THE WEIRDNESS CONTINUES - AT 8:48 A.M. ET:  We've been reading some infuriating articles based on "anonymous" administration sources who say that America must be prepared to counter a nuclear-armed Iran.  Thus the hints are out, and are widespread, that there really is no expectation of action that will stop that horrible prospect.  Great for the morale.

But a high administration official has caught the fever.  Hey, defeat isn't fatal, y'know.  There are alternatives.  Read this, from The Washington Times:

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. let stand Wednesday a claim that confessed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed will remain in U.S. custody even if he is acquitted in the so-called "trial of the century" scheduled for a New York courtroom.

The claim arose during a tense Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, at which Mr. Holder defended from a storm of Republican criticism his decision to bring five suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks to trial in New York.

"It's my understanding that if [Mohammed] is not convicted, and somehow the judge lets him off on a technicality or something, then he becomes an enemy combatant, and then you are right back where you started," said Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican. "So what do you gain?"

Mr. Grassley moved on to another topic without waiting for a reply, and Mr. Holder did not return to the question, though he did say elsewhere in the hearing that he is convinced Mohammed will be convicted.

But the assertion raises questions whether the trial will send the powerful message about America's legal values that Mr. Holder has said it will.

COMMENT:  Incredible.  Holder is not disputing the chance that KSM will be let off, and will then have to be held on some other basis.  Can you just imagine that?  Can you just imagine the publicity around the world?  Can you just imagine the jubilation on America's leftist campuses?  Can you just imagine the ecstasy at The New York Times? 

It could happen, and the fiasco could then be blamed on BUSH (!!) and his detention and interrogation policies.  We kind of have the feeling that's the purpose of the trial in the first place, but we hope we're wrong.

Holder's decision has turned into one of the lowest moments of the time of Obama.  As we said yesterday, don't be shocked if it's eventually reversed, under political pressure.

November 19, 2009