9/11 kin sees face of terror; condemns plan to shut Gitmo

Another slap in the face of the 9/11 families and America. There are no words for this outrage.

FROM SILIVE.COM:

9/11 kin sees face of terror; condemns plan to shut Gitmo

After seeing suspects brag about attacks, she's stunned when trial is suspended Sunday, February 01, 2009 By STEPHANIE SLEPIAN STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It was little more than 24 hours between the time Lorraine Arias-Beliveau boarded a plane and the moment she came face-to-face with the five men accused of masterminding the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The former New Springville resident sat in a courtroom at Guantanamo Bay on Jan. 19 with several other family members who lost loved ones in the Twin Towers. They were selected in a lottery to observe pre-trial hearings.

She was stunned by what she heard: The suspects, switching back and forth between Arabic and English, shrugged off potential death sentences and proclaimed they were proud of their role in the attacks.
Their words forced her to step outside of the courtoom for a few minutes.
"It was surreal, it was chilling," said Mrs. Arias-Beliveau, whose brother, Adam Arias, a 37-year-old Dongan Hills resident and vice president of operations for Euro Brokers, was seen standing outside Tower 2 helping firefighters direct New Yorkers away from the building when it collapsed.

"These men were responsible for the deaths of 3,000 people and they stared right at us and laughed. We just stared right back." But what was even more stunning, she said, was what came in the next 24 hours: A day after he was inaugurated, President Barack Obama suspended all terror trials for 120 days -- a cooling-off period to study how to proceed with trials of those suspected of taking part in terrorist attacks against the United States.
Obama also ordered the detention center -- notoriously known as Gitmo -- closed within a year.

"The safest place to have those trials is at Guantanamo Bay," said Mrs. Arias-Beliveau, who now lives in Barnegat, N.J.
"I am very fearful of Gitmo being closed and of bringing these prisoners into the United States," she said, referring to Obama's plans to possibly try terror suspects in traditional military or civil courts here. "We have Homeland Security in place to keep them out and now he's talking about bringing them in."
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