What Fresh Hell Is This? -- Holder, KSM, and Incentivizing Terror at Home

I haven't blogged about Holder's dangerously idiotic approach to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed since so many other people have been doing a good job of it. Among the critiques, though, is this very good piece from the Wall Street Journal (via Wheat and Weeds). A blurb:

When it comes to terrorists, you would think that an al Qaeda operative who targets an American mom sitting in her office or a child on a flight back home is many degrees worse than a Taliban soldier picked up after a firefight with U.S. Army troops.

Your instinct would be correct, because at the heart of terrorism is the monstrous idea that the former is as legitimate a target as the latter. Unfortunately, by dispatching Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other al Qaeda leaders to federal criminal court for trial, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will be undermining this distinction. And the perverse message that decision will send to terrorists all over this dangerous world is this: If you kill civilians on American soil you will have greater protections than if you attack our military overseas.

Do read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Blogging law professor Instapundit has this link making a point about due process:

"Obama’s and Holder’s assurances that KSM will be convicted (and, according to the president, “put to death”) make a mockery of due process. Nothing is more fundamental to America’s criminal justice system than the presumption of innocence, and if terrorist detainees are to be treated as criminal defendants, they are entitled to that presumption. For the sake of political expediency, Obama and Holder are refusing even to make a pretense of respect for due process. If KSM & Co. are convicted and put to death, America’s critics and enemies will point to Obama and Holder’s assurances in arguing that the defendants were subjected to sham justice. Nice work restoring America’s moral standing, Mr. President."

So basically Holder and his boss Obama are going to stage -- what? A show trial in America? There's virtually no up side to this entire mess. We might end up even worse than we were before, legally speaking.