Escape From New York: Obama Retreats On KSM Trial

Cully Stimson / January 29, 2010

Today, the Obama White House asked Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department to look for an alternative site to hold the federal trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-conspirators. In the last week, the political support for the controversial decision to hold the trial in New York City evaporated. Now, the Obama administration is scrambling to find an alternative location for the federal trial. Instead of looking for a new ZIP-code for a costly federal trial, the administration should send those detainees back to a military commission where they belong.

Earlier this week, Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Joe Liberman (I-CT), Jim Webb (D-VA), John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and Susan Collins (R-ME) sent a letter to the President asking him to strongly reconsider his decision to try KSM in a federal court. The attacks of 9/11 were acts of war, they argued, and thus those responsible should be tried as “war criminals.” In other words, send them back to military commissions. (more…)