Holder: Prosecutors could accept KSM's guilty plea

Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday suggested federal prosecutors would be open to allowing the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attack the ability to plead guilty in civilian court.

The Department of Justice previously prohibited Khalid Sheikh Mohammed from submitting that guilty plea, when he appeared before a military commission in 2008.

But Holder signaled during a hearing of the Senate Judiciary committee this morning that prosecutors would now be open to such a move in order to progress more quickly to the new trial's sentencing phase.

It has so far been a tough hearing for Holder, who has fielded serious criticism from Republican lawmakers after he announced he would try KSM and four other 9/11 suspects before a federal bench in New York.

While the attorney general insisted he felt a civilian court was best suited to handle those forthcoming cases, some Republicans on the committee suggested Wednesday the decision could jeopardize both the legal system and the country's war on terrorism.

"I think youve made a fundamental mistake here," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Holder, arguing there was no historical precedent informing Holder's call.

"You have taken a war-time model... and you have compromised this country's ability to deal with people who are at war with us by injected into the system the possibility they may be given the same constitutional rights as any American citizen," he added.

Graham also hounded Holder on how he might try Osama bin Laden, should military leaders capture him, as both he and KSM qualified were enemy combatant who plotted to kill American citizens.

Holder, however, dodged that question for the most part, concluding that legal call would depend on the Justice Department's later determinations.

The attorney general earlier deflected concerns aired during a heated exchange with Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) that the use of a civilian court rather than a military commission in any way favored the defendants' case.

"I'm not going to base the determination on where these cases ought to be brought based on what a terrorist, a murderer, wants to do," Holder said. "He will not select the venue... I have."

---