Dick Cheney hits out at Obama again by calling 9/11 trial in New York 'a huge mistake'

Thomas M. Defrank
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF

 

Tuesday, December 8th 2009, 8:32 PM

 

AP

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged terror mastermind who will be tried in New York along with other suspected 9/11 plotters

East/Reuters

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York where the trial will take place

WASHINGTON - Dick Cheney has ratcheted up his criticism of President Obama again, calling the decision to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in New York a "huge mistake."

In an interview with Fox News Channels Sean Hannity, the former vice president said the trial, which isn't expected to begin for at least a year in Manhattan's federal district court, will allow KSM an ill-advised showcase to spew his anti-American venom.

"He'll be able to go in whenever he's up on the stand and proselytize, if you will, millions of people out there around the world including some of his radical Muslim friends and generate a whole new generation of terrorists," Cheney said.

"I think it will make Khalid Sheikh Mohammed something of a hero in certain circles, especially in the radical regions of Islam around the world. It will put him on the map. He'll be as important or more important than Osama Bin Laden, and we will have made it possible."
 
The Obama administration has previously rejected Cheney's argument, saying Mohammed won't be allowed to grandstand by the trial judge and that his conviction and possible execution will show the world the U.S. isn't afraid of putting terrorists on trial in civilian courts.

Cheney also zapped Obama for telegraphing a 2011 exit date for some of the 30,000 surge troops the President has just ordered into Afghanistan.

"When (Al Qaeda) see him announce in advance that there's going to be a withdrawal 18 months down the road, they come to the point where they feel like their strategy, their world view has been validated and in the meantime, your task of trying to control the situation, trying to put down the Taliban and so forth, has simply gotten harder because you're weak and indecisive when you made the decision to do it."

Cheney ducked when served up the chance to label Obama a Socialist, seeming to settle for card-carrying liberal instead.
 
"I don't want to use that kind of a label," he said. "I think on his part he does not have the kind of commitment to the private sector that most of us have and have lived with in the past."

He also was more judicious than friends say he really feels about his successor, Vice President Biden. 

"Joe and I have a different approach to the job and to politics in general," he said.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/12/08/2009-12-08_dick_cheney_hits_out_at_obama_again_.html#ixzz0ZBqbLsEU