Why civilian courts are best for terror trials, especially Boston bombing suspect

Indeed, it was such shared information – gathered from phone calls and letters intercepted by guards – that alerted authorities to a fatwa the “Blind Sheikh” issued when he was first incarcerated that called on Al Qaeda to attack the US. It was also prison intelligence that linked the 2004 Madrid train bombings to a group of Al Qaeda members detained in Spanish jails after September 11. And it is prison intelligence that has in more recent years warned about the growing convergence between terrorist networks and transnational organized crime.

Moreover, both international and federal level law enforcement keeps tabs on inmates with past terrorist ties after they are released – just as these agencies do with other types of violent criminals such as pedophiles or organized crime leaders.

The fact that probation officers with the Bureau of Prisons track formerly convicted terrorists for lengthy periods, and that they are watched closely by INTERPOL (the International Criminal Police Organization) and the FBI, appears to have been an effective deterrent to further radicalization, as these inmates have rarely re-offended. This is an important contrast to Guantánamo, where a full quarter of those who have been released from incarceration there have subsequently gone on to commit or are suspected of committing further terrorist crimes.

The outcome of the Tsarnaev trial, therefore, has broader implications for counterterrorism here at home and overseas. Until the marathon, America had arguably not had a major terrorist attack on US soil since September 11. This is a testament to the proactive, preventative work of international, federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies – work that has often gone unrecognized amid the race to assign blame for perceived failures and concerns over counterterrorism methods and resources.

The more important future challenge is how best to streamline the increased use of America's criminal justice system to counter terrorism with the efforts that have been developing simultaneously across the globe.

This coming summer, five high-profile terrorism suspects extradited from Britain will stand trial here in New York City for their role in the bombings of two US embassies in Africa in 1998 and for conspiring with individuals in Seattle to set up terrorist training camps inside the US. Together with the Tsarnaev trial, these cases should prompt a renewed look at counterterrorism efforts across the entire US criminal justice system to ensure that they are aligned with global trends, goals, and strategies.

Melanie Getreuer is a PhD candidate in political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she is writing a dissertation about the global use of criminal justice systems to counter terrorism. She lives and works in New York City.

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