A Somali man was flown to New York City late Monday night to be tried in the Southern District of New York for providing information to the Somali terrorist group Shabab as well as Al Qaeda. Now, Congressional Republicans are offering harsh criticism of the Obama administration for not transferring him to Guantanamo Bay. "The administration has purposefully imported a terrorist into the US and is providing him all the rights of US citizens in court," vulgar obstructionist and Yertle the Turtle lookalike Mitch McConnell said on the House floor today. "This ideological rigidity being displayed by the administration is harming the national security of the United States of America."

Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame, who is believed to be in his mid-20s, was initially captured on a ship "in the Gulf region" on April 19, and was held in a US Navy brig. There he was questioned for two months. After the "very cooperative" interrogations, Warsame was read his Miranda rights and questioned again by the FBI so that his testimony could be used in civilian court. According to the Times, authorities are still unsure of Warsame's role as a terrorist, as "one portrayed him as a “senior operational commander” while another played down his role." It is considerably easier to try these subjects in civilian court because prosecutors merely have to prove that Warsame aided the terrorist groups. A military tribunal forces the government to actually prove he was a member of the terrorist groups, a problem that has plagued many prosecutions thus far.

To review: Mitch McConnell and the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee aren't upset that the man was secretly detained for two months, or that Obama has essentially continued the erosion of habeas corpus begun under the Bush administration. (And forget that Bush himself tried and convicted hundreds of suspected terrorists under civilian law.) They're complaining that he's not being held in a prison that has become a symbol of the decay of American values and a valuable recruiting tool to terrorists. Refusing to treat these subjects in an extrajudicial manner is something the Obama administration has shirked for far too long. If Republicans want to stop "harming the national security of the United States," they can agree to concessions to prevent the country's economy from spiraling into freefall by defaulting on its loans.

You can read the government's considerably vague complaint against the man here [pdf].