testimony. Only the most biased supporter believes the president is serious about intelligence gathering and analysis during a time of war.. Some security experts believe that it wasn’t the intelligence people who failed in the prelude to the Christmas Day attempted airline bombing, but a clear lack of leadership. “You have a Homeland Security Secretary who believes returning war veterans are extremists and an Attorney General who’s biting at the bit to prosecute intelligence agents,“ said former NYPD detective and US Marine intelligence officer Mike Snopes. What most Americans do not know is that Eric Holder may have personal reasons for wanting to prosecute foreign terrorists—some of whom were captured on the battlefield in foreign countries—in the U.S. federal court system. When asked about his motives for not allowing the military justice system to try Gitmo detainees, Holder and his supporters blame President George W. Bush’s failure to try Gitmo terrorists in the so-called military tribunals. However, the real reason there were so few military trials was that lawyers were continuously working to derail the military courts martial by challenging them in the civilian courts. And far too many of those lawyers are now working for Holder at the Justice Department.

Holder’s law firm, Covington & Burling, provided pro-bono services for about 20 of the enemy combatants held at Gitmo

During the Bush Administration, Holder’s law firm, Covington & Burling, provided pro-bono services for about 20 of the enemy combatants held at Gitmo. In lawsuits Holder and his firm brought against the American people, Covington contributed more than 3,000 hours of free, top-flight legal assistance to these violent terrorists. “From a political standpoint, Holder reserves his vitriol and passionate opposition for US intelligence officers and those law enforcement leaders who fight terrorists, or police commanders who are tough on criminal aliens,“ said Mike Baker. Yet, Obama and Holder appear to enjoy immunity from any investigative journalism by the elite media, including questions regarding Holder’s ties to defending enemies of the United States in the past. The Obama Administration has now fundamentally characterized itself with the word "failure." In this case, failure comes with the unspeakably high cost of the shock, pain, and grief to the families of the 224 innocent people who were murdered and the more than 4,000 people who were wounded in these horrific terrorist attacks, who were all just told by a federal court that the man who irrefutably helped create the bombs that maimed and slaughtered their innocent loved ones is not guilty of a single count of murder, according to a press statement from Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ).