Obama administration retreats (again) on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed civilian trial; Holder blames Congress
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Buzz out of Washington this morning is that the Obama administration has signaled it will end efforts to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a civilian trial and instead will use the Gitmo military tribunal system pursued by, yes, George W. Bush.
AG Eric Holder is reportedly holding a 2pm Eastern press conference.
Here’s a blurb from CBS:
Attorney General Eric Holder today will announce that self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad will be tried in a military commission, CBS News has learned. A source says the commission will be held at the Guantanamo Bay prison.
Trying Mohammed in a civilian court and closing the Guantanamo prison were once some of the Obama administration’s top priorities, but political realities have hamstrung both goals.
Holder previously recommended that Mohammed and four other alleged Sept. 11 plotters be tried in New York City, but he scrapped that plan in the wake of public consternation.
Not just “political realities.”
Homeland security realities.
Public safety realities.
Intelligence realities.
Wartime realities.
Reality realities.
Reality bites. Sanity wins. For now.
Flashback to November 2009, when Obama/AG Holder embarked on their futile mission to treat Mohammed like your common domestic criminal.
Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey said today that it is highly likely that terrorists will attack New York City as a consequence of the Obama administration’s decision to send five alleged Sept. 11 plotters there for trial in federal court.
During a question and answer period following a speech to a conservative legal group, Mukasey was asked about the possibility that there might be an escape by one or more prisoners.
“The [Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan] is a very secure place….Is it secure? Of course, it’s secure. They’re not going to escape,” Mukasey told a conference of the Federalist Society. “The question is not whether they’re going to escape. The question is whether, not only that particular facility, but the city [at] large, will then become the focus for mischief in the form of murder by adherents of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed–whether this raises the odds that it will. I would suggest to you that it raises them very high.”
Mukasey said the men now to be tried in New York should have been left before military commission proceedings at Guantanamo that were already in progress.
“The plan seems to be to abandon the view that we’re in a war,” Mukasey said. “I can’t see anything good coming out of this. I certainly can’t see anything good coming out of it very quickly. And it think it would have been far preferable to try these case in the venue that Congress created for trying and where they were about to be tried.”
And this:
The five men facing trial in the Sept. 11 attacks will plead not guilty so that they can air their criticisms of U.S. foreign policy, the lawyer for one of the defendants said Sunday. Scott Fenstermaker, the lawyer for accused terrorist Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, said the men would not deny their role in the 2001 attacks but “would explain what happened and why they did it.”
The U.S. Justice Department announced earlier this month that Ali and four other men accused of murdering nearly 3,000 people in the deadliest terrorist attack in the U.S. will face a civilian federal trial just blocks from the site of the destroyed World Trade Center. Ali, also known as Ammar al-Baluchi, is a nephew of professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Mohammed, Ali and the others will explain “their assessment of American foreign policy,” Fenstermaker said.
“Their assessment is negative,” he said.
Chalk up another “Emily ‘Never Mind’ Litella” Moment for feckless Team Obama:
***
Not coincidentally, Obama’s national security ratings have fallen to a new low.
Twitter users are having a field day with #Obama2012slogans. The latest in response to the Khalid retreat:
“Next Time I Really Am Closing Gitmo.”
Jan. 22, 2009 Obama’s executive order on closing Gitmo.
**
I’ve written extensively over the years on the perils of civilian trials for terrorists. See here and here and here for a refresher course in the Ally McBeal approach to terror.
Previous Obama Gitmo retreat/trial posts…
11/17/2010 The DoJ’s Civil Trial Balloon Pops; Update: Bush’s Fault, of Course
3/4/2010 National security flip-flop: Obama to retreat on KSM/Gitmo detainee civilian trials…for now
1/28/2010 Retreat: White House plays jihadi musical chairs
***
2:10pm Eastern AG Holder press conference. He says he embarked on shutting down Gitmo and forcing civilian trials with an “open mind.”
Pretends to speak for the 9/11 families — who raised their voices most loudly against KSM trial in New York City.
Says the Bush-era military tribunals will be fair and just, after all…
Whines about congressional restrictions based on national security/public safety concerns.
Still intends to close Gitmo.
Whines about critics trying to “score political points.”
Whines about “needless” debate.
Peppered with questions about his contradictory views on military tribunals and his condescension towards Americans who criticized civilian trial plans, a testy Holder cuts and runs.
Eric Holder: Honorary Fleebagger of the Day.
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Let’s just get on with it, shall we? Holder’s an idiot, and his attitude reflects the way the “executive” branch has decided to usurp the prerogatives of the legislative.
Well, there was a declared war at the time.
And Roosevelt, a democrat (read: socialist) was allied with the Soviets/Russians (communists/socialists), who were in a life-and-death, mortal (understandable) and ideological (that, I don’t get) struggle with the Nazis/Germans.
If, instead, there had been no declared war; and if, instead, 8 Soviet (or other communist) spies had been found; I see no reason to believe that Roosevelt would have acted so decisively to defend America.
The Cold War, after all, is in no small part Roosevelt’s legacy.
Holder blames Congress?
As a matter of principle he should resign in protest. That will show those members of Congress who are not HIS people.
Take that honky!
(how do you say HONKY in Nigeria?)
