ASHCROFT: OBAMA HAD TO HAVE MADE THE CALL ON KSM

While the title of this post is not a quote, it is clearly the implication former Attorney General John Ashcroft is making about the notion that trying Khalid Sheikh Muhammad as a civilian in NYC was Eric Holder's call. Ashcroft makes it pretty clear that the current Attorney General doesn't have that power. It would mean that the AG has the authority to demand that the Secretary of Defense hand over POW's to the civilian court.

THE HILL has the story:

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft, who held his position during the Bush administration from 2001-2005, said that Holder lacked the legal standing to decide to move alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other terror detainees to federal courts in New York City to stand trial.

"The attorney general doesn't have the authority to mandate that the secretary of Defense turn somebody over to him and yield jurisdiction so that something that would have been done in a military setting is done in a civilian setting," Ashcroft told the Christ Stigall show on KCMO radio this morning.

As if it wasn't already known how Obama got as far as he did. He's done so by voting "present" and keeping his fingerprints off of his own boneheaded and destructive decisions.

However, this is exactly what those in the know cautioned about. As a legislator, it's much easier to pass the buck but as a president, there are times when it's simply impossible to do so. The decision to try the mastermind of 9/11 in a civilian court appears to be one of them.

"I believe that this is a decision that comes as a result of the president making the decision, or if not making the decision, allowing an attorney general to do what he normally doesn't have the authority to do, and could only do at the acquiescence of the president," the former AG and former Missouri senator argued.

Anyway you slice this one, this appears to have been Obama's call.

h/t to FR