Military Tribunals for KSM and 9/11 Plotters

Obama is learning that he can't always get what he wants.

It looks like Obama is being forced to retreat on the decision to hold the trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a civilian court in New York City.

(For the record, Eric Holder's plan IS Obama's plan.)

From the Washington Post:

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.

The president's advisers feel increasingly hemmed in by bipartisan opposition to a federal trial in New York and demands, mainly from Republicans, that Mohammed and his accused co-conspirators remain under military jurisdiction, officials said. While Obama has favored trying some terrorism suspects in civilian courts as a symbol of U.S. commitment to the rule of law, critics have said military tribunals are the appropriate venue for those accused of attacking the United States.

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. The administration has failed to meet a self-imposed one-year deadline to close Guantanamo.

The administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the president's legal advisers are finalizing their review of the cases of Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators. Asked about the process, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said that "no decisions have been made."

Privately, administration officials are bracing for the ire of disappointed liberals and even some government lawyers should the administration back away from promises to use civilian courts to adjudicate the cases of some of the 188 detainees who remain at Guantanamo.

Poor Obama.

He must be SO disappointed. It was SO important to Obama to have KSM tried in a civilian court.

Of course, Obama is certain that the 9/11 mastermind will be executed.

In an interview last year with NBC News, Obama said KSM would get a fair trial, be convicted, and put to death.

In an interview with NBC News, Obama defended his administration's decision to try Mohammed and four other accused plotters of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack in a New York court. Critics have said it is offensive to afford Mohammed the same legal rights and privileges granted to defendants in U.S. courts but Obama said those critics will not find it "offensive at all when he's convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him."

The president quickly added he did not intend to prejudge the outcome of a trial.

"I'm not going to be in that courtroom," he said. "That's the job of the prosecutors, the judge and the jury."

..."(What) I think we have to break is this fearful notion that somehow our justice system can't handle these guys," Obama said.

Obama wasn't just rushing to judgment. He already had KSM dead.

But what a reversal!

It had to be a civilian trial. Now it doesn't. Never mind.

Just another fine mess Obama has gotten himself into.

The Leftists are not happy with Obama's about-face.

From Politico:

“If this stunning reversal comes to pass, President Obama will deal a death blow to his own Justice Department, not to mention American values,” American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement e-mailed to reporters. “If the president flip-flops and retreats to the Bush military commissions, he will betray his campaign promise to restore the rule of law, demonstrate that his principles are up for grabs and lose all credibility with Americans who care about justice and the rule of law.”

...“Backing down and moving the KSM trial to a military commission will not mollify Republicans, it will embolden them,” said Ken Gude, who studies detainee issues for the liberal Center for American Progress think tank. “A federal criminal trial for KSM is in the best interests of the United States and President Obama needs to stand up for what is right even if it is politically unpopular.”

Obama really is in a bind, and not just on this civilian court - military tribunal thing.

Obama wants to keep the Leftist extremists happy. Being a liberal extremist and far out of the American mainstream himself, he shares their agenda. Doing what the far Left wants is doing what he wants.

The problem is Obama also wants to be popular. He doesn't want his approval ratings to continue their downward spiral. He doesn't want to be a one-term president.

But the truth is Americans don't share Obama's radical principles. Again and again, on issue after issue, Americans are rejecting Obama's crackpot Leftist moves.

Obama isn't leading the country. Instead, he's being led by the American people.

It's a castration by a thousand cuts. Poor Obama.
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By the way, some Leftists are trying to find a silver lining in all of this. By swallowing hard and accepting military tribunals, they hope the closing of the Guantanamo Bay facility may become a reality sooner.

Yeah, I don't think the plan to relocate the Gitmo detainees, bringing them to live on AMERICAN SOIL, is going to go too well either.

The Leftists are kidding themselves. They can't handle the truth.