The Obama Adminstration wants to engage in a political stage production and try Khalid Sheikh Mohammad in New York City as a common criminal. While at Guantanamo Bay, where he has been held since September 2006, KSM has said he wants to be executed so that he can die a martyr. It is very unlikely he will maintain that position in U.S. District Court. He will suddenly want a full jury trial. That means facing accusers, discovery and a huge megaphone to make the world listen to him justify his actions. Of course the long held tradition in the United States going back to George Washington has been to try war criminals in military tribunals. Obama and Holder believe that the show trial of the millennium is a better approach. What could possibly go wrong?

Charles Kruathammer explains…

It is a travesty of common sense. So why would Obama and Holder choose to subject KSM and the nation to a trial for which the outcome is known? After all, a trial will result in KSM’s defense team to engage in discovery to prove that he was improperly arrested, not given access to his Miranda Rights, tortured and not provided with a speedy trial. These facts will be broadcast loudly to the world. Why would Obama do that?

He would do it because it is exactly what he wants to happen. He has indicated time and again a desire to subject the Bush Administration and the CIA to prosecution and have even made hesitant steps in that direction. It is, however, a politically dangerous game for Obama and Holder. To just openly levy charges against Bush and the CIA would cost the administration the support of millions of independents. Obama wanted to release harsh CIA interrogation photos, for example, but prevented their release when the poltical cost of doing so was made clear. What Obama needs is a way to put Bush, Cheney and the CIA on trial without appearing to be a banana republic revolutionary subjecting his predecessor to a kangaroo court.

By trying KSM as a civilian criminal in open court, KSM will be given the right of discovery and the right to present as evidence everything that Obama wants released but it unable to release himself. It will be a media circus as information regarding secret facilities, interrogations, renditions and all manner of dark operations are made available to the defense, the media and the world. It will help America haters spread their propaganda. It will help Obama prosecute the CIA and malign Bush and Cheney. It will help our enemies plan missions to kill us. All this and Obama and Holder will be able to claim that it was the court system and the judge – not the Obama Administration – that released the data.