By Eugene Robinson
The Washington PostWASHINGTON — Critics of Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to bring the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and four other accused terrorists to New York for trial can’t seriously believe the city will have trouble handling the expected “trial of the century” hoopla.
The critics can’t really think a judge is going to give Khalid Sheik Mohammed an open microphone to spew his jihadist views, or fear that a jury — sitting just blocks from Ground Zero — will look for reasons to let an accused mass murderer off on some technicality.
Everyone knows that the bloodthirsty blowhard — whom officials often refer to by his initials, KSM — is never going to see the light of day. The uproar is really about the word “war.” Outrage is being voiced by those who worry that Holder and President Obama are abandoning the Bush-era doctrine of a “war on terrorism” that must at all times be conducted by military means.
I hope the FBI is not complicit in the decision by the Obama administration in arriving at the decision to move this case to the USDC. This has to be one of the dumbest and most dangerous decisions by any Attorney General in the last 100 years.