9/11 terror trials -- it's about time
It shouldn't have taken nine years for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the professed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, to be brought to trial. Better late than never.
Mohammed has been in U.S. custody since 2003. He was first held in secret prisons, where he was tortured, including being waterboarded 183 times, and then moved in 2006 to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
No matter how despicable a terrorist act, it's an affront to the nation's values of individual rights and due process to keep anyone locked up that long without a prisoner of war designation or any court finding of guilt. It's also much too long to make the American people wait for justice.
Mohammed's day in court, and that of four suspected co-conspirators, was delayed by disputes over the constitutionality of military trials at Guantánamo, and what access detainees there should have to civilian courts. In 2006 Congress passed the Military Commissions Act to revamp the dubious military tribunals previously in place, and last year President Barack Obama grudgingly agreed to go ahead with trials at the prison.
While a military commission isn't the optimal forum for what might be the nation's most important terrorism trial, it provides due process. The five defendants will be arraigned within 30 days on new charges of terrorism, hijacking, conspiracy and murder. If convicted they could be executed. It's about time they stand trial.