• Bin Laden son-in-law due in New York court; GOP's Graham cites 'bad precedent'

    Alongside Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., says he's putting the Obama administration "on notice" for reportedly going around Congress and sneaking the "spokesman for 911," Abu Gaith, into New York City for detainment rather than taking the alleged enemy combatant to Guantanamo Bay to await a hearing.

    By Jonathan Dienst, Pete Williams and Andrea Mitchell, NBC News

    Even as government officials applauded the arrest of Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, Osama bin Laden's son-in-law and an al-Qaida spokesman, his transport to the United States stirred a debate among lawmakers who appeared caught by surprise by the news.

    Abu Ghaith was apprehended, transported to New York and charged with conspiracy to kill Americans, according to court documents unsealed Thursday. Abu Ghaith appeared alongside his father-in-law in a 2001 video in which they took responsibility for the 9/11 attacks and warned of more.

    He is due to appear in federal court in Manhattan on Friday. Abu Ghaith is expected to enter a plea to one count of conspiracy to kill Americans.

    Abu Ghaith's trial will be one of the first prosecutions of senior al-Qaida leaders in the United States. Upon taking office in 2009, President Barack Obama said more foreign terror suspects should be charged in American federal courts, as part of his goal to close Guantanamo Bay.

    Since September 11, 2001, 67 foreign terror suspects have been convicted in U.S. federal courts, according to Human Rights First, a watchdog group that obtained the data from the Justice Department through a Freedom of Information Act request.

    Of the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay after the terror attacks, only seven have been convicted by military tribunals held at the base in Cuba, Human Rights First said. Most of them have been sent back overseas, either for rehabilitation or continued detention and prosecution, the AP reported. 

    Republicans in Congress would like to keep Guantanamo open and have strongly opposed bringing terror suspects on U.S. soil.

    "We believe the administration's decision here to bring this person to New York City, if that's what's happened, without letting Congress know is a very bad precedent to set," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who held a press conference with Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H, Thursday.

    "And when we find somebody like this, this close to bin Laden and the senior al-Qaida leadership, the last thing in the world we want to do, in my opinion, is put them in civilian court. This man should be in Guantanamo Bay," Ayotte said.

    Officials tell NBC News he had been a prisoner in Iran for most of the past decade and is scheduled to appear in federal court Friday. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

    "So we're putting the administration on notice," said Graham. "We think that sneaking this guy into the country, clearly going around the intent of Congress when it comes to enemy combatants, will be challenged."  

    Earlier, in an interview on MSNBC, House Intelligence Chair Mike Rogers, R-Mich., strongly criticized the administration for bringing Abu Ghaith to the United States.

    Rogers, a former FBI agent, said that reading "Miranda rights" to a top al-Qaida suspect and bringing him to the United States for trial creates a host of problems — as opposed to sending him to the facility at Guantanamo Bay, which was built to handle high value prisoners.

    "Al-Qaida leaders captured on the battlefield should not be brought to the United States to stand trial," Rogers said. "We should treat enemy combatants like the enemy. The U.S. court system is not the appropriate venue."

    Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said it was fine with him if Abu Ghaith is put on trial in New York, because key state and city officials had been consulted in advance, unlike in the case of terror suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

    "Unlike with KSM, (Police Commissioner Ray) Kelly and others had been consulted ahead of time about this and they gave the green light to do it. As you know,  Kelly, Mayor (Michael) Bloomberg and I opposed the trial of (Mohammed) in New York and we successfully made sure that didn't happen," said Schumer.

    "On issues like this, I defer to Commissioner Kelly, and I think the mayor does as well. And he thinks it's OK to do it here, and I'll go by that," he added.

