The Underground Conservative

Our Lord and Savior Barack Hussein Obama has ordered that the mastermind of the September 11th attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, be brought to New York City, one of the sites of those attacks, for a civilian trial.

WASHINGTON — 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.

Mr. Mohammed’s trial in New York was widely expected since the Obama administration announced a preference to hold criminal trials, instead of military commissions for terror suspects held at Guantanamo. New York’s Manhattan U.S. attorney competed with the district in northern Virginia, home to the Pentagon, to prosecute the 9/11 accused and senior al Qaeda leader. A team of prosecutors from both districts will handle the government’s case, people familiar with the matter said.

That’s right. The Anointed One has essentially made KSM an American citizen and granted him the full protection of the U.S. Constitution normally granted American citizens. That means:

• The right to a fair trial
• An attorney provided and paid for by U.S. taxpayers
• The right to review all the evidence against him, potentially including classified intelligence matters
• The right to exclude evidence against him, including any confession obtained through enhanced interrogation techniques

May also allow legal maneuvers such as having the entire case thrown out because of questioning without a lawyer present. That would also exclude any statements made without KSM having a lawyer present. Also, the issue of whether he was properly Mirandized.

Erick Erickson at Red State is not happy:

There have been reports in the past month about another potential terrorist attack disrupted in New York City. Bringing these high profile terrorist leaders to New York will just put a target on New York again.

Even worse, the White House is going to subject these terrorists to criminal trials in civilian courts. They will get all the due process rights of citizens in court and potentially will be able to get access to material evidence in a civilian court that could reveal intelligence we’d prefer them not to have.

Seriously. Does anyone not think that Al Qaeda won’t try to disrupt this show trial? NYC is a sitting duck once again, and the Second Coming of Christ just painted a huge target on the city.

What’s more, this show trial will allow KSM to put America on trial as his defense. More America-bashing, which I’m sure pleases the Apologist-in-Chief no end.

Michelle Malkin predicts a backlash unlike anything the White House has seen yet (and that’s saying a lot):

If this White House thought Tea Party activists were an “angry mob,” wait until they see the backlash from 9/11 family members and their supporters nationwide. We’re not going to sit down and shut up about the reckless, security-undermining Obama 9/10 agenda and conflict-of-interest-ridden AG Eric Holder.

Call them out.

Malkin also publishes this exchange between the Defense Department and a 9/11 survivor. Worth re-publishing:

Here is the e-mail the DOD’s Director Victim Witness Program sent out to victims, survivors, and family members of jihadi attacks this morning (via Sgt. Tim Sumner, brother-in-law of FDNY Joseph G. Leavey, 45, Ladder 15, WTC):

You are receiving this email because you have been identified as a victim, survivor, or victim family member of an Al-Qaeda attributed attack and have requested to be kept informed of events involving detainees charged in military commissions or being held in the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility in connection with those attacks.

We would like to inform you that the U.S. Departments of Defense and Justice will be making an important public announcement later this morning. At 10:30 am Eastern Standard Time, the Office of Justice for Victims of Overseas Terrorism will post information for victims about the announcement on its password protected victims’ website. At 11:00 am the Defense and Justice Departments will issue a joint press release notifying the public of the information, and there will also be a press conference. In addition, the Defense Department will notify victims about the information by email.

Both the Defense Department (Karen Loftus) and the Justice Department (Heather Cartwright) are sending out this e-mail to ensure that as many victims as possible receive it. We apologize if you receive duplicates. If you know of other victims who may be interested in the information, please pass this on to them.

Here’s what Tim sent in response:

We have an announcement as well: we will fight with every remaining breath in our bodies both their bringing KSM and the rest of the 9/11 conspirators to federal courtrooms within walking distance of where they slaughtered our loved ones. And whomever finds Manhattan’s federal courthouse near Ground Zero a “sentimental favorite” for the 9/11 trials is a damn fool and they ALL ought to be fired. Pass that message on, far, wide, and up and down the chain-of-command.

We’ll have a chance to fire the elected officials responsible for this travesty in November 2012. Yes, President Palin has a nice ring to it.

Melissa Clouthier is taking a poll on whether this is the dumbest idea yet to eminate from The Anointed One.

More from Ed Morrissey at Hot Air:

What do we get from having the 9/11 plotters tried in criminal court in New York City?  Well, we get to have the city painted as a big, bright target for terrorist action during the entirety of the trial.  Thanks to press coverage, which should be an order of magnitude more obsessive than the OJ Simpson trial in LA fourteen years ago, jihadists will come out of the woodwork to make a big international splash, or more likely a boom.  We also give KSM and his cohorts a big, juicy media platform for their bile.  That was one of their motivations for conducting the attack in the first place, and we finally get to deliver it to them.

John Hindraker weighs in at Power Line:

The potential for these trials to turn into fiascoes is large; perhaps President Obama and his Attorney General have forgotten the “political” trials of the 1960s and 70s. But they seem committed to returning to the pre-September 11 model of treating terrorism as a law enforcement matter, regardless of the consequences.

Ask yourself this question: suppose that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s trial results in an acquittal or a hung jury. Would the Obama administration really let him go? If so, they are crazy. If not, why are they holding the trial?

We are officially back to 9/10. God help us.