Military commission for 9/11 mastermind.

• Position: War on Terror - Brief article

The Obama Administration's initial decision to prosecute self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed in a New York Federal courtroom was "a principled statement of support for our justice system, but the clumsy execution of this issue has left the Administration no choice but to reverse itself and use the military commission system," says David Schanzer, director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security at Duke University, Durham, N.C., where he also is an associate professor in the School of Public Policy. He served as the Democratic staff director and chief counsel of the House Homeland Security Committee from 2003-05.

"If we were starting from scratch, the right thing to do would have been to have interrogated KSM for an extended period using legal means, then to have transferred him to the criminal justice system to face capital charges for mass murder. An open trial that could be used to show the bankruptcy of his ideology and the immorality of the tactics to the world, as well as our confidence in the rule of...