Requiring prosecutors to reveal what they know about detainees and how they know it would cast light both on the interrogation techniques used against the men and the acts of terrorism for which they are facing death, said Denny LeBoeuf, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who works on Guantánamo death penalty issues. “Don’t we have an interest as a society,” Ms. LeBoeuf asked, “in a trial that examines the evidence and provides some reliable picture of what went on?”

I think we do have such an interest. I do not believe putting on a trial when a person wishes to plead guilty is the way to get that information. These detainees should have the right to plead guilty. They have no duty to allow us to inform ourselves about the atrocities committed in our names. Congress can do that. A Truth Commission can do that. The Justice Department can do that. It is not KSM and his fellow terrorists' responsibility to facilitate our own examination of our own monstrous actions.

Whether KSM and his cohorts feel remorse for their crimes against humanity is not for us to judge. They want to plead guilty. No more need be said.

This paradox provides one more reason to eliminate these ill advised and constitutionally questionable military commissions. Why Obama is reluctant to do so is hard to understand.

Speaking for me only