Hoekstra warns terror trials could take years

Civilian trials for terrorists in New York City courts could last years, top Republican Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) warned Sunday morning.

Rep. Hoekstra, the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said that the civilian trials of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other terror suspects would drag on as the defendants use trials as a venue to promote ideology.

"We're going to go back to New York City to the scene of the tragedy on 9/11," Hoekstra said during an appearance on "Face the Nation" on CBS. "We're now going to rip that wound wide open for two, three, four years as we go through the circus of a trial."

"Folks are going to be tried and their lawyers are going to try to use this opportunity to extend it for as long as they can, because this is what they wanted," Hoekstra added. "They're going to bring every motion forward to try and drag this trial out."

The Michigan lawmaker blasted the Obama administration's decision to move the suspects to Manhattan for trial as an example of "ideology run wild," and suggested that the terror suspects should continue to be housed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where they should face military tribunals.

Hoekstra is running for governor of Michigan and has emerged as a top GOP proponent of keeping the terror suspects in Cuba, instead of options the Obama administration has been considering in the U.S., including an idle prison in Standish, Mich.

Trials and detention in the U.S., Hoekstra said, would only lead to terror suspects promoting their beliefs.

"They're going to do everything they can to disrupt it and make it a circus and try to make it a platform to promote their ideology," he argued.