You know, if we followed standard criminal justice procedures with terrorism suspects, including interrogations without torture and trials open to the public, questions like these might not be necessary:
Is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed the world's most accomplished terrorist or is he just a complete liar? Or both?
Since the suspected 9/11 mastermind confessed to 31 attacks, as well as plots to kill Pope John Paul II, Presidents Clinton and Carter, to use biological weapons such as anthrax, and to bomb targets around the world from Panama and Pakistan to South Korea and Seattle, some of his claims have come under doubt.Several counterterrorism experts and former intelligence officials believe that Mohammed, who made the mass confession during a military hearing at Guantanamo Bay, is a fabulist. Their reasons: the lack of evidence to implicate him in many of these plots and his reputation as a self-aggrandizing egotist.
An open, fair, and impartial justice system doesn't just protect the accused; it also allows all of us to have faith in the information it gathers and the verdicts it delivers. In achieving justice, the process matters as much if not more than the result.
In an odd way, the inability of this administration and its supporters to understand that is what ties this story to the growing scandal about the purge of the US Attorneys. When the Dept. of Justice is no loner a neutral arbiter tasked with defending the constitution and upholding the rule of law, all manner of scandal will result.
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