Is the Obama administration taking a risk with the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial and if so, why?

Anything the president EVER does comes at a risk.

It is a risk because giving terrorists American rights means that any previous testimony in inadmissible in court and our foreign intelligence will be at risk due to discovery and many other reasons, If he is not convicted, Obama might as well go and hide under a rock somewhere because he will be done as a politician.As a side note Obama made the statement that Mohammad would be found guilty and receive the death penalty,,yet another problem for the prosecution.

Yes.

It is a risk studiously avoided by the Bu$h Administration for the last 8 years.

Retribution by the Crazed Islamic Fundies. Political retribution from Republicans for exposing their excesses whilst he was in custody.

The list goes on.

Hello Kiethold.
I believe he is posing a risk with this move. This decision was made by Eric Holder, not Obama, although Obama signed off on the decision.
First, this is the first step in following through on Obamas promise to close Gitmo. This in itself I believe is a bad decision. If we are going to treat enemy combatants as criminals and give them the protections granted to citizens, what does that mean. Does that mean that every combatant who is captured must be read his miranda rights and given a lawyer. We need a place offshore to hold these people. Who wants them on their soil. One of the problems we have with transferring these detainees should Gitmo be closed is that countries do not want these terrorist. The reason we want Gitmo is so we do NOT have to try these people. The purpose of Gitmo is to HOLD these people so they cannot do further damage, not to necessarily punish them.
Some of the other risks are,
1) It opens the door to aggressive defense tactics that will seek to put the US government itself on trial for alleged lawless kidnappings and interrogations. It will trigger an array of fundamental constitutional challenges – including an argument that the last place on earth the 9/11 conspirators can receive a fair trial is New York City.
2) A trial in an open New York courtroom could provide an international stage for Mr. Mohammed to portray himself to the Muslim world as a hero and martyr who has endured torture and injustice at the hands of the US government in service to Islam
3) Lawyers for the accused will almost certainly try to have charges thrown out based on the rough treatment of the detainees at the hands of U.S. interrogators, including the repeated waterboarding,
4) Attorneys prosecuting Mohammed will be forced to release a large body of classified U.S. intelligence information
5) Plus there is always the possibility of a mis-trial or an acquittal
Not to mention the fact that out media will turn this into a circus, ala O.J..
This is a bad idea all the way around. It has been said that this will show the world that we are fair, Well Obama has ruined that by publicly declaring that Mohammed will be convicted and executed....
G'Day ...

yes no one want that peace of sh*t, disgrace to mankind, to have any rights or worse in the U.S. he deserves to be tortured til he dies then fed to some kind of animal then send the animals to the other terrorist see how they take that

Yes, giving an enemy combatant the same rights as a U.S. citizen in civil court for the first time in American history is risky. This will likely backfire in a big way. Even FDR knew better than this.