Andy McCarthy writes:
Is there any way of getting Obama to reverse himself on KSM? If I've heard that question once, I've heard it a thousand times since Attorney General Eric Holder's announcement that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other 9/11 plotters will be transferred to New York City for a trial in the civilian justice system. My answer has been the same each time: We absolutely can get President Obama to reverse this decision. We've done it before. This spring, outraged Americans made their voices heard when the Obama administration attempted to disclose top-secret photographs said to depict the abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody. The president backed down, reversing his attorney general's decision not to appeal a disclosure order. On Monday, that popular national-security resolve paid big dividends when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of keeping the pictures classified. Much to the chagrin of DOJ's pro-detainee activists and their friends at the ACLU, the photos will not see the light of day. It's worth pausing to consider how this happened. The photo episode gives us the template for turning back the administration's determination to reward the murderers of nearly 3,000 civilians with gold-plated justice. Just like a future KSM trial would be, the photo-disclosure escapade was pure theater, with a Manhattan federal court as its stage. The ACLU had pushed for disclosure of the photos under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A federal judge agreed that disclosure was warranted, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit concurred. Though these rulings were dubious (as I discussed here), they are largely explained by the fact that the executive branch refrained from asserting all of its FOIA powers. Under FOIA, the president may issue an executive order exempting from disclosure matters that should be "kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy."
Read the whole thing. This Saturday at noon in Manhattan, McCarthy and others will speak at a rally protesting the decision to try the 9/11 killers in a civilian court in New York City (details here).