First, the news. Some of it is good.
The best is that Harold Ford Jr. told me yester day he wants the 9/11 trial moved out of New York. That puts the spunky Democrat at odds on another major issue with the White House and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, the rubber stamp he is almost certain to challenge this year.
The most shocking news is that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told me neither he nor Mayor Bloomberg were asked for their opinions before Washington decided to hold the trial in lower Manhattan.
The two developments should add punch to the movement aimed at getting the looming disaster out of the city. If ever there was a cause worthy of uniting all New Yorkers, this is it.
My hunch is that the shifting political climate makes this the perfect time to stop the insanity. Some insiders believe a wounded President Obama would be relieved, because he now realizes there is no upside to the trial and lots of downside, including heightened threats of another attack on New York.
There never was a good reason to bring 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed (above right) and his crew here, and each day brings more proof of what a truly bonehead decision it was. From the bumbled handling of the Christmas Day bomb case in Detroit to a record number of reported plots in the last year, the case against the case is stronger than ever.
Ford, the former Tennessee congressman, believes the trial is a mistake because of the enormous cost and because a military tribunal “is the way to go.”
Seizing on Bloomberg’s estimated price of $216 million a year, Ford said in a phone interview that even if Washington pays, “it makes no sense to sock taxpayers with that burden in the middle of a recession. The money could go to tax cuts or job training, which would be better for New York.”
His stance matches sentiment among downtown residents and businesses. Many at first seemed prepared to go along, but the sense of danger and realization their neighborhood would be locked down is causing a definite shift.
“We’re facing a multiyear trial, and somebody’s got to stand up and say, ‘This is crazy,’ ” said community board Chair Julie Menin. “It just doesn’t make any sense whatsoever to have it here.”
That the decision came as a surprise to Kelly and Bloomberg illustrates how ill-conceived it was.
On the morning of last Nov. 13 — Friday the 13th — the mayor and the top cop got nearly simultaneous phone calls telling them Mohammed and four others would be tried in Manhattan federal court.
“We were informed it would happen and an announcement would be made that day,” Kelly said yesterday. “There was no consultation and no checks to see what our thoughts were.”
Among other things, Kelly would have asked intelligence agencies about the impact on security. Unfortunately, he can guess. “Common sense says it raises the threat level against us,” he said.
“The terrorists always want to come here and kill as many people as possible.”
Common sense is clearly not so common in the White House or in Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department. They have their priorities upside down.
Instead of putting national security first, they satisfied their ideological fixation for giving mass murderers full constitutional rights, including the presumption of innocence.
If that meant subjecting millions of people in New York to increased risk of a terror attack, well, so be it.
And if it meant turning a courtroom just blocks from Ground Zero into a circus tent for Islamic fanatics to threaten jurors, witnesses, the judge, and gloat over their 9/11 slaughter, well, so be it.
A preview of coming attractions is happening at the trial of the maniac dubbed Lady al Qaeda, the MIT-trained Pakistani arrested in Afghanistan carrying bomb info and a list of city landmarks, including Lady Liberty. We have our Lady, they have theirs. Theirs opened fire on American and Afghan officers before she was wounded.
Taking place in the same Foley Square courtroom where the KSM trial likely would be held, her antics are a warm-up act for the 9/11 madmen.
She’s repeatedly been ejected for disruptions. On Monday, she talked over the testimony of one of the men she fired at, a Special Forces officer who was later severely wounded by a bomb. He was crying while she was jabbering nonsense.
Two jurors were dismissed, reportedly because a man in the audience pointed a finger at them as if it were a gun. And squeezed his finger like a trigger.
Enough. Protect the city. Stop the 9/11 trial.
Words no substitute for action
“Watch what we do, not what we say.” That was the advice — or warning — John Mitchell gave at the start of the Nixon administration. It was perfect for judging Nixon, and it’s even better for Obama.
No modern president has used speeches as the main tool of the Oval Office nearly as much as this one. That’s what got him the job.
But with the novelty wearing thin and reality biting the country, the public is tuning out. It’s tired of the TelePrompTer and of speeches that either mislead or lead to nothing.
Often, you get the feeling Obama confuses words with deeds. That was certainly the case with the high-value detainee-interrogation unit he approved last August.
It was part of a plan to take power away from the CIA and show again how Obama is not George W. Bush.
The unit was designed for terrorists like the Nigerian who tried to blow up the airliner on Christmas Day. Top security officials agree it should have been called in to pump him for vital intelligence.
One problem: The unit doesn’t exist. Except on paper.
So excuse my yawn as the White House tries to stoke fever about tonight’s State of the Union Address. Whatever Obama says, wake me when he actually does it.
Meet dumb and dumber
Now you know why we first have to kill the lawyers. It’s to keep them from saying stupid things. Roger Corbin, a former Long Island legislator, admitted filing false tax returns and lying about $229,000 he deposited. Prosecutors showed the money came from a developer who got more than $15 million in contracts in Corbin’s district. But his lawyer says Corbin’s the victim — of low government salaries. “It was the financial sacrifices which he made in being an elected official that caused these problems,” said Thomas Liotti. Arrrrgghhhhhh!
NBA NITWIT’S FREE ‘SHOT’
Apparently, Haiti hasn’t suffered enough. It’s also getting punished with the “help” of a pampered jerk from the NBA.
Washington Wizard Javaris Crittenton, one of two players who drew guns during a locker-room dispute, is getting off with probation, a $1,250 fine and community service, which he’ll do with the league’s Haiti project.
Heroic volunteers and 19,000 US military members in the godforsaken land must be delighted. The community service they perform out of love and duty is the same one Crittenton is required to do to avoid jail. Something’s not right.