    NBC News' Becky Bratu and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Related:

    Bin Laden son-in-law arrested, whisked to NYC on terror charges

    Exclusive: Iran was holding bin Laden son-in-law, US officials say

    This story was originally published on Thu Mar 7, 2013 7:19 PM EST

  • Australian deputy PM: 'Cranks and crazies' in GOP threaten US economy

    Wayne Swan, who also serves as treasurer and is his center-left Labor Party government's ranking finance minister, says the "cranks and crazies that have taken over the Republican Party" are the greatest threat to the U.S. economy. Watch an excerpt of his speech.

    By NBC News wire services

    CANBERRA, Australia -- Australia's deputy prime minister said Friday that the greatest threat to the U.S. economy are "cranks and crazies" in the Republican Party.

    Wayne Swan, who also serves as treasurer and is his center-left Labor Party government's ranking finance minister, took aim at the Tea Party during a speech to a business forum on Friday, breaking a convention among Australia's major parties to steer clear of U.S. domestic political debates.

    Swan, one of few world leaders able to boast his country had avoided recession during the global financial crisis, also labelled the Tea Party wing of the Republicans as "extreme."

    "Let's be blunt and acknowledge the biggest threat to the world's biggest economy are the cranks and crazies that have taken over the Republican Party," Swan said in a speech in Sydney.

    While courting Hispanic voters on Univision, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney delivered a new message after saying he stood by his beliefs about the "47 percent." NBC's Chuck Todd reports.

    The Republican Party's position on the U.S. budget had led a year ago to the deadlock in negotiations, Swan said, to prevent the looming "fiscal cliff" -- nearly $600 billion in planned spending cuts and tax hikes that will bite early next year.

    Polls: Obama ahead in 3 key states

    The U.S. Congress had been debating whether to increase the U.S. borrowing ceiling but the Republicans would not budge.

    "Despite President Obama's goodwill and strong efforts, the national interest was held hostage by the rise of the extreme Tea Party wing of the Republican Party," he said. 

    Australian politicians rarely launch such blunt criticism of their counterparts in the United States, Australia's most important strategic ally.

    Texas' U.S. Senate candidate Ted Cruz and a Meet the Press roundtable talk about the Tea Party's rise in the GOP and Paul Ryan's role in that public increase.

    Swan, named by banking magazine Euromoney as its finance minister of the year in 2011, also called on the U.S. Congress to resolve an agreement on the budget to support growth in the short term.

    NYT: Daunting path greets Romney before debates

    With the U.S. presidential campaign entering its final weeks, the spending cuts and tax hikes will kick in unless Obama and Congress reach a deficit-reduction deal.

    'Peddling hatred'
    Democrats want to make up the shortfall by increasing taxes on wealthy Americans, while Republicans favor spending cuts.

    The conservative opposition said Swan's speech betrayed his "hatred" of Republicans.

    "The Labor Party is peddling hatred and [they've] got to stop," opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey told reporters. "They hate the Republican Party. I'd like Wayne Swan to say something positive about someone somewhere."

    More international coverage from NBCNews.com

    Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who is due to travel to New York next week to address the United Nations General Assembly, defended her deputy's comments as "appropriate."

    "What happens in the U.S. economy matters to the world economy and it matters to us," she told reporters. "Wayne Swan was making that very common sense point today."

    Adam Lockyer, a lecturer at Sydney University's U.S. Studies Center, described Swan's speech as "a clumsy political move" that left him open to attack from his political enemies.

    Lockyer said Swan might have been attempting to link the Tea Party to the obstructionism of the Australian opposition, which has thwarted Labor's legislative agenda in a finely-balanced Parliament.

    Full US election coverage from NBC Politics

    Australia has long maintained that its close relationship with Washington, and its 61-year-old defense alliance, remains strong regardless of who is in the White House.

    Former conservative Prime Minister John Howard was widely criticized in 2007 when he claimed Obama, then a Democratic presidential nominee, represented al-Qaida's interests.

    Howard, a staunch U.S. ally in the Iraq war who lost elections later that year after 11 years in power, created one of the first controversies of Obama's presidential campaign by attacking his plan to withdraw troops.

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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