Obama's Poised To 'Get Punked' On KSM Decision

In today's Washington Post, Anne Kornblut and Peter Finn provide readers with the long-form speculation that the Obama administration is close to reversing its decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in civilian court and will instead recommend that the self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind be prosecuted in a military tribunal.

Good news for fans of timidity and ineffective quasi-judicial grab-ass. Bad news for fans of the rule of law -- as well as everyone who's taken pains to point out to President Barack Obama that compromising with his fear-mongering political opponents isn't gaining him anything.

But it's the vain pursuit of some across-the-aisle "atta boy" that's fueling this decision:

Top Obama advisers have been negotiating with Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) -- a vocal critic of trying the Sept. 11 suspects in civilian court -- in pursuit of a deal that would secure his help in closing Guantanamo. Graham has sought the creation a legal framework that would spell out how the government would detain and try future captives, but an administration official warned that a "grand bargain" is not likely in the immediate future. The official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the talks with Graham have been mostly about "limited issues" involving the Mohammed trial and the future of Guantanamo.

I can't even begin to fathom where anyone got the idea that Lindsey Graham was some sort of vote-marshaling force. As a test case, let's consider the fact that Graham's influence wasn't sufficient to talk his two BFFs -- Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) -- out of introducing the Enemy Belligerent Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010, which would bar anyone deemed an "enemy combatant" from participating in the legal system.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), an Air Force Reserves Judge Advocate General, told Fox he usually "understands what John and Joe are trying to do," but he added, "I just don't feel comfortable with it. There is a role for the civilian courts to play."

But nobody listens to Lindsey Graham, other than the Obama White House, which is apparently not clued in to the fact that nobody listens to Lindsey Graham.

One could write a thousand words about where this places the White House, in terms of the poor decision it seems poised to make, but these 98 from Spencer Ackerman will do quite nicely:

The Cheneyite right has spent the last couple days accusing members of the Justice Department of being al-Qaeda sympathizers for the crime of lawyering in the tradition of John Adams. This will only intensify if Obama backs down on KSM. It will not stop. Here is a test case for the administration: both the politics and the substance of the situation favor continuing with the KSM criminal trial; backing down will create a cascading effect in which the GOP knows it can obstruct Obama and it can bend him, but Obama will simply not fight for his priorities.

Or, if you prefer the version that will fit on a T-shirt: "His compromises earn him no good will. He is being, simply, punked."

The only thing I'd add is that it's fair to see all of this as a battle between White House legal advisers and White House political advisers. And the White House political advisers clearly aren't worth a good goddamn.

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Comments

[MillinMn]

10:15 PM on 03/07/2010

Graham has credibility, he served in military justice

[Opygollopy]

05:07 PM on 03/07/2010

It is hard to believe that the Cheneys, Fox news, Limbaugh have succeeded in portraying themselves as quivering cowards when it comes to the trials of the detainees. They have voiced their opinions so much on this, they have convinced most Americans to fear everything.

This is not right. America has no reason to fear the detainees. What they should fear is Cheney, Fox, Glenbeckiztan and the lot. They are the cowards, not the citizens. Where is the backbone and the patriotism that the GOP are supposed to have - has it turned to jelly. Pathetic.

[MillinMn]

10:12 PM on 03/07/2010

Aye!

[ByersL]

03:45 PM on 03/07/2010

Try him here in DC, we'll take him on. He couldn't hurt us any worse than that Cheney family has.

[rubicon101]

01:26 PM on 03/07/2010

What the heck is wrong with bringing KSM to NYC to face the very people he plotted and executed. We've certainly grown into a bunch of chickens#!ts
Again our dear and honorable President is being duped by a republican party that just wants t make him look bad. So if you should declare that the sky is blue, you can be certain that republicans and fox news will ask, "is the sky really blue"? "we think it's a bad idea to make claims that the sky is blue"..
How can you reason with that sort of mentality?
P.S. Mr President, we americans elected you to LEAD!! We didn't elect you to quibble with your opponents.

[bertha112]

04:28 PM on 03/07/2010

Tell that to New Yorkers. It's not the Republicans thats stopping the trials, its the public. The MSM has scared them (NYers) chitless and witless. The NY Mayor (whose middle name is Perception) killed any possibility of trying KSM in NY. This is a battle of perception, and clueless New Yorkers are losing.

Yeah, I just called out the whole FRACKING state of NY. When they stand up and speak out for what's right, then I'll give the Prez some smack down. But until then.......I give him credit for at least trying to get something out of it.

Get your facts straight Jason.

[mk3872]

10:25 AM on 03/07/2010

Amazing. Even Jason falls into the speculative pre-emptive outrage fox hole ... It is amazing the power that a single speculative "story" in WaPo based on whisperings from "unnamed sources" can have over media types, even Jason.

[Bluedanube]

08:44 AM on 03/07/2010

Barak Obama. The Great Equivocator.

[rf-hawaii]

09:21 PM on 03/06/2010

Yes, Obama is not above doing something really stupid.

Our civilian courts have a better record than the military courts, but responding to overblown Fox propaganda seems to be more important just now.

[okim5150]

07:32 PM on 03/06/2010

We should try KSM in civilian court, it's the law here. Anything else would be illegitimate in the eyes of many here in this country and everyone in any other country. I hope that they have some solid evidence against him though. Since the CIA used the waterboard 183 times during March 2003 in the interrogation of KSM, I doubt that they will be able to use anything that he has said to them as evidence against him.

