In N.Y. trial, a treasure trove for terror

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As a candidate for president in 2004, Senator John Kerry described international terrorism as “primarily an intelligence and law enforcement operation,’’ and urged voters to think of deadly jihadist violence as merely “a nuisance’’ that we need “to reduce’’ — akin, he said, to gambling or prostitution.

Kerry lost that election, and the Bush administration’s very different approach - treating terrorist attacks as acts of war, not criminal violations - continued for four more years. Pre-empting terror in advance, not prosecuting it after the fact, remained the overriding priority. Counterterrorism efforts under George W. Bush were aggressive and they drew much criticism. But whatever else might be said about them, there was no repeat of the Sept. 11, 2001, catastrophe on American soil during Bush’s presidency.

It was always clear that the Obama administration tends to see global terrorism the way Kerry did, as a criminal issue to be handled through the criminal-justice system. In a speech last May, President Obama announced that “wherever feasible,’’ Guantanamo Bay detainees would be tried in regular federal courts. “Some have derided our federal courts as incapable of handling the trials of terrorists,’’ he said. “They are wrong.’’

But Obama also said that “detainees who violate the laws of war’’ would be “tried through military commissions,’’ the time-honored venue for prosecuting wartime enemies. And come what may, the president vowed, he would not release the most dangerous detainees of all - those who “expressed their allegiance to Osama bin Laden or otherwise made it clear that they want to kill Americans . . . people who, in effect, remain at war with the United States.’’

If that description fits anyone, it is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed...

[It's not about justice or keeping us safe, it's about retrying the war and the Bush administration - consequences be damned.]

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