Never Forget … that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Has Not Faced Justice Yet

The people who like to use 9/11 to sow fear are pushing the hashtag #NeverForget this morning, as if anyone is about to forget the event that led our country to sacrifice its values and exacerbate the threat from terrorism, as if we haven’t already killed far more innocent people in claimed retaliation than al Qaeda killed that day.

Me, I think the anniversary of the attack is a good day to reflect on the fact that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed still has not been tried and convicted for his crimes. The reasons, of course, have to do with the kangaroo court the Bush Administration invented to emphasize how different these crimes were, the torture KSM and his fellow defendants underwent and — more directly — the fact that the FBI thought it appropriate to infiltrate his defense team (for what!?!?!), which has led to a lengthy investigation to assess the conflicts created.

Since 9/11, of course, DOJ has tried and convicted around 500 terrorists and aspiring terrorists, including Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, just two years after his attack on the Boston Marathon. We have the ability to try terrorists, we simply haven’t chosen to exercise that ability in KSM’s case.

The 9/11 victims deserve a trial. Just as importantly, the US deserves its old system of justice back.