By Douglas Holtz-Eakin
The young drop coverage to avoid higher premiums
Three of the five men charged with plotting the Sept. 11 attacks skipped their military tribunal hearing Tuesday after a judge ruled the men could not be forced to attend the session.
Backpedaling from its vow to try the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and four cohorts in civilian court, the Obama administration Monday bowed to pressure and opted for a military tribunal - another blow to the president's three-year bid to shutter the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
As President Obama weighed in to support the Ground Zero mosque during a White House dinner celebrating the Islamic holy month of Ramadan on Friday, one can only imagine what Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), the self-professed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, must be saying at Guantanamo.
"Unfortunately, since I made that decision, members of Congress have intervened and imposed restrictions blocking the administration from bringing any Guantanamo detainees to trial in the United States, regardless of the venue," he said. "As the president has said, those unwise and unwarranted restrictions undermine our counterterrorism efforts and could harm our national security."
