Trying Times

Their mistake is not horrifying nor does it increase our danger. The people who want to harm us don't need motivation. If they could set off something dramatic in New York or any other major city, the would and they will. Trying KSM will neither encourage nor discourage them.

The problem with bringing him here is not danger to New York or the fairness or competency of our system. Nor is housing a bad man, (or many bad people) particularly challenging. We know how to do this. The problem is that it is a bad precedent to bring war criminals and combatants from over seas and give them civilian rights.

The prospect of change of venue motions, vetting of every piece of evidence and testimony, as a good defense lawyer must do, will be ugly, time-consuming and without clear advantage to us. The charges of confession by torture and the examination of the CIA will be terrible distractions. No, they won't give away secrets, but they will diminish the impact of the trial.

The shame of it is we shouldn't have to do this. We know how to try people who commit crimes on our land. We dealt with everyone from Sirhan Sirhan to Timothy McVeigh, Sheik Omar and Massoui just fine.

We also know how to try people taken on the field of battle in other lands. We tried Japanese officers after WWII as well as Nazis. We seem at a loss here because we invented a new category, "Illegal enemy combatant," in theory to deal with the fact that the terrorists, the members of Al Qaeda are not directly state-sponsored but are non-state actors. This is a legal Never Never Land. We should leave it.