Terror trials will justly determine fate of criminals

Since his capture in Pakistan on March 1, 2003, Khalid Sheik Mohammed has had a lot of time to sit and think. “KSM,” as he is referred to in military circles, was the self-proclaimed mastermind behind the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. He also claimed involvement in an array of other plots. Not a very nice guy.

I can only imagine how he’s occupied himself during his incarceration. If I had to guess, though, I would wager that he hasn’t spent much time feeling guilty. Far more likely, he has filled his days with glorious, perverted visions of himself and his mission: a righteous, blessed soldier in a sacred holy war. Indeed, in the minds of KSM and his confederates, they are zealous warriors.

I trust that I’m not the only one who has major problems with such conceptions.

In recent days, we have learned that KSM will be brought to New York City and put on trial in the federal district court there, just blocks away from Ground Zero in lower Manhattan. This development comes after years of legal and logistical wrangling by the Bush administration; they were unable to construct a set of constitutionally legitimate judicial guidelines for prosecuting terror detainees. The Obama administration contends that a civilian trial, as opposed to the military tribunals that Bush favored, is the most effective way to secure convictions for these men.

There has, understandably, been a great deal of concern over the wisdom of such a move:

Won’t it place Americans at risk for another attack?

Doesn’t this mean we’re going soft on terror?

What if he’s acquitted because of “waterboarded” confessions?

These are legitimate but unfounded concerns.

During the past decade, the United States has prosecuted a number of terror suspects, with universal success. “20th hijacker” Zacarias Moussaoui, “shoe-bomber” Richard Reid, and mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing Ramzi Youssef have all been prosecuted and convicted with relative ease. No acquittals, no legal miscues, no reprisal attacks.

As long as government prosecutors don’t seek to introduce evidence gleaned from torture-tainted interrogations (KSM was repeatedly subjected to “enhanced interrogation techniques” in 2003), the waterboarding issue may not even become relevant.

In reality, KSM will probably make it easy on us: everyone fully expects him to openly confess to his orchestration of 9/11, show no remorse, and spew his hateful rhetoric. I doubt that the jury will have any trouble finding him guilty, and I find it unlikely that any judge or prosecutor will allow him to go free on a technicality. It seems inevitable.

But why even take the risk? Why not just go for the guaranteed slam dunk of military tribunals?

It’s simple: we need the KSM trial. It brings us one step closer to victory.

Placing the murderous, depraved tactics of Al Qaeda and other extremist organizations on trial exposes to the world an unerring truth: fundamentalist terrorists are not the holy crusaders they claim to be; their cause is not one of glory and sacrifice, it is one of murder and evil.

KSM wants to be seen as a warrior. He wants to be seen as a soldier. We must not dignify him and his followers by allowing them to call themselves “warriors” or “soldiers.” Those are labels proudly worn by the noble men and women of our own military, unfit for indiscriminate murderers. “War” is a legally sanctioned, albeit abhorrent, method for resolving disputes. The killing of commuters in London does not fit this definition. It’s homicide.

By bringing KSM to court and making him face his heinous deeds within the structure of the world’s greatest judicial system, we expose him and his allies for what they truly are: deranged, psychopathic serial killers.

If we allow the trials of terror suspects to be held in secretive, shadowy military tribunals, removed from all outside scrutiny, the only thing we accomplish is further legitimizing their actions and their self-images. We allow fundamentalist terror to retain its cachet, its twisted glory.

But there is no glory in killing civilians. There is no glory in massacring innocent Americans. These truths are self-evident.

Let us place Khalid Sheik Mohammed at the mercy of American judges and American juries. I can think of no more fitting way to punish KSM, in a manner that embodies all of the American ideals and principles he was trying so hard to destroy.

He is not a comic book super-villain. He is not a devout, virtuous servant of God. He is a man, an evil, murderous man who will be punished. The trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed will show to the world, once and for all, that the grandiose daydreams of violent jihad are nothing more than the perverse delusions of wicked criminals.

Jared is a junior in LAS.