Holder's decision to move the trials of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi Binalshibh, Waleed bin Attash, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi from the military tribunal system at Guantanamo to a federal courtroom in Manhattan -- another sop to the global left -- has generated the greatest heat in the media and on Capitol Hill. Notably, the announcement was made the same day that Holder revealed that other accused terrorists being held at Gitmo will be tried by military courts.
Most attention has focused on whether the accused can get fair trials, how classified information can be protected in an open court, and the possibility KSM and his cohorts will escape justice and go free. On Nov. 18, in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Holder dismissed the criticism, saying, "I'm not scared of what Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has to say at trial, and no one else needs to be, either." Mr. Obama went even further, telling reporters covering his Asia trip, "We'll convict this person with the evidence they've got, going through our system." That statement alone undoubtedly will be used by KSM's lawyers to prove that he cannot get a fair trial just blocks away from ground zero, where the World Trade Center towers stood before the 9/11 attacks.
Unfortunately, nearly all of the comments and commentary miss the point. The real reason we all should be concerned about the Fort Hood massacre, moving terrorists to U.S. prisons and show trials in New York is there are undoubtedly other Nidal Hasans here in the U.S. The media circus in New York and Illinois will go on for years -- inviting radical Islamist "sleepers" and "lone wolves" to attack.
It has happened before. In 1987 -- coincident with extraordinary media coverage -- an Abu Nidal terror "sleeper cell" in northern Virginia was ordered to assassinate a U.S. military officer. The terrorists -- all legally in the U.S. -- were in the employ of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Thankfully, the FBI detected the "hit" before it could be carried out, and the officer and his family were rushed out of their home and sequestered on a military base until a full-scale U.S. government security detail could be organized to provide 24/7 protection for them at their home and wherever family members went.
Nobody has asked yet how many judges, prosecutors, prison guards and jurors will require such protection as a consequence of these decisions. They should. Otherwise, the actions taken this week by the Obama administration won't just be labeled as political correctness; they will be called political suicide.