Sheik Mohammed on trial in NYC

I read this morning that Federal prosecutors will announce soon that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the admitted mastermind of the 9-11 attacks, will be tried in New York with other high-profile detainees from GITMO.

This has been a tough question facing the American people since Nov of 08. What to do with those deemed most dangerous that are still in custody by the US. To the best of my knowledge, only about 30 of the 215 are ever going to be tried, either in a Federal court or by a military tribunal. Less than 100 will be sent away either to their native countries or a third-party nation due to lack of material evidence or legal issues making a trial too uncertain.

I honestly don't have an answer as to what to do with these men. I was never comfortable with the prospect of leaving them in the legal "limbo" of GITMO detention indefinately, as it is a clear contradiction to everything we hold dear as a society, even if those held are not Americans. It is for this reason more than any other that I was always convinced that, whatever the circumstances of Osama bin Laden's eventual capture (alive or dead when taken), he'd be DEAD by the time the news broke to the world. No amount of percieved justice could outweigh the cost to the US of keeping bin Laden alive and placing him on trial, because every nut-job with a turban and access to weapons or explosives would then target the US across the globe.

This seems harsh, I know... but I am simply being pragmatic and realistic. The capture of bin Laden alive, while a good thing overall, costs the US and the West MORE than bringing back his body as proof that he is, indeed, good and finally dead. Placing him on trial does nothing but make the Saddam Hussien trial in Baghdad look like a text-book case... it would be used as a propaganda tool across the Muslim world to promote violence and hatred of everything American (that isn't already hated now, I mean). It would give bin Laden one more opportunity to speak to the world, and it would forever cement the idea that there is no justice to be found for Muslims in American (or Western) courts.

KSM presents similar problems, doesn't he? Were he tried in a military tribunal, the procedings would be as safe and secure as our military could ever hope to make them, especially if the procedings happened at GITMO itself, but that isn't going to happen. That means that KSM will be brought to NY and held there among the 8 million+ people living within the Five Burroughs and taxing the already stretched law enforcement and security elements in the most populous city in these United States. The costs for this sort of "trial" will be staggering... and the certainty of successful resolution don't seem very high, in my eyes.

Having him tried and convicted in a Federal court will not further the cause of justice one iota, and it will only deminish the credibility of the tribunals that may eventually see the trials of many of the other GITMO detainees. The increased likelyhood of violence and terrorism against the city that holds this trial is going to place undue and unknown risks and costs on a population center that probably doesn't want or need the consequences of such attention (not that any place else does, either, of course).

We all know the "one year" deadline that Obama has placed on the closing of GITMO... but what other alternatives are there for the eventual conclussion to this problem? How should these men be handled? What means of justice available to us should be employed? What reasoning do you feel supports your views?