Panetta Questioned On Terror Trial

Politico reports:

Sen. John McCain and a group of his colleagues are questioning Defense Secretary Leon Panetta over the military’s decision to bring a Somali terrorism suspect to New York for trial, saying “there appears to be no precedent for this action.”

In a letter to Panetta sent Wednesday, 23 senators – mostly Republicans – ask for an explanation of why the Obama administration chose last week to charge Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame with nine counts related to supporting Al Qaeda in Yemen and the Shabab in Somalia in a federal civilian court, rather than holding him at Guatanamo Bay for a possible military trial.

“We are very concerned that this policy appears to be a circumvention of the clear intentions of many in Congress that terrorists captured abroad … should not be brought into the United States for trial,” they say in the letter, which was signed by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Services Committee, as well as Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). “[T]here appears to be no precedent for this action.”