Trying Khalid Sheik Mohammed

The Washington Post is reporting that Obama's advisors are going to recommend that he back down from AG Eric Holder's plan to try 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheik Mohammed in federal criminal court in New York. I'll be deeply disappointed in the Administration if they cave on this.

KSM is not a warrior. He's not a soldier. He's scum, and a criminal, and should be treated as such. We used to think that handling bad guys over to the FBI and federal prosecutors, and sending them to death row in a Federal Super-Max prison, was pretty hardcore. Now, given the Cheneyfied GOP's military fetish, apparently the people who busted Capone, Gotti, Dahmer, McVeigh, the 1993 WTC bombers, and the Shoe Bomber are suddenly incapable of taking on KSM, and it will "compromise national security" to have him in court in New York.

I don't even understand what people are afraid of.

Is he going to get up on the stand and give some impassioned speech about why mass murder is awesome, and it's going to convince Americans to become jihadists? I don't even think he speaks English... and besides, anyone who has any familiarity with courts beyond watching Law & Order understands that the judge would never permit that kind of harangue.

Are people worried that he's going to break out of lockdown and terrorize the city? This isn't 24 - he doesn't have a crack team of jihadist allies who've already brought rocket launchers into the city and have taken over floors of every office building in midtown, just waiting for the chance to spring him.

Are people worried that it will make NYC a target for terrorists? We've been a target here since 1993. We have the most sophisticated anti-terrorism police force in the world. If jihadists could attack us here, don't you think they would have done it in the past nine years? Nobody I've talked to in New York is afraid of having this guy in New York. Frankly, I think a lot of people would be happy to have him dropped off at the E Train's WTC stop and see how long he lasts.

Obama knows what's right, and he also knows the easy choice. This would be a good time for him to prove which of those is more important.