Conservatives have a “kitchen sink” approach to Mr. Obama, they are attacking for anything and everything they possibly can. Remember “mustard-gate” when he was criticized for putting “Dijon” mustard on his hamburger in Virginia? Of course it turned out that the “Dijon” brand was owned by a US corporation.

The same is true here. It does not matter what Mr. Obama does, people like Dick Chenney and Charles Krauthammer are going to criticize him. You are quite correct that they have tied themselves up in knots over this one. As thekingofcheap correctly points out the WTC bombers and his followers were jailed and tried in a civilian court in NYC.

The last of bombers was Eyad Ismoil. During his sentencing he said “Jail me and you will add one number to the wrong list. But don’t think that you will ever rest because tyrants always end up in trouble,,,In the world, a fair trial is always rare.”

U.S. District Judge Kevin Duffy (a Nixon appointee) replied that Ismoil had received “an extraordinarily fair trial, something that was quite expensive, something which was done not as a show trial but to give you an opportunity to put forward whatever you wanted to do.”

So it was not a problem at all in the 1990’s to put on a fair trial (and not a show trial) for a terrorist in New York City where they could indeed use the trail as “bully pulpit” to advance their views. I do not believe that anyone has criticized those trials.

Off-topic: I’ve noticed conservatives getting their panties bunched over a civilian terrorist trial. Didn’t the WTC bombers from 1993 also get tried in civilian court? Could the 9/11 guys be considered military criminals since they also went after the Pentagon, a military target?