Reality wins again: KSM to be tried by military tribunal

CBS News: Attorney General Eric Holder today announced that self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and his four alleged co-conspirators will be tried in a military commission, as the CBS News Investigative Unit reported earlier today. A source tells CBS News the commission will be held at the Guantanamo Bay prison.

Today's announcement represents a pronounced shift in the administration's handling of terrorism cases. Trying Mohammad in a civilian court and closing the Guantanamo prison were once some of the Obama administration's top priorities, but political realities have hamstrung both goals.

Holder said today that he still believes the federal court system would have provided the best court system. The Justice Department today unsealed the indictment against the accused 9/11 plotters in December 2009, which Holder said revealed "we were prepared to bring a powerful case against Khalid Sheikh Mohammad."

"I continue to think the Article 3 courts are the best place to bring" the accused terrorists to trial, he said. However, he added, justice for the victims of 9/11 has been "long overdue and must not be delayed any further." [MORE]

So Gitmo won't be closing and KSM will not get a civilian trial. Reality 2, Obama administration 0. Closing Gitmo and holding civilian trials for enemy combatants were never really doable. There were some very sticky issues that made doing both pretty much impossible.

I think the main reason the left took to these ideas had more to do with being reflexively anti-Bush rather than a thoughtful position. If Bush was for A, the the left was for B. Standing in opposition to everything is easy to do when you are not in the drivers seat. However, when you are forced to live with the consequences and actually attempt the executions of these opposing ideas, reality starts to intrude.

Despite the setback the left will feel over this, I doubt it will hurt Obama with his base. If anything, giving up civilian trials may help Obama with independents.

The real sad part about all of this is the complete waste of time and money spent trying to bring a bad idea to life.

Via: Memeorandum
Via: CBS News

Eric Holder: Focus on Black Panther intimidation case demeans "my people"

Politico: Attorney General Eric Holder finally got fed up Tuesday with claims that the Justice Department went easy in a voting rights case against members of the New Black Panther Party because they are African American.

Holder's frustration over the criticism became evident during a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing as Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) accused the Justice Department of failing to cooperate with a Civil Rights Commission investigation into the handling of the 2008 incident in which Black Panthers in intimidating outfits and wielding a club stood outside a polling place in Philadelphia.

The Attorney General seemed to take personal offense at a comment Culberson read in which former Democratic activist Bartle Bull called the incident the most serious act of voter intimidation he had witnessed in his career.

"Think about that," Holder said. "When you compare what people endured in the South in the 60s to try to get the right to vote for African Americans, and to compare what people were subjected to there to what happened in Philadelphia—which was inappropriate, certainly that…to describe it in those terms I think does a great disservice to people who put their lives on the line, who risked all, for my people," said Holder, who is black.

Holder noted that his late sister-in-law, Vivian Malone Jones, helped integrate the University of Alabama.

"To compare that kind of courage, that kind of action, and to say that the Black Panther incident wrong thought it might be somehow is greater in magnitude or is of greater concern to us, historically, I think just flies in the face of history and the facts.," Holder said with evident exasperation.

It sounds like Holder is using race to deflect criticism of his handling of the Black Panther case.  As a black man he knows all too well how voter intimidation was used against our people.  As the first black attorney general, he should stand as a vanguard against all voter intimidation whether it is perpetrated by blacks, whites, the left or the right. He should have zero tolerance for voter intimidation rather than splitting hairs over the degree of the offense. 

Despite Holder's big talk about America being a nation of coward when it comes to race, he isn't being too brave here.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: Politico

How many times can Eric Holder make a fool of himself?

I have lost count of the number of times Eric Holder has made a fool of himself in front of Congress. I am not sure if it is because he is trying to get the law to support Obama’s wrong headed policies or is it because Holder himself is a stone cold ideologue who refuses to bend to reality. Either way, the man comes off as one big fool and yesterday Holder acted the fool twice!

Acting the fool, Scene One:

Here is Eric Holder’s response to Rep. Ted Poe’s (R-TX) direct question "Have you read the Arizona law?"

You must be joking, the bill in only 17 pages long, how many people are needed to review it? As the Attorney General of the United States, Holder should be able to read and review that tiny law himself inside the time of a coffee break. To make matters worse, Holder is on record attacking the bill, he now admits to never reading. 

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Acting The Fool, Scene Two:

Here is Holder desperately trying not to say radical Islam is the cause behind the three terror attacks over the last year. What the hell can possibly be gained by such a stupid song and dance? Compare Holder’s foolishness with the video of Lt. Col. Allen West on the same subject. Now ask yourself who would you prefer to keep you safe.

Whatever the cause is behind Eric Holder’s foolishness, we as a nation will be the ones to suffer for it. If Obama were half the chief executive he pretends to be, he would have asked for Holder’s resignation right after Lindsey Graham made a fool of him.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: The Washington Times

Via: National Review 

Eric Holder Does Not Think Arizona's Immigration Law Is Racist

Well color me surprised! Given the outrageous claims from some in the administration regarding Arizona's law, it is nice too see one of its members with a reasonable perspective.  It is even nicer that the perspective comes from the head of the Justice Department.  Holder view pretty much matches what most Americans think of Arizona's law. 

I am curious if this is Holder's own thoughts or is this just the first step from the administration to back out from their unpopular position. If it is the latter, we will know when other administration officials start repeating Holder's point of view. 

Via: Memeorandum

Via: ABC News

Eric Holder: Pakistani Taliban Behind Times Sq. Plot

Today on This Week, Attorney General Eric Holder admits that the Pakistani Taliban is behind Faisal Shahzad’s failed Times Square car bomb attack. 

The New York Times: […]“We’ve now developed evidence that shows the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attack,” Attorney GeneralEric Holder said in an interview on ABC television’s news program “This Week.”

Later, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” he said theTaliban in Pakistan “directed this plot” and may have also financed it. The Pakistani Taliban, he said, was “intimately involved” in the attempt on May 1 by Faisal Shahzad, an American citizen of Pakistani descent, to blow up gasoline and propane tanks secreted inside a Nissan Pathfinder parked on West 45th Street just yards from the heart of Times Square.

It seems pretty obvious that Faisal Shahzad would have had some Pakistani Taliban connections. The video put up on YouTube the day after the failed attack was clue number one. Why authorities so quickly dismissed it is a mystery to me. Shahzad’s cash flow should have been another clue. He was not able to pay his mortgage, yet he had the money to pay for the Pathfinder with cash and buy a one-way ticket to Dubai.  Someone must have been helping him then.

Just given these two facts, why is it so many officials were so quick to assert that Faisal Shahzad was a “lone wolf”.  It seems like “lone wolf” is the automatic default position whenever these jihadists strike.

When it comes to fighting terror, it is almost like this administration wants to will their political beliefs to life. They want to believe that there is no war on terror and simply take actions like that were true. However, reality keeps asserting itself and then they are forced to deal with the obvious … Al Qaeda and the Taliban are still at war with us.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: The New York Times

Via: Gateway Pundit