…when I heard that the administration actually plans to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York criminal court. But it’s true. Tom Maguire is as flabbergasted as I am. And as the Powerline guys ask:
…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?
It’s a show trial. There are regimes that have show trials. They don’t tend to be democratic.
And will evidence from his own testimony be excluded, seeing as how it was obtained under “torture”?
Madness.
[Update a few minutes later]
Andy McCarthy is appalled as well:
We are now going to have a trial that never had to happen for defendants who have no defense. And when defendants have no defense for their own actions, there is only one thing for their lawyers to do: put the government on trial in hopes of getting the jury (and the media) spun up over government errors, abuses and incompetence. That is what is going to happen in the trial of KSM et al. It will be a soapbox for al-Qaeda’s case against America. Since that will be their “defense,” the defendants will demand every bit of information they can get about interrogations, renditions, secret prisons, undercover operations targeting Muslims and mosques, etc., and — depending on what judge catches the case — they are likely to be given a lot of it. The administration will be able to claim that the judge, not the administration, is responsible for the exposure of our defense secrets. And the circus will be played out for all to see — in the middle of the war. It will provide endless fodder for the transnational Left to press its case that actions taken in America’s defense are violations of international law that must be addressed by foreign courts. And the intelligence bounty will make our enemies more efficient at killing us.
Hey, but other than that, it’s a great idea.
[Update a few minutes later]
Who are they going to find willing to sit on that jury? I sure as hell wouldn’t. No civilian should be expected to. How are they going to find anyone impartial, particularly in that location? I predict, at a minimum, their attorney will petition for change of venue, because he can’t get a fair trial in New York. Just watch.
[Afternoon update]
Why bring KSM to the US? A question by Congressman Hoekstra.