Thanks to a Leftist Judge, the Chief 9/11 Plotter Could Walk

If you weren’t yet born on September 11, 2001, you may find it mind-boggling that the trial of the jihadi who was primarily responsible for conceiving of the plot and bringing it to fruition is only now definitively planned to start — not this year, and not next year, but on June 5, 2028. There’s just one catch: on Friday, the trial judge, Lt. Col. Michael Schrama, ruled that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed’s 2007 confession is inadmissible, as it was obtained under torture.

But hey, look on the bright side: once KSM, as he is affectionately known, is acquitted, he can run for Congress as a Democratic Socialist. In the unlikely event that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Mogadishu) is deported, KSM is a solid fallback who is sure to appeal to her core constituency.

Once the trial finally gets underway, sixteen years will have passed since the plotters – not just KSM, but also Walid bin Attash, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Ammar al-Baluchi, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi – were arraigned. The Daily Mail reported in 2021, at the time of another abortive attempt to try these men, that the trial date set then marked “the first time that a trial judge in the case actually established a date. Prosecutors had tried to get the ball rolling with two previous judges after the 2012 arraignment.” They failed in 2021 as well.

The trial will also begin nineteen years after Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and the others for all intents and purposes admitted their role in the 9/11 jihad attacks, penning a lengthy Islamic defense for their actions in which they never denied plotting the hijacking of planes in order to commit mass murder of American civilians, but justified their actions by claiming that the U.S. was the greater terrorist. They signed the document “the 9/11 Shura Council.”

This was not a document obtained under torture. It is far too lengthy and detailed, as well as proud of the mass murder committed on 9/11, for any case to be made that it was; it doesn’t remotely read like a document that non-Muslim officials presented to the defendants and tortured them into signing. Given the general ignorance that prevailed then and still prevails today regarding the ideological underpinnings of the jihad threat, it is impossible to imagine any American official concocting such a document. It is a closely reasoned explanation of why the 9/11 attacks were justified from the standpoint of Islamic doctrine and belief.

In that document, the plotters, including KSM, wrote this about the charges they faced regarding masterminding the 9/11 attacks: “With regards to these nine accusations that you are putting us on trial for; to us, they are not accusations. To us they are badges of honor, which we carry with pride. Many thanks to God, for his kind gesture, and choosing us to perform the act of Jihad for his cause and to defend Islam and Muslims.”

They added:

Therefore, killing you and fighting you, destroying you and terrorizing you, responding back to your attacks, are all considered to be great legitimate duty in our religion. These actions are our offerings to God. In addition, it is the imposed reality on Muslims in Palestine, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, in the land of the two holy sites [Mecca and Medina, Saudi Arabia], and in the rest of the world, where Muslims are suffering from your brutality, terrorism, killing of the innocent, and occupying their lands and their holy sites. Nevertheless, it would have been the greatest religious duty to fight you over your infidelity. However, today, we fight you over defending Muslims, their land, their holy sites, and their religion as a whole.

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The plotters then go through each of the nine charges against them. They deny none of them, and instead accuse the U.S. of being guilty of each one. To the charge of “hijacking and/or endangering a vessel or an aircraft,” they respond with Qur’an quotes, followed by this: “Remember, that you are the ones who attacked the Iranian civilian aircraft, flight 655, in 1988 with your Cruise missiles over the Hermuz straights, killing all of its 290 passengers, among them 66 children. They are still shedding tears today over your victims. Does your blood have a value and the blood of Muslims not?”

That certainly sounds as if they had something to do with the hijacking, and are accusing the U.S. of hypocrisy for trying them over it. Will Schrama throw out this document, too? Get your KSM For Congress buttons ready.