Paul J. McNulty, the recently appointed deputy attorney general defended the U.S. government's much-criticized proactive legal policy in prosecuting terrorists Wednesday at a conference at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington think tank.

The U.S. Justice Department has a growing confidence in its capabilities to prosecute terrorists, McNulty said. He was responding to the concerns that many American citizens and scholars have expressed about the effectiveness of the U.S. justice system after the lengthy trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only member of the group that carried out the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackings and terrorists who survived to be face trial.

McNulty about the successes, challenges and future of terrorist prosecutions. He used the Moussaoui case to identify the progress the U.S. justice system has made in trying international terrorists.

"When we got his guilty plea we received all the information we were prepared to prove," McNulty said.

However, many of the Justice Department's critics have said they shouldn't base their success on the case because of the unusual nature of Moussaoui's pleas.

In response, McNulty said any case would be assisted by pleas. "We are ready and prepared to go to trial," he said. "We look at these cases one at a time with the evidence we have at hand."

Ben Wittes, a member of the editorial board for the Washington Post, was critical of the Justice Department's policies.

He pointed out several problems in the Moussaoui case, including the four years it took to bring to trial and the setbacks that arose, as general problems the justice system faces in trying international terrorists. Wittes spoke about problems with classifications, unavailable witnesses and an inconsistent method for trying terrorist leaders.

McNulty spoke of the focus shift in the Justice Department after Sept. 11, 2001 from waiting for attacks to prosecute to actively preventing them.

"We are committed to a new paradigm shift from reaction to proactive prevention," McNulty said. "We resolved not to wait for an imminent threat or attack to investigate."

McNulty measured the Justice Department's success using statistics and the recent Moussaoui trial. Since Sept. 11, 2001, the justice system has charged 435 defendants for terrorism and has convicted 235 people, he said.

"This aggressive, proactive and preventative action is the only acceptable course for the department of government charged with enforcing our laws," McNulty said.

However, Wittes said he thought McNulty overstated the success of the Justice Department and underestimated their failures.

"He is addressing a very narrow component in this issue," Wittes said, "which is the role of the Department of Justice in prosecuting terrorist-related crimes using civilian courts within the United States. This is actually, as we've learned, a small piece of the pie."

To gain confidence from the public, Wittes suggested a routine procedure for prosecuting terrorists.

"The only guiding principle is convenience," Wittes said. "They need to imagine in abstract what the principles should be for people arrested overseas so there is be some predictability in regard to the public."

Neal Katyal, of the Georgetown University Law Center, said the U.S. government and the international community still faced the unresolved question of where to prosecute suspected terrorists. He said the Military Commission Process at Guantanamo Bay wasn't working.

"It has been a complete failure from start to finish," Katyal said.

Katyal attributes the commission's failure to not involving the U.S. Congress in its activities.

"The Congress vote is necessary," Katyal said.

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