Not only can we not hold them indefinitely, try them before military commissions, or exert any pressure on them to make them betray their jihadi cohorts, but now the Obama Regime is making it clear that won't even put terrorists under restriction in federal prisons after they have been convicted in a federal court of trying to kill hundreds.

Airplane shoe bomber Richard C. Reid no longer faces severe limits on his prison activities or communications after the Obama administration quietly ended years of hard-nosed curbs against the British-born al-Qaeda terrorist.

This summer the Justice Department halted six years of measures that kept Reid from associating or praying with fellow jailed Muslim terrorists, and limited his access to the news media and pen pals.

That move has outraged victims of al-Qaeda and security experts.

You know -- security experts who argue that such terrorists should be kept on a very short leash because of their propensity for engaging in suicidal terrorist acts.

The best observation is this one.

“It’s my hope that they have made this decision based solely on intelligence and risk,” said Anthony M. Amore, who was a Federal Aviation Administration special agent on duty at Logan International Airport in 2001 when the flight was diverted to Boston.

“Other than presidential administrations, what really has changed?” asked Amore, who was heavily involved in the Reid case as it unfolded at Logan. “We are still removing our shoes at airports, and still fighting in Afghanistan to eradicate terrorist cells.”

Amore noted that just last week, an Afghan-born resident of Denver, Najibullah Zazi, 24, was accused of having ties to al-Qaeda, according to U.S. officials probing a homegrown terror plot against the New York subway system.

Amore said he is concerned that the Reid decision is a sign the Justice Department and FBI might be losing sight of the real target in counterterrorism - terrorist cells.

Of course, the "most transparent administration in American history" won't share with the American people the reasons for the change in approach -- which leads this American to conclude that the only thing that has changed is the direction of the political winds.

H/T Don Surber, Jules Crittenden