[24hourrifle]

02:01 PM on 03/06/2010

yeah.....he's the "9/11 mastermind"......al qae da couldnt have phrased it better themselves.....ksm(as endlessly reported by so much of the msm) has also claimed to have be head ed dan iel pearl.........
and i heard that he started the chicago fire and was the second gu n man in dallas.......

these lousy,evil pieces of s**t,once captu red and facing certain de ath,have nothing to cling to other than the notion that they are "wa rriors" or "so ldiers" or mar tyrs.........

and over and over again,cons. do a ban g up job assisting them w/ that narrative.....

[Estreet1964]

01:31 PM on 03/06/2010

Obama seems more concerned with winning acceptance or approval from Republicans than he is with enacting sound policy on any front. And we KNOW that's never going to happen.

It's kind of sad really.

[Tulka2]

08:11 PM on 03/06/2010

Okay, i've used this line before, but it turns out that Obama is not the feared "black guy from Kenya". He is instead the "white guy from Kansas". Alas.

[mk3872]

02:24 PM on 03/07/2010

So, if you are right that Obama just wants to placate Repubs, then please explain to me why he is still persuing HCR, fought for the Stimulus Bill, allowed the EPA to rule CO2 is dangerous and is calling for a tax on bank executive bonuses??

Because your argument really makes no sense, is not reality-based and is used just a way to criticize Obama.

[Estreet1964]

03:34 PM on 03/07/2010

He's not pursuing HCR the way he said he would on the campaign trail. In an effort to capitulate to conservatives, it's been gutted. He took single payer off the table before the process even started and even though he's paid lip service to a Public Option he's hasn't fought for it in the least. He's caved on the Stupak ammendment, taxes on "Cadillac" plans and a host of other things just to placate conservatives.

He did the same thing on the Stimulus. He made one third of it into tax cuts to try to make nice with Republicans and as a result it's impact on the economy wasn't all that it should have been.

On banking and the environment, he's allowed both finance regulations and the cap and trade bill to become watered down to the point where they are both nearly worthless.

I'm not saying that he's abandoned doing some of the things he said he would. It's just that the kind of reform and change needed in Washington is not going to happen because Obama and the Democrats have allowed the proposed legislation to be weakened to the point where it's just not tough enough to do the job.

Now all of this wasn't merely to win acceptance and approval just from Republican's but also from corporate interests. But at the end of the day is there really any difference?

[William C]

09:29 AM on 03/06/2010

Like the republicans said to us over and over the past 10 years, If you don't like it leave. So I would like to point the esteemed senator in the direction of his nearest passport office and then on to the Continental Airlines website

[bleedingheart9]

01:14 AM on 03/06/2010

After the very first World Trade Center bombings, during the Clinton Admin., they treated the incident like a crime and prosecuted the perpetrators in Federal court. These holy warriors are just using religion as an excuse to commit crime. It's just too bad the United States has to turn around treat these incidents like acts of war. They are not, they are criminal acts falsely declared in the name of fringe elements no less. And how couldn't you try KSM in Federal court. He's no warrior, for crying out loud, he seems like a Ron Jerome look alike that just had a realllly bad night.

[mikefina]

09:07 PM on 03/05/2010

YES, it is a world-class punking--but I'm not sure it's so for the reasons given.

I DOUBT that the Republicans will cooperate with closing GITMO. WHY WOULD THEY??

GITMO is the gift that keeps on giving for the R's. So long as Obama wants to close it, the R's can accuse the Dems of being "soft on terrorism". At the same time, so long as GITMO is open, the R's can crow that Obama can't even keep that simple promise AND IT'S THE DEMS which have thwarted his efforts.

Obama's emasculation of the DOJ serves to dispirit the DEMS, while emboldening the R's. The capitulation of Dem Chuck Schumer gives the R's all the cover they need.

Obama's bungling of the KSM trial is a self-inflicted wound. The Republican's have NO INCENTIVE to staunch the hemmoraghe.

[zakon]

09:51 PM on 03/05/2010

His wound is for a higher purpose

[mikefina]

09:55 PM on 03/05/2010

Then how LOW must be his purpose in renouncing his decision?

Petty, party politics--that's all it is or was. And now he's left to face the fallout.

It's alliteration Friday...

[zakon]

09:03 PM on 03/05/2010

It is irrelevant whether KSM is a citizen or not, we citizens have a Constitutional right to hear his trial's arguments and evidence. BRING ALI MOHAMED TO THE STAND!

The following facts are from the book Triple Cross, by Peter Lance–a book that D.A. Patrick Fitzgerald tried to ban. HarperCollins Publishers stood by the 5-time Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter and former correspondent for ABC News and published it:

---------------------------------------
An Islamic radical and Egyptian ex-commando, Ali Mohamed, worked at Fort Bragg in the Pentagon's Special Forces, was an FBI informant and CIA asset, but yet, Ali Mohamed was also:

- O-sama Bin Laden's personal security chief
- Escorted Al Qaeda’s second-in-command, Al-Zawahiri, in the US on 'fund raising' trips
- Trained the World Trade Center 1993 b*mbing cell
- Took the targeting photos of the b*mbed US African Embassies.

Ali Mohamed has been in US ghost custody since 1998 – meaning, he hasn’t spent a day in prison.
----------------------------------------

KSM, if you have worked with him, call ALI MOHAMED TO THE STAND so we citizens can hear!

But alas, why do you believe KSM’s trial will be in Dick Cheney's newly created “military” commission?

Have you ever heard of the good cop (Obama) / bad cop (Cheney’s) routine? The Sith rule.

[pmag88]

07:12 PM on 03/05/2010

When it shakes out that it doesn’t matter, and it will, then obviously they’ll realize they’ve been punked and they’ve wasted an a$$load of time and energy trying to disprove reality.