Foldorama On Terror Trials

Obama's throwing in the towel on a civilian trial for KSM in order to get Congress to close Gitmo.

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."

The price you have to pay for civil liberties for terrorists is...denying terrorists civil liberties. Sure, that's a great deal.

As I've said before and continue to say, Obama's biggest failure has been his expansion of Bush's terror program directives and the adoption of those John Yoo extra-legal methods and specious reasoning. We are now a country that tortures routinely and will always continue to do so.