Holder blasts Congress for politicizing KSM trial

[Playinghardball]

Source: CBS News
Posted by Stephanie Condon

Attorney General Eric Holder today blasted Congress for inappropriately interfering in the decision over how to try Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, arguing that a federal trial would have provided the best outcome but that Congress compelled him to move forward with a military commission trial instead.

The attorney general lamented that the Mohammad case, since its beginning, has been "marked by needless controversy."

"The prosecution of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and his co-conspirators should never have been about settling ideological arguments or scoring political points," he said.

Holder announced today that Mohammad would be tried in a military commission because political interference had impeded efforts to set up a federal trial and justice for the victims of 9/11 has been "long overdue and must not be delayed any further."

Read more at: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20050541-503544.html

[gratuitous]

1. Gee Eric, if only someone else was running the Justice Department

But those House Republicans are such an intransigent bunch, no sense in pointing out their unconstitutional, unamerican demands, or forging ahead with a federal court trial because it might cause John Boehner to cry or Michele Bachmann to say something loony.

[pscot]

4. Holder doesn't have a free hand

This is coming from the Whitehouse.

[JDPriestly]

2. So is Holder going to insure that the trial is public and that evidence is

not barred for the wrong reasons? Is he going to insure that the public's right to know all the facts will be respected?

He can do that.

[roguevalley]

3. he won't. he won't jeopardize Obama's re-election which started

about two months into his first term. damn the law and constitution. Full speed ahead.