Gordon Crovitz: From Nuremberg to Guantanamo

Gordon Crovitz is a media and information industry advisor and executive, including former publisher of The Wall Street Journal, executive vice president of Dow Jones and president of its Consumer Media Group.

In 2008, the mastermind of 9/11, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and his four co-defendants said they wanted to plead guilty and requested to be executed. They bragged about killing 2,976 people at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, so the only question now is whether the world will get a trial that accomplishes enough to justify delaying their wish to be executed.

The first step toward a trial began earlier this month at a chaotic arraignment by the military commission in Guantanamo Bay. Those who hoped these proceedings would remind the world of the deeds and character of the terrorists got their wish—though not in the way the legal system intended.

The arraignment process, which usually takes a few minutes, became a 13-hour drama. One defendant refused to attend, so he was restrained and carried in on a chair. All the defendants refused headsets, so the judge used loudspeakers to ensure they heard the Arabic translation of the capital charges against them for murder and hijacking. Another defendant repeatedly disrupted the proceedings by kneeling to pray, even though there were three scheduled prayer breaks. Another crafted a paper airplane...