MINITER: Terrorist's other victims should get chance at justice, too
If we are going to use trials to punish terrorists, why not charge them with all they confess to?
This week, retired Adm. Bruce McDonald will decide whether Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the confessed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, should face the death penalty, and decide what charges should be referred to a military commission for trial.
Prosecutors have made a grave mistake. KSM, and four codefendants, are only charged with crimes arising from Sept. 11. Left out: the hacking off of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl’s head, the bombing of two Bali nightclubs, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, two plots each to kill Pope John Paul II and President Bill Clinton, a plot to blow up 11 airliners over the Pacific, the “dirty bomb” plot of Jose Padilla, the “shoe bomber” plot of Richard Reid and so on.
KSM has confessed to more than 30 plots, ranging from blowing up the Empire State Building to collapsing the Panama Canal. Many of his accomplices remain at large; a trial may yield vital clues to their whereabouts.
While the Obama administration has U-turned from favoring civilian trials to military commissions, it reveals no reason not to incorporate valid civilian indictments into military trials.
Charging KSM with all of the crimes he confessed to could shed light on many offenses, including the 1990 murder of Rabbi Meir Kahane in a New York hotel. Though the trigger puller was treated by prosecutors as a “lone nut,” three alleged accomplices were later involved in the 1993 World Trade Center attack. After the bombing, one of the demands by the bombers was the release of the Kahane killer. KSM confessed to orchestrating this murder — apparently his first on U.S. soil — but is not charged with it.
Are these confessions worthless because he was allegedly tortured? Whatever you think of waterboarding, it doesn’t matter. In 2007 — more than four years after waterboarding — in a safe, nonthreatening conference room, he freely repeated his confessions to a Justice Department civilian “clean team.” And he confessed again during his 2008 military trial, which was later halted by Obama. He is proud of his crimes, not simply telling officials what they what to hear. Given a chance, he will boldly confess again.
Wouldn’t broadening the charges slow the trial? It is already moving at a glacial pace. A jury and judge are yet to be assigned. KSM will, most likely, not even be arraigned until after the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. And that is if prosecutors do not stop the proceedings in honor of the month-long fast of Ramadan.
Fortunately, our interest in holding KSM accountable for his entire terrorist career is the same as his desire to expose his full resume of acts. The only objection seems to come from Obama. Of course, the Bush-era charges against KSM and his co-conspirators were similarly limited to 9/11. Why should Obama repeat Bush’s errors?
In fact, broadening the charges would actually aid the war on terror. Testimony would reveal new leads for investigators and might well lead to additional prosecutions. Dangerous men may well be lurking in our midst, in sleeper cells or as fundraisers, money movers or recruiters. It would also educate the public about the full dimensions of the threat. Terrorists haven’t failed to attack us since 9/11 through a lack of trying.
If KSM is tried on Sept. 11 charges only, the American victims of other terror attacks may never get justice. Why are they less important than the politically wired 9/11 families? Justice for all victims can be pursued while diminishing the rights of none.Once he is executed (the prosecutors and KSM have asked for his death) this opportunity will be lost forever.
Richard Miniter is the author of “Mastermind: The Many Faces of the 9/11 Architect, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed,” www.richardminiter.com
