The courts and government of the United States of America are open and unfettered. It is time for the Obama Administration to quit frittering away the American foundation of law to the whims and winds of personal electoral desire and perceived political necessity. There can be no greater show of strength and character than to demonstrate to the world that we live and die with the principles we were founded with. Put the September 11th defendants on trial where they belong, as criminals in the Article III Federal court of jurisdiction.

The Obama Administration is using David Iglesias as a shill for its wholesale adoption of the military commissions and prosecution based on torture championed by George bush and Dick Cheney.

The handwriting for a complete ObamaRhama cave to the neocon howlers on military commissions instead of civilian trials is getting carved awfully deep in the granite wall.

Jack Goldsmith and Ben Wittes have an op-ed up in which, claiming that the PR value to military commissions is minimal, Obama should just not give KSM a trial of any sort. They make a clever move in which they first cursorily dismiss the value of civilian trials. A trial potentially adds three things: the [...]