Long Awaited

2,459 days after his plan was executed, killing 2,792 innocents,Khalid Sheikh Mohammed sits in a courtroom, a major milestone in his descent to Hell.

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - The accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 terror attacks is facing a military judge in his long-awaited first public appearance before a war-crimes tribunal.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators have taken their seats at defense tables before Judge Ralph Kohlmann, a Marine colonel.

Their arraignment Thursday is the highest-profile test yet of the controversial tribunal system, which is being challenged in court. It comes seven years after the attacks. All five face the death penalty if convicted.

How very odd, and how very American, that Mohammed (familiar name; isn't that some prophet or something?) awaits his fate amidst the dry, orderly environs of a military courtroom.

How very different from those he judged misjudged, who he sentenced to painful, noisy, smelly, terrifying deaths, without ever once looking any one of them in the eye.

And how amazing that there are American lawyers who hate the country that nurtured them and gave them freedom so much that they are standing beside this pillar of Islamism, attacking America to defend him.