Pete Williams of NBC News reports this morning that the plan to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in federal district court in New York City "is all but dead."

One might hope that this welcome course correction has come about because the Justice Department belatedly understands that trying jihadists as ordinary defendants in any civilian court  --  and granting them the rights to which ordinary defendants are entitled  --  is foolhardy.  The reasons for this are clear enough to those who understand the difference between crime and war. Recently, I attempted to spell it out here, http://www.crimeandconsequences.com/crimblog/2010/01/a-presidential-pledge-broken-t.html. 

Alas, this is not the reason.  The administration seems determined to continue to apply the standard requirements of criminal procedure, starting with Miranda's invitation to defendants to clam up, wherever the trial will be held. 

No, the reason for the move is not an embryonic understanding of the nature of the conflict in which we are engaged.  It's more traditional:  politics.  It turns out that erstwhile Democrat Michael Bloomberg, and New York's Governor, David Paterson, and its two senators, Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand  --  all memebers of the President's party  --  have let it be known that a trial in New York City would be, well, unpopular. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/us/29terror.html?partner=rss&emc=rss.

It would therefore seem that KSM and his jihadist cohorts will still get the propaganda platform they want, just in a different location.  On the other hand, it might not be as much of a boon to them as they think, since Osama bin Laden recently announced al Qaeda's agreement with President Obama on at least one important international issue, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35141796/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia.