WASHINGTON — For a moment, he became judge, jury and executioner.
President Obama yesterday blurted out a predicted conviction and death sentence for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed — then sheepishly qualified the prejudgment.
In one of several TV interviews at the end of his Asia trip, Obama said those offended by the legal privileges offered to Mohammed in a civilian rather than military trial won’t find it “offensive at all when he’s convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him.”
And then he quickly backtracked, saying he didn’t mean to suggest he was prejudging the self-confessed mass murderer.
“I’m not going to be in that courtroom,” Obama said. “That’s the job of the prosecutors, the judge and the jury.”
In interviews broadcast on NBC and CNN, the president also said experienced prosecutors who specialize in terrorism have offered assurances that “we’ll convict this person with the evidence they’ve got, going through our system.”
Obama president said Attorney General Eric Holder made the decision to move Mohammed and his henchmen from a detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to face the civilian federal trial in Manhattan, blocks from Ground Zero.
But he said that if anything goes wrong, the buck stops with him.
“I always have to take responsibility,” he said. “That’s my job.”
Meanwhile, Holder came under withering Republican fire when he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) took issue with Holder’s claim that a federal civilian court is “where the government will have the greatest opportunity to present the strongest case and the best law.”
“How could you be more likely to get a conviction in federal court when Khalid Sheik Mohammed has already asked to plead guilty before a military commission and be executed?” he demanded.
“These trials do not hinge on the desire of Khalid Sheik Mohammed,” Holder shot back.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) pressed Holder for a guarantee that the city would be reimbursed for the cost — estimated at $75 million a year — of providing trial security.
Holder said he would ask Obama for the money, pointing out that since “America was attacked on September 11th . . . New York should not bear the burden alone.”
Holder also indicated that even if Mohammed is somehow acquitted, he could be charged with a long list of other crimes that would tie him up in courts forever.
Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said, “I might say, half facetiously, that there are a lot of people in New York who wouldn’t mind having him released onto the streets of New York.
“I suspect he would not want to be released onto the streets of New York.”