9/11 Plotters to be Tried in United States

There are a couple of interesting points to this development, the first is that Attorney General Holder is clearly cherry picking, with those people for whom he feels that a conviction is guaranteed, such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, getting trials in Federal Court, while other people getting military commissions, because they evidence is either shakier or tainted:

Mr. Holder also announced military tribunals for five other Guantanamo detainees, including Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, alleged to have planned the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen. Officials said the tribunals were chosen, over civilian courts, based on several factors, including the fact that their alleged crimes were against military targets or occurred overseas.

Navy Lt. Cdr. Stephen Reyes, the lawyer for Mr. Nashiri, said "The decision today was legally unsound. The real reason why the government chose to go to a commission was to ensure a conviction through otherwise inadmissible evidence."

Another issue, and one that has not yet been brought up in the press is that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's children are currently being held by the United States, or held by someone with whom the United States has significant control over, and I'm waiting for a defense attorney to say that their client cannot aid in their own defense because, "KSM's children [ages would appear to be in the 8-12 year old range] are held hostage by the United States."

I am not a lawyer, I am an engineer, dammit,^* but if I were a lawyer, and I were his lawyer, this would be one of the first motions that I would bring up, because if your client has the prospect of harm to his children hanging over his head.

It's clear that the US knows the location and condition of his children, and this would be yet another mess left by Obama's refusal to thoroughly clean house following Bush's gulags.

^*I LOVE IT when I get to go all Doctor McCoy!!!