Peter, your post “Alice in Wonderland Justice” reminds me of the old Marx Brothers routine in which Chico is standing trial and discovers that Groucho will be the judge, prosecutor, and defense lawyer. Chico asks how there can be such a procedure, and Groucho answers: “That way we can prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.”

The Obama administration is presumably bringing terrorists to trial in New York on an assumption that not only is there proof beyond a reasonable doubt, but also that even if the defendants were acquitted, or the jury hung, or subpoenaed Bush administration officials refused to testify, or a judge ruled that the trial cannot continue after the prosecution refuses to disclose national-security secrets, the defendants will still not be allowed to go free — hence Democratic Sen. Jack Reed’s confident assertion that “international law” will permit the defendants’ continued detention after trial, regardless of its result.

If the trial turns into a soap box — with a worldwide megaphone — to castigate the Bush administration for its wartime detention policies, or to illustrate the dark night of America before Obama, it will be a fringe benefit (or perhaps even the main purpose) of the fail-safe legal proceeding — an opportunity effectively to place officials of the Bush administration in the dock and to apologize again for what came before Hope and Change.

It will be a (Groucho) Marxist procedure for the defendants (because they will not go free no matter what the verdict) and a show trial for Obama’s political opponents, conducted in order to satisfy his “base.” It will be cynical political process masquerading as the fullest extent of the law.