Sacramento, CA – The pro-troop group Move America Forward published an open letter, written and endorsed by a group of 9/11 families and military Gold Star families, condemning the Obama Administration’s decision to bring terrorists to trial in New York City. The group has posted the letter on their website (MoveAmericaForward.com) and is encouraging others that agree with them, to sign on and make their opposition heard.
The letter is a response to the news last week that President Obama would allow 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-conspirators to stand trial in New York City, just blocks from where those traumatic attacks took place.
The letter is written and signed by a group of concerned families that lost loved ones in the 9/11 terrorist attacks and families that have lost members in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting to make sure that such a tragedy does not happen again.
“Many of us have attended the trials of these murderers,” reads the letter, specifically voicing concerns from the 9/11 families, “We have seen for ourselves how they, and in some cases their ACLU lawyers, attempted to waste the courts time, taunted our families, and interfered with court proceedings.”
The group echoes the warnings of NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani who has pointed out the difficulty of prosecuting enemy combatants in a civilian court in New York.
The group accuses Obama of setting-back America’s war on terror, and dishonoring the memories of troops who died in that war. “Bringing terrorists from Guantanamo Bay to New York City,” reads the petition, “on American soil, which our troops have bled for, fought and died to protect, is a huge insult to those troops who have sacrificed so much. We sent them thousands of miles away to destroy a threat, but you have decided to invite that very threat, Jihad, into this country. “
“It’s a very strongly worded response,” says the group’s Executive Director, Shawn Callahan. “But these families feel that what Obama has done this time is going too far; putting our country at risk, and even more hurtfully, tarnishing the memories of the loved ones they lost either in a terrorist attack, or a war to stop the terrorists. It is our hope that Americans will respond loudly that they disapprove of this decision and want it rescinded. “
The full text of the open letter/petition is available at
moveamericaforward.org as well as the list of 9/11 families and Gold Star families endorsing it.
