Is the President Committing Political Suicide with KSM?

This is such a staggeringly bad idea that it makes Icarus’ decision to head sunward look like a stroke of purest genius.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The accused mastermind of the September 11 attacks and four co-conspirators will be sent to New York for trial in a court near the site of the World Trade Center, the Obama administration said on Friday, as it took a step toward closing the Guantanamo Bay prison.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the others had been facing military commission trials at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, but U.S. President Barack Obama has pledged to close the prison.

I won’t go into the national security implications, of which there many. You can get those thoughts from better heads than mine. There is only one way this trial can go well for America, and that’s if if proceeds smoothly and orderly, without compromising any intelligence assets, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is found guilty and sentenced to death. Anything else — a mistrial, revealing intelligence assets, a terrorist attack on the trial venue, a not guilty verdict — is incredibly damaging to this country and our ability to fight the war in which we are currently engaged.

However, there’s another angle that mystifies me. The very same outcomes that will damage the country will also damage the Obama administration. Forget Obamacare, cap and trade, the recession, unemployment, and everything else. This is now the issue that will decide if he serves a second term. For eight years, the Democrats have moved Heaven and Earth to take national security off the electoral table and in one fell swoop, the Obamessiah put it right back on.

It mystifies me because he didn’t need to do this. I have no doubt that he decided this because of his pledge to close Guantanamo Bay, but the truth is that he’s never felt himself bound to a campaign promise that that particular can is one he could kick down the road almost without penalty. Oh sure, a few leftists might get their feathers ruffled but most of the nutroot base would forgive him for it. After all, undoing Chimpy McBushHitlerburton’s perfidy is a difficult task and he’s been so busy unwinding the horrible economy he inherited, putting health care right, and curing the Earth’s fever. who could blame him for not doing everything in four years? And Gitmo gives him an easy rallying cry for his re-election: Elect me so I can continue what I started four years ago.

On the other hand, he’s now taking the position that it’s better to keep the killers of 9/11 in a grimy New York City prison for a couple years before they’re given the death penalty instead of storing them out of sight in a relatively comfy and clean detention facility where they get three halal hots, a cot, and a Koran and can serve as a living emblem of evil American imperialism.

On the gripping hand, the trial does give the President a chance to make the pouty lip about the sins of America, which the world could love if only she’d throw off the bleak cloak of Bushism, while promising that he’ll put everything. But that’s his go-to and I’m pretty sure that’s he’s practiced that routine enough to do it whether KSM is standing tall before a judge in Manhattan or a military tribunal in Gitmo.

I’m sure the administration thinks this is a good idea but for the life of me, I can’t figure out how the odds of this decision blowing up in his face is better than 10 percent.

But hey, what do I know? I’m not the Lightbringer.

UPDATE: Smitty linked and added quite a few thoughts of his own, including a provocative opening question.

Other Posts of Interest:

• Surprise, Surprise. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Wants to Be A Martyr.
• Good News: Osama bin Laden’s Driver Found Guilty
• Why Guantanamo Bay Won’t Close Next Year.

Tags: Fighting the Islamists, President Barack Obama

Category: Fighting the Islamists, President Barack Obama