Obama backing down on KSM trial in NYC (under pressure)

Obama and Holder's boneheaded decision to have a civilian trial for KSM (vs. a military one) and have it in Manhattan, is coming apart at the seams, as even supporters such as Sen. Schumer and Mayor Bloomberg have finally (also under unrelenting pressure) come out against it.

Some commentary:

Krauthammer:

The president is not going to admit error. He never does. He does in the abstract, but he will never admit he actually makes a human error on anything. So he won't on this.

But he knows what's going to happen, which is the Congress will rebel on this and it will pull the funding, [and] get him off the hook. And the issue [will] end up behind him even though he doesn't do it himself.

But what is remarkable is he gives the State of the Union address a month after an attack that could have been utterly catastrophic, and after a year in which we have had three attacks — the Arkansas murder, the Fort Hood massacre, and then, of course, the attack on the airliner — and he has almost practically nothing in his State of the Union on terrorism.

In fact, because his two decisions — the KSM trial in Manhattan and the granting of Miranda rights to the guy who tried to blow up the airplane — are indefensible.

The Backdown Continues [Rich Lowry]

Guantanamo military trial an option for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

Fox News

By Major Garrett

In the aftermath of the White House's decision to seek alternative sites for trials of the 9/11 plotters, including alleged mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed, a senior administration official said Friday it is possible the suspects could be tried under military charges at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

The official stressed this is not the preferred option, but said using military commissions at Guantanamo for these high-visibility trials is "part of the range of options" the adminstration is "looking at in light of the fact some in Congress are planning to prevent the trials from occurring in New York City."

There is no timeline for deciding where to hold the trials of the five suspects charged in the 2001 attacks. Senior White House and Justice Department officials are reviewing a "wide panoply" of options and Guantanamo is merely "one of many," the official said....

Washington Post:

'Less and Less Likely'

From WaPo:

The Obama administration appears to have abandoned plans to put Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and four co-conspirators on trial in lower Manhattan, according to administration sources.

"It seems less and less likely" that the trial will take place in New York, according to a senior administration official.

No Support in the Senate for Obama's Handling of Abdulmutallab [Daniel Foster]

The Weekly Standard surveyed the Senate on two simple questions: "Does Senator XX believe that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab should have been read his Miranda rights? And does Senator XX believe that Abdulmutallab should be tried in civilian courts?"

They got a 55 percent response rate (and of those that didn't respond, only two were Republican), and among respondents only one senator gave unequivocal support to the administration's handling of Abdulmutallab: Sen. Roland Burris (D., Ill.).

Democrat Evan Bayh (Ind.) and independent Joe Lieberman (Conn.) joined 38 Republicans in answering "No." The other ten Democrats who responded to the survey gave ambiguous answers. Full results here.

U.S. and Abdulmutallab 'in Talks' [Marc Thiessen]

The Washington Post reports today that “authorities are inching toward an agreement that would secure cooperation from the suspect in the failed Detroit airliner attack.” Inching is the operative word here. It’s been over a month now that this terrorist has been exercising his “right to remain silent.” Each day that goes by when he does not talk is an outrage.

The Post adds that “public defenders for the Nigerian student are engaged in negotiations that could result in an agreement to share more information and eventually a guilty plea, the sources said. Negotiations could still collapse before the next scheduled court date, in April, the sources said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.”

April? Negotiations “could still collapse”? Are they kidding?

What Obama officials don’t seem to understand is that the intelligence Abdulmutallab has isperishable. He was supposed to be vaporized with the plane when it exploded. As soon as al-Qaeda learned he had survived, they began shutting down e-mail accounts, bank accounts, moving and hiding operatives, and closing the intelligence trails he could lead us down. Every second, every minute, every day he did not talk resulted in lost counterterrorism opportunities. If he starts talking three months from now, that’s not good enough.

The Post also reports that Abdulmutallab “clammed up even before he was informed of his right to remain silent” and suggests this “complicates” the GOP narrative that reading him his rights cost us valuable intelligence. To the contrary, it complicates the narrative from the White House that they got all the valuable intelligence they needed from him before reading him his rights. And it makes the case stronger that coercive interrogations might have been necessary to get the information we needed from him.

The more we learn about this incident, the more outrageous the story becomes.

— Marc Thiessen’s new book is Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama Is Inviting the Next Attack