Of all the foreign policy decisions made by the Obama Administration, none was more unpopular than the decision to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the reputed planner of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, before a civilian court in New York City. The President has been attacked by the entire spectrum of political opinion, including even Democratic allies like Senator Schumer and Governor Patterson. It is clear now, three months after Attorney General Holder announced this decision, that the President needs to reverse course.
Ever since Attorney General Holder announced the Administration's decision to try KSM in federal court, rather than through the military tribunal system, the President has been hammered night and day on this. Scott Brown made it a feature attack in his senate race. Soon after the decision was made, Senator Jim Webb sharply criticized the President. Other Democratic leaders joined Webb in denouncing the President, including, perhaps most importantly, NY Gov. Patterson who expressed worries about the cost and logistical headaches in holding the trial in New York. And still other Democrats like Blanche Lincoln and Ben Nelson gave support to Republican efforts to bar or deny funding for the trial. Then, most recently, New York's senators and Mayor Bloomberg announced that they were opposed to having the trial in New York. And underlying this, were toxic public opinion polls showing overwhelming disapproval for holding the trial in New York and for granting the 9/11 conspirators a civilian trial in federal court. The President's decision has thus clearly become untenable.
The President's advisors have now stated that the President planned "to insert himself into the debate" about where to try KSM. Playing on the useful fiction that the original decision had been Holder's alone, the President now intends to "overrule" that decision and to find another location for the trial. While the President, officially, has left open the possibility that KSM may still be tried in civilian court, I think that this is unlikely. Rather, given the current political realities, I'm convinced that the trial will take place before a military tribunal, as the Washington Post article hints:
Administration officials acknowledge that Holder and Obama advisers were unable to build political support for the trial. And Holder, in an interview Thursday, left open the possibility that Mohammed's trial could be switched to a military commission, although he said that is not his personal and legal preference.
"At the end of the day, wherever this case is tried, in whatever forum, what we have to ensure is that it's done as transparently as possible and with adherence to all the rules," Holder said. "If we do that, I'm not sure the location or even the forum is as important as what the world sees in that proceeding."
Every president hits some bumps in the road and President Obama is no exception. This was a bump in the road. He made the original decision in good faith and because of his strong belief in the strength of our criminal justice system. Sometimes though, the public just cannot be convinced and, because we live in a democracy not a dictatorship, a president must change course even though he still firmly believes in the correctness of his earlier decision. We, as ultimately, his most loyal supporters, need to understand the hard politics that are driving the President to reverse himself and we need to cut him some slack despite our disappointment in how this is playing out.