Sorry, but that’s not the biggest news of the morning. The biggest news is that only some of the Gitmo detainees are going to get the federal court treatment in NYC (less than a mile from Ground Zero). The rest are getting military tribunals.

I wouldn’t make as big deal out of this if all Gitmo detainees (and any of the detainees being held anywhere else for that matter) were going to get federal trial (in NYC or elsewhere); then at least the Admininstration was being consistent. The inconsistency being engaged in here in startling detail is staggering in its ramifications. We’re talking about potential lawsuits over the due process and why some detainees got tribunals while others didn’t. For AG Holder to state that the choice was based on presumed outcomes turns the whole process on its head.

It’s a dangerous precedent on that basis.

There would be a circus of attention on any of these trials - whether they were in federal court or in military tribunals; now we’re going to see a blizzard of suits from those detainees still in tribunals.

The Obama Administration just made an even bigger mess of matters than when they started; and it’s based on a presumption that they had to close Gitmo - a political consideration itself based on the misguided belief that its closure was necessary for some reason.

After all, where exactly are all these remaining detainees going to go; they aren’t going to be released. They will be convicted or remain in detention, if not in Gitmo then at some other facility in the US. They all weren’t going to be repatriated somewhere.

What a mess.