Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Military tribunal for KSM in exchange for closing Gitmo?

New York City may be spared Khalid Sheik Mohammed’s trail, but the country may get Gitmo detainees in the 48 states? What a deal!
Obama advisers set to recommend military tribunals for alleged 9/11 plotters

President Obama’s advisers are nearing a recommendation that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, be prosecuted in a military tribunal, administration officials said, a step that would reverse Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.’s plan to try him in civilian court in New York City.
…
If Obama accepts the likely recommendation of his advisers, the White House may be able to secure from Congress the funding and legal authority it needs to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and replace it with a facility within the United States.

Apparently the Obama administration is seeking the support of Lindsey Graham,

Top Obama advisers have been negotiating with Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) — a vocal critic of trying the Sept. 11 suspects in civilian court — in pursuit of a deal that would secure his help in closing Guantanamo. Graham has sought the creation a legal framework that would spell out how the government would detain and try future captives, but an administration official warned that a “grand bargain” is not likely in the immediate future. The official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the talks with Graham have been mostly about “limited issues” involving the Mohammed trial and the future of Guantanamo.

One can only hope Graham and the Republicans will have the gonadal fortitude to prevent the transfer of terrorists to the US. As Dan Riehl points out,

But given that the plan is still to bring them into the US, how are they going to avoid the civilian courts? Once they come into the country, their lawyers will go hog wild. Add to that that some of their former representation now works at DOJ, how this doesn't end up looking like a colossal circus is above my pay grade.

UPDATE
Andrew McCarthy:

Senator Graham and others will tell you such an outcome will be a great victory for national security conservatives who think terrorists should be tried by commission. Don’t buy it. The deal would be a great victory for the terrorists. As I argued here, it would significantly increase the threat to U.S. military bases and geometrically increase the likelihood that federal judges will order that trained terrorists be released in the United States. There is no excuse for taking on these risks given that Gitmo is a top-flight, completely secure facility. It makes no sense to horse-trade when Obama was being pushed toward military commissions by reality.

Proponents will call frame the compromise floated by the Post as a triumph for bipartisanship. In reality, it will be a defeat for national defense.

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KSM civilian trial: Did Holder think it through?

Watching this video, you can’t help but wonder if Eric Holder gave much thought to the decision:

How could Holder not know the answer to this question?

Noel Sheppard (via Instapundit) has the transcript. Money quote:

The big problem I have is that you’re criminalizing the war, that if we caught bin Laden tomorrow, we’d have mixed theories and we couldn’t turn him over — to the CIA, the FBI or military intelligence — for an interrogation on the battlefield, because now we’re saying that he is subject to criminal court in the United States. And you’re confusing the people fighting this war.

Smitty points out that Graham knows and understands the Law of War.

Holder simply doesn’t.

Here are a couple of questions the Judiciary Committee might want to ask Holder in its follow-up:

1. If, as between civilian trials and military commissions, there is no real difference in the degree to which national defense secrets are protected, why does the Justice Department apply a protocol which asserts that the “protection of intelligence sources and methods” will be different in the two systems?

2. If the evidentiary rules in the two systems are virtual mirror images, why does DOJ apply a protocol that says evidence that is admissible in one system may not be admissible in the other? And, since Holder claims the government has an easier time proving its case in civilian court, can he identify a single category of evidence that is admissible in civilian court but not in a military tribunal?

On number 2, here’s a hint: One of the major attacks on the military commissions, advanced by lawyers like those in Holder’s firm who volunteered their services to the enemy, was that military commissions permitted too much hearsay and, potentially, evidence obtained by “torture.” They argued that the government should be required to prove its case under what they insisted were the more demanding standards that govern civilian trials.

And not to be missed, John Hinderaker goes into the “rule of law” argument: Obama and Holder both flunk on that, too.

But hey, the trial will be on in time for the next presidential election, won’t it?

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Suicidal move: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to Be Sent to New York for Trial

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to Be Sent to New York for Trial

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and four others accused in the attacks will be put on criminal trial in New York, Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to announce later Friday.

The decision, described by people familiar with the matter, is part of wider announcement planned on how to bring to justice detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay prison. It’s the first set of decisions before a Monday deadline on how to deal with the more than 200 prisoners remaining at the facility, which President Barack Obama has ordered closed.”

Also expected in the announcement Friday will be plans to hold a military tribunal for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, alleged to have planned the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole.

Andy McCarthy, who prosecuted the first WTC attack perpetrators:

Today’s announcement that KSM and other top al Qaeda terrorists will be transferred to Manhattan federal court for civilian trials neatly fits this hidden agenda. Nothing results in more disclosures of government intelligence than civilian trials. They are a banquet of information, not just at the discovery stage but in the trial process itself, where witnesses — intelligence sources — must expose themselves and their secrets.

Let’s take stock of where we are at this point. KSM and his confederates wanted to plead guilty and have their martyrs’ execution last December, when they were being handled by military commission. As I said at the time, we could and should have accommodated them. The Obama administration could still accommodate them. After all, the president has not pulled the plug on all military commissions: Holder is going to announce at least one commission trial (for Nashiri, the Cole bomber) today.

Moreover, KSM has no defense. He was under American indictment for terrorism for years before there ever was a 9/11, and he can’t help himself but brag about the atrocities he and his fellow barbarians have carried out.

So: We are now going to have a trial that never had to happen for defendants who have no defense. And when defendants have no defense for their own actions, there is only one thing for their lawyers to do: put the government on trial in hopes of getting the jury (and the media) spun up over government errors, abuses and incompetence. That is what is going to happen in the trial of KSM et al. It will be a soapbox for al-Qaeda’s case against America. Since that will be their “defense,” the defendants will demand every bit of information they can get about interrogations, renditions, secret prisons, undercover operations targeting Muslims and mosques, etc., and — depending on what judge catches the case — they are likely to be given a lot of it. The administration will be able to claim that the judge, not the administration, is responsible for the exposure of our defense secrets. And the circus will be played out for all to see — in the middle of the war. It will provide endless fodder for the transnational Left to press its case that actions taken in America’s defense are violations of international law that must be addressed by foreign courts. And the intelligence bounty will make our enemies more efficient at killing us.

The Obama administration has made a suicidal decision.

We are all going to pay for it.

UPDATE
David Horowitz calls it The Worst Decision By A US President In History

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