Washington—Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) released the following statement on the indictment of Sulaiman Abu Ghayth, an associate of Usama bin Laden, on conspiracy to kill Americans:

“I congratulate our national security professionals for bringing another senior al-Qaeda figure to justice for his acts of terrorism. Abu Ghayth is charged with participating in al-Qaeda conspiracies to kill Americans, which carries a maximum term of life in prison.

“I support the government bringing this prosecution in civilian court and expect that the federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York will successfully prosecute Abu Ghayth and put him away for the rest of his life. 

“The bottom line is the federal criminal court system works.  Hundreds of international terrorists have been convicted in our federal courts since 9/11 and are locked away in heavily fortified federal prisons. Some of the most infamous terrorists — ‘Blind Sheik’ Omar Abdel Rahman, the ‘20^th Hijacker’ Zacarias Moussaoui and ‘Shoe Bomber’ Richard Reid — are serving life sentences after being tried in federal criminal courts. Additionally, the criminal justice system has a strong and consistent record of gaining intelligence from terrorist suspects. 

“Based on the specific conspiracy charges in this case, a prosecution in the military commission system at Guantanamo would be extremely risky. The ability to bring conspiracy and material support to terrorism charges in the military commission system is currently the subject of appeals. By comparison, those charges are common in our federal criminal courts where they have been used to put terrorists behind bars for a very long time.”

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