This morning's Washington Post has an excellent article which systematically debunks "six myths about [Khalid Sheik] Mohammed and his trial that ought to be destroyed." The key points:1. "Waterboarding," aka "water torture," will NOT get the case dismissed.
2. KSM's judge WILL be able to find an "impartial" jury under the "low standard" of "set[ting] aside...pre-judgments and fairly evaluat[ing] the evidence shown at trial."
3. New York City's "awe-inspiring" security and history of successful terrorism trials should minimize the risk of another terrorist attack.
4. Transferring KSM to a federal civilian court isn't a "defeat," it's "the best chance of ensuring conviction and sentencing" (and given what this scumbag has done, I presume the sentence will be death).
5. There is essentially zero chance that KSM will be "acquitted on some technicality." It's simply not going to happen.
6. KSM will try to turn this into political theater, but that will actually make it even easier to convict him and also will show people what kind of evil, twisted, psycopathic individual we're dealing with here.
Last but not least, of course, is that this trial will mark a return - as Attorney General Eric Holder says - to the 200-year history in this country "on a faithful adherence to the rule of law to bring criminals to justice and provide accountability to victims." That's crucial, even for the most heinous, despicable criminals like KSM. I am not generally a fan of capital punishment, but I look forward to this guy's conviction and execution, preferably in the shadow of the toppled World Trade Towers. Then, at least a measure of justice will have been done.
