RUTHFULLY YOURS

We’re living in the enlightened future so we know that applying the death penalty to the Muslim murderers of Americans is a form of outmoded barbarism. All right-thinking people know that it should be reserved for…

1. Critics of the administration

2. Women who don’t want men using the ladies room

3. Republicans in general

Not the mastermind of the murder of an American ambassador.

The Justice Department will not seek the death penalty against the Libyan militant charged in the Benghazi attacks that killed four Americans, federal officials have announced.

Ahmed Abu Khattala has been awaiting trial in federal court in Washington in connection with the September 2012 violence at a diplomatic compound in Benghazi that killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.

His attorneys had been imploring the Justice Department to remove the death penalty as a possibility if Khattala is ultimately convicted at trial.

On Tuesday, the department revealed its decision in a court filing that provided no explanation.

Khattala, 43, is the first militant to be prosecuted for the Benghazi violence.

He was captured in June 2014 by U.S. special forces before being brought to the United States aboard a Navy ship to face trial.

Prosecutors have described him as a ringleader of the attacks, which quickly emerged as a political flashpoint and became the topic of congressional hearings involving Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time of the rampage.

This should surprise absolutely no one. Despite Obama’s campaign end zone dance over the death of Osama, he never intended to kill him. He wanted to use him to shut down Gitmo with a trial.

Obama saw an opportunity to resurrect the idea of a criminal trial, which Attorney General Eric Holder had planned for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

This time, the president tells Bowden, he was prepared to bring bin Laden back and put him on trial in a federal court. “We worked through the legal and political issues that would have been involved, and Congress and the desire to send him to Guantánamo, and to not try him, and Article III.” Obama continues:

“I mean, we had worked through a whole bunch of those scenarios. But, frankly, my belief was if we had captured him, that I would be in a pretty strong position, politically, here, to argue that displaying due process and rule of law would be our best weapon against al-Qaeda, in preventing him from appearing as a martyr.”

Obama missed out on Osama. But this time special forces didn’t pull the trigger.