A Life Sentence Is Not Enough for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

Last week, news broke that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks, had accepted a plea deal in an American military court. He agreed to plead guilty in exchange for life in prison, thus saving himself from the possibility of execution. A few days afterward, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin countermanded the deal, requiring the arch-terrorist, known as KSM, to stand trial before a military tribunal. Not among the 2,977 counts of first-degree murder being brought against him is the 2002 slaying of the American journalist Daniel Pearl, which KSM described thus: “I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl.”