President Obama, AG
Eric Holder Face
Political
Embarrassment in
9/11 Terror Trial
Shuffle
NY Daily News 3/5/10
|
New Yorkers
protest
holding the
9/11 terror
trials for
mastermind
Khalid Sheik
Mohammed and
four others
in New York
City. |
|
|
It's difficult to
imagine a decision
so bungled that
almost everybody
associated with it
looks utterly
foolish.
The decision to hold
the 9/11 terror
trials in a lower
Manhattan federal
courtroom - and
then, apparently, to
move them elsewhere
under a military
tribunal - has
showered all the
combatants with
political
embarrassment.
That would include
President Obama,
Attorney General
Eric Holder, a
fingerpointing White
House staff,
Republican
opportunists, New
York City officials
and many in the
city's congressional
delegation.
Except, perhaps, for
South Carolina
Republican Sen.
Lindsey Graham, who
appears to have
forced the Obama
administration into
a big-time course
correction in
exchange for signing
on to closing
Guantanamo Bay, all
the players come off
diminished.
"This is Classic 101
Boobery," a
well-placed
Democratic source
lamented. "They all
look awful."
The decision-making
process for bringing
Khalid Shaikh
Mohammed and his
four accomplices to
their near-certain
execution has been
so ham-handed it
joins such political
howlers as Jerry
Ford's "Whip
Inflation Now"
campaign; Jimmy
Carter's handling of
the 1979 Iranian
hostage crisis; Bill
Clinton's disastrous
rollout of
HillaryCare, and
George W. Bush's
"Mission
Accomplished"
choreography.
Most of the
brickbats, even from
within, are aimed at
Holder, who no doubt
decided on civil
trials for
principled reasons.
But even defenders
say he overdid the
purity.
"We believe we're
above the taint of
crass and petty
political
considerations and
make our decisions
solely on the merits
of the law," a
former senior
Justice Department
official, a
Democrat, told the
Daily News.
"But that doesn't
mean you don't loop
other affected
parties in on what's
about to happen."
In that regard,
Mayor Bloomberg and
Police Commissioner
Ray Kelly have a
valid point in
complaining they
weren't consulted by
Holder. But that
didn't stop them, or
most of the
congressional
delegation, from
saluting smartly
once they were
informed.
Then, when the
political winds
shifted and
businessmen howled
about traffic
disruption and lost
revenues, they
flipped in a New
York minute. And
most of the city's
voices in Washington
followed suit.
As Ronald Reagan's
chief of staff, Don
Regan, loved to say,
"Their names are
known to
management."
The end result is
that if the leaks
are correct, the
attorney general has
been reversed by
Obama twice on
appeal - on where to
stage the trials and
the civilian versus
military route.
In the process, the
President has been
damaged afresh at a
critical time when
he's struggling to
prove he can lead.
tdefrank@nydailynews.com
