Who could imagine the White House knuckling under to Republican demands on military trials for 9/11 suspects?
This is not a small thing. This is the entire neocon rationalization for the war – that terrorist acts are acts of war by terrorist states, and that suspects should be treated as soldiers of an enemy state.
And of course Obama’s going to cave, because Lindsey Graham will withhold his seal of approval and that will make the Baby Jesus cry.
Totally freakin unbelievable! President McConnell is doing a great job, ain’t he?
Sucks, but I would bet that they know they don’t have a case that would stand up in civil court. So the options become a) let ’em go, or b) military kangaroo. They’re going to choose what they see as the least worst option. Hoorah for justice and liberty and all that We the People stand for!
I’m not convinced he’s caving for those reasons.
I think that the Bushies tortured KSM et al. so much that they would, by necessity, be acquitted in any normal criminal trial. Possibly before they even came to trial, given the magnitude of it.
And if they’re acquitted, suddenly Federal Courts are going to look lenient, and he’s going to look weak for trying them there.
I think that he’s between a rock and a hard place– defending the rule of law on the one hand, and dealing with an unbelievable, criminal mess that his predecessor left behind.
I don’t think this is the right (or only) solution, but given that some of the torture stuff is still a state secret, it’s not like he can really comment on it. (The solution under international law would be to trial them in an ordinary military court-martial, but even the UCMJ would be likely to toss a lot of evidence under the circumstances.)
Obama’s disappointed me in a lot of ways, but this is one area where we just don’t have all the facts, and probably won’t for another 10 or 15 years, unless by some miracle we either get indictments of Bush staffers or a truth and reconciliation commission.