The mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, apparently confessed last week. KSM’s confession should have caused Americans to feel great relief and a sense of justice having been done. We caught the guy, and he admits it! Yet the confession took place under circumstances that prevent much rejoicing. In fact, the whole episode confirms that the war on terrorism has undermined the quality of American justice.

We learned of KSM’s confession from a heavily censored transcript released by the government. The transcript supposedly came from a nonpublic hearing before a military tribunal. We can’t tell how much of the hearing is disclosed in the published transcript. Indeed, the government released a revised version of the transcript a few hours after releasing the initial version.

From what we can tell, KSM’s hearing bears no resemblance to a trial. KSM, who is designated the “detainee” in the transcript, is not allowed to have a lawyer present. He has only an unnamed “personal representative.” Another unnamed person, designated the “president,” presides at the hearing. The president does not allow KSM to call any witnesses. The president does allow KSM to submit a written description of his alleged torture by CIA officials. But in this proceeding it does not matter whether KSM was actually tortured to confess because the confession he makes that day is supposedly voluntary. KSM’s written confession is essentially the one piece of unclassified evidence that the prosecution presents.

Thus, KSM’s confession does not actually come from KSM’s lips but is in the written statement read out loud by his “personal representative.” In that statement, KSM confesses to more than a dozen terrorist plots. The words of the confession are strangely bloodless; they sound as if they were written by a government lawyer. Perhaps they accurately reflect KSM’s admissions. It is common knowledge, however – recognized in the 9/11 Commission Report, for example – that KSM tends to exaggerate – maybe he is even fabricating some of his crimes. This reputation for fabrication does not matter in this proceeding, however, any more than does the possibility that the confession is the product of torture.

The president adjourns the proceeding announcing his (or her?) intention to decide whether KSM is an enemy combatant. Can anyone really be in suspense about that?

One can believe (as I do) that KSM is guilty of masterminding the 9/11 attacks while doubting (as I do) that these secret military tribunals achieve justice. The government’s trotting out the transcript of the hearing for a very likely guilty man has the air of a show trial. Except that it’s not a real trial. And the government has shown us very little. What it has shown us hardly inspires confidence.

KSM is comparatively lucky. At least he has gotten some process. Hundreds of detainees at Guantanamo have been imprisoned for as long as five years without any determination of whether they belong there. Astoundingly, government officials have admitted that many of the detainees probably do not belong there. Why do they remain there?

There are apparently two reasons. One is that, as Maj. Gen. Jay Hood, the commander at Guantanamo, said in January 2005, “[n]obody wants to be the one to sign the release papers.” The other is that the White House, in collusion with Congress, has tried to eliminate the detainees’ right to seek writs of habeas corpus. Habeas corpus gives people in prison the right to have a judge decide whether they belong there. It is a constitutional bulwark against arbitrary confinement. It threatens to become one more casualty in the war on terrorism.

And so the disclosure of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed’s confession last week seems to bring with it a confession of how badly our system of justice has suffered in this war.