Transcript: 'Face The Nation' (11-15-09)

Read the transcript (alternative source) for 'Face The Nation' (11-15-09):

Congressman, I will start with you. You're the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. I want to get your take about the announcement that they will try Sheikh Mohammed in New York, just blocks from ground zero. Most Republicans seem to think this is a bad idea. Most of the Democrats seem to think it's a good idea.

HOEKSTRA: And I think most Americans are going to think that this is a bad idea.

This is ideology run wild. We're going to go back into New York City, the scene of the tragedy on 9/11. We're now going to rip that wound wide open and it's going to stay open for, what, two, three, four years as we go through the circus of a trial in New York City?

SCHIEFFER: Do you think it's going to take two, three or four years?

HOEKSTRA: Well, you never know. You can bet that folks that are going to be tried and their lawyers are going to try to use this opportunity to extend it as long as they can, because this is what they wanted. They wanted center stage, and they're going to want to keep it for as long as they can. They will bring every motion forward that they can that will drag this trial out.

SCHIEFFER: The fact is, he did ask to be brought to New York when he was first arrested. And we all know he has confessed to this. Do you think it will just turn into some sort of a propaganda show? HOEKSTRA: Well, that will be their objective. Obviously, our attorney general, our legal system, will try to keep it dignified and civil and bring some respect to it. But that's not what KSM is going to try to do. They're going to do everything they can to disrupt it and make it a circus, and allow them to use it as a platform to push their ideology.

SCHIEFFER: What -- I guess the question I'd have, what would you have done? Something has to be done with these people.

HOEKSTRA: I'd do exactly what the president is doing with some of the other people that they have down in Guantanamo. The president has said for some of these other individuals, we will use military tribunals. And he hasn't really, you know, demonstrated to us as to why some are going to go into New York and be tried there and why others are going to go through military tribunals.

He clearly has said military tribunals are an appropriate step to use, but he hasn't said why it's OK for one, for another.

I would have put him through the military tribunal process. We started that process. They pled guilty. Why won't the president take guilty for an answer and say now let's go on to the sentencing phase?

SCHIEFFER: Do you believe, I mean, is it your basic belief that these terrorists do not deserve a trial in an American court and the benefits that come with that?

HOEKSTRA: Not an American civilian court. I believe that they have certain protections that they would get in a tribunal. But to give them all of the extraordinary protections that you and I have as American citizens, and to give that to KSM, people who have mocked the American system, who want to do everything that they can do to destroy it, and now give them those extraordinary protections that we enjoy -- yes, I think that's a bad decision.