Obama Regime Flip-Flops Again: Sheikh Mohammed Will Be Tried Befroe Military Commission

From Judicial Watch:

Obama Flip Flops — AGAIN! — Sheikh Mohammed will be Tried before Military Commission




I think you’ll agree that it has been painful watching the Obama administration botch the effort to bring the 9/11 terrorists, including mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, to justice. Let’s review.



First, Attorney General Eric Holder announced the 9/11 terrorists would be tried in a New York civilian court, leading to a massive public backlash and a near revolt in Congress. Then, in January 2010, came press reports indicating the Obama administration had abandoned this ridiculous idea given the “wave of protests” from citizens of New York. A month later The Washington Post was reporting that President Obama had frozen Holder out of the process and would indeed find an appropriate place for a civilian trial (as if there is such a thing).



Flip, flop, flip. But at least in the end, it appears they got it right.



In a stunning reversal this week, on the same day Obama official launched his reelection bid, the Obama Justice Department announced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will, in fact, be tried by a military commission and not by a civil court in New York City, as the Obama administration had originally planned.



Here’s the statement I offered to the press in response:



It is no coincidence that this stunning reversal comes on the day that President Obama announced his reelection campaign. We are grateful that the opposition of the American people beat back the “terrorist lobby” in the Obama administration to keep the KSM trial in Gitmo, where it belongs. The mishandling of the KSM trial is another blow to Attorney General Eric Holder, who should have been replaced long ago. Mr. Holder has demonstrated that he is incapable of providing the leadership necessary for the fair and competent administration of justice at DOJ.



KSM long ago pled guilty to the charges initially brought against him in military commission proceedings. That he still walks the face of the Earth highlights the moral and strategic failure of the Obama administration’s approach to the terrorist detention issue. We hope this political decision will begin to undo the damage done to our nation’s security by the Obama administration’s ideological attack on Gitmo.



Ah yes, the decision to shut down Gitmo — another Obama administration national security disaster. Obama seems intent on keeping his ill-informed campaign promise to shut down Guantanamo Bay and release the enemy combatants there despite deep divisions within his administration. (Defense Secretary Gates said the chances of shutting down Gitmo were “very very low.” CIA Director Panetta told the Senate Intelligence Committee that if bin Laden himself were captured he’d be headed to Gitmo.)



There’s no doubt shutting down the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay will harm national security and put lives at risk.



(Our educational panel this week, “Politics and the Holder Justice Department: Rule of Law at Risk?”, coincidentally covered national security and featured Debra Burlingame, the sister of Charles F. “Chic” Burlingame, III, pilot of American Airlines flight 77, which was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. She is co-founder of 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America, and helped lead the way, against long odds, opposing the outrage of granting KSM a civilian trial.)



Judicial Watch recently obtained documents from the Department of Defense (DOD) detailing the significant risks of releasing “enemy combatants” detained at Gitmo. Judicial Watch also obtained documents from the Obama DOD detailing a deliberate campaign by al-Qaida and other extremist groups to recruit juveniles and launch terrorist attacks against children. The records consist of two Joint Task Force Intelligence Information Reports from debriefs of detainees at the U.S. terrorist detention facility in Guantanamo Bay. (In other words, without Gitmo, we might not have been able to extract this critical information.)



In 2009, Judicial Watch released a CIA report entitled, Khalid Shaykh Muhammad: Preeminent Source on Al Qa’ida, which documented the information gained by interrogations of Mohammed: “KSM’s decade-long career as a terrorist, during which he met with a broad range of Islamic extremists from around the world, has made him a key source of information on numerous al-Qaida operatives and other mujahidin. He has provided intelligence that has led directly to the capture of operatives or fleshed out our understanding of the activities of important detainees, which in turn assisted in the debriefings of these individuals.”



Would KSM have been so forthcoming had he been read his Miranda rights and allowed to lawyer up right away? Not likely.



In short, the enemy combatants housed at Gitmo are dangerous. They intend to destroy our country. And they have valuable information that could save lives. They belong in a secure facility outside the United States and in the hands of the U.S. military.



Regarding the military tribunal system, Judicial Watch Litigation Director Paul Orfanedes visited Guantanamo Bay in 2008 at the invitation of the Pentagon to monitor military commission proceedings against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other top 9/11 conspirators. Judicial Watch’s presence provided some balance to the ACLU and other radical groups advocating for the terrorist detainees.



(Following his visit to Guantanamo Bay, Mr. Orfanedes said he witnessed a “deep commitment” to justice on the part of military lawyers. We had a brief interview with Mr. Orfanedes that appeared in this space. Feel free to check it out to see Mr. Orfanedes’ other observations regarding the military tribunal process.)



In the meantime, Holder can’t be pushed out of the DOJ soon enough.