But as a jester
of goodwill we could release Khalid Sheikh Mohammed near the Twin Towers could we not? Feel the LUV.
I think al Qaeda declared war on us on 9/11/2001 sans Geneva accords.
No .. WE were all allied with them at the time .. thank GOD for that!
On that you’re preaching to the choir. The soviets thoroughly infiltrated the Manhatten Project. Whether FDR knew about it or not will remain conjecture for a very long time to come.
I said:
You know … I was going to imply that a corpse would be a better president than who we have now but instead opted to go fishing for the straight man reply “But he’s dead?”
And thus made eastern Europe safe for an even bigger murderer.
Hitler couldn’t cross the English Channel so he attacks Russia and failed to reach any major objective. If we had of stayed out those two murderous monsters might have destroyed each other.
And thus we fought the Russian proxy in Korea, Viet Nam and someday we have to face China. I am not too thrilled the way this is going. At least the two atomic bombs kept my father from having to go to the Pacific-Europe was enough.
George Washington’s Farewell Address
17 September 1796
“Beware of Foreign Entanglements”
Taking care always to keep ourselves by suitable establishments on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.
http://www.100megspop3.com/bark/Beware.html
This.
Wow! Rosie O’Donnell really let herself go!
Dancswithdachshunds #100:
If I recall my WW2 history correctly, the Nazis were considered spies, not soldiers. The conspiracy alone made them elegible for the death penalty under existing espionage laws,and it being wartime, there was no sympathy for the bunch. That’s why they were so quickly dispatched,
Maybe if we had done the same to KSM and Co., all the Islamists would think it twice before messing with us. Then again, maybe not, but the pattern would have been established.
isn’t National Socialism just great? that we have this kind of fascistic black racist America-hating goon in any kind of position of power, is just sickening.
we exterminated National Socialism once in the past 70 years, and it appears we have to do it again, this time it has overtaken our own society and our once proud government.
One of the former guests of Gitmo is now a commander of Libyan rebels that we are providing air cover for. I guess next we should expect the release of KSM, a plane ride to the Arab country of his choice and arms enough to overthrow that government.
Who IS Barry Soetoro?
(Translation)
I’d so hit that!
“Not just “political realities.” Homeland security realities. Public safety realities. Intelligence realities. Wartime realities. Reality realities. Reality bites. Sanity wins. For now.”
Amen
Does anyone else see the irony of a Jewish Air Force Academy graduate being his lawyer?
Dogs and cats living together…
Just saying’ is all…
Blame, blame, blame…not one person in the current Obama sandbox ever takes responsibility for anything they say or do…always someone elses fault. Every failure, too many to count, is always going to be scapegoated.
Just stand this waste of oxygen up and shoot him. Geez it like the Islamists might get violent or something..oops too late
What’s this? Obama Administration actually does something logical and rational like removing the KSM trials from civilian courts?
Whodathunkit?
eh?
A dictatorship would be so much easier, wouldn’t it Eric?
Holder blames Congress!!
Wait, hold the phone, standby!
Thats right Eric, blame congress, blame the Botox Nan Congress because that Congress is the one that said no! Oh, I do believe Little Chucky, of the Shumer tribe, was quite vocal concerning trials of Terrorists in NY, but hey Eric, don’t let little things like the truth stop you.
On April 5th, 2011 at 12:41 am, BK said:
Only because of “political realities.”
They lost an historic election in 2010. They lost the House of Representatives, and the ability to break filibusters in the Senate. Now the Democratic Socialists can’t force anything and everything they want through the Congress. The Executive Branch no longer has a submissive, compliant, acquiescent, deferential, servile Legislative Branch to do its bidding.
“Political realities.”
Dictatorship would be easier for the Democratic Socialists, but the timing is not right for them to openly shred the Constitution. They still give public lip service to the Constitution, while privately doing their best to shred it.
ITookTheRedPill said:
Me thinks this and many other things are the reason the Sock Puppet wishes he were President of a Country like China!
No argument with that.
My point is that Congress (It sure hurts to capitalize that….) has not declared war on anyone/thing.
I would add that America-destroying socialists/Gramsci disciples have had an additional ~70 years to parasitize/erode/hollow out/weaken America in a number of ways that have been discussed previously here at MM.com.
Interesting. Roosevelt had to ally himself with the devil to fight the devil.
Even though the USSR and Nazis are on the same political ideological side – extreme left wing socialist.
Remember what Senator Lindsey Graham said about burning the Koran?
Here are two must-see videos done by Ann Barnhardt in response to Lindsey Graham:
these terrorists should have been hung when Bush was still president…typical giverment movement, one step forward two backwards.
Great post, Ann hit the nail on the head..that would be the head of most all the trouble in the world today.
Churchill himself made a comment on this issue, I believe when he was criticized for allying with the Soviets once Hitler had launched the attack against Russia in 1941.
To paraphrase: If Hitler were to invade Hell, I would at least make a favorable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons.
I won’t. We didn’t need to be “allied” with them. What were they gonna do, not defend themselves from the Nazis? Yeah, that’ll show us.
Roosevelt was absolutely enthralled with Stalin and Communism. He went out of his way to make Stalin happy and to ensure totalitarian domination of Eastern Europe:
Yup.