Finally!! U.S. Reverses on 9/11 Trials - Alleged Terror Plotter, Four Others to Face Military Tribunals as Obama Backtracks

At left a March 2003 photo shows Khalid Sheikh Mohammed shortly after his capture during a raid in Pakistan. At right, a 2009 photo purporting to show Mr. Mohammed.

From The Wall Street Journal:

The Obama administration Monday abandoned its effort to put Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other alleged plotters of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on trial in civilian courts, saying the accused terrorists will instead face military trials at Guantanamo Bay, in the prison President Barack Obama had promised would be closed more than a year ago.

During the past two years, Mr. Obama has moved closer to embracing some of the Bush policies he had earlier criticized. In a March 2009 speech Mr. Obama endorsed the idea of restarting military commissions, which he had halted upon taking office. And he also announced he would set up a system to hold indefinitely without trial certain prisoners too dangerous to release.

Congress voted last December to stop the administration from moving terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay to U.S. soil for any purpose.

That blocked not only the 9/11 trials in New York, but also put a freeze on the administration's plan to buy a prison in northern Illinois to use for Guantanamo detainees.