Mints won’t sweeten terrorists

I read in your June 15 issue about how Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, was “abused.” Oh, dear! I note that pretty much every murderer that authorities in the U.S. have ever encountered denied that they did it; they know it is wrong and think of all sorts of excuses to show how they didn’t do it. The very foundations of our criminal justice system were designed to deal with this type of individual.

Dealing with foreign nationals who are actually proud that they killed thousands of Americans and would like to kill millions more with nukes is something new. Perhaps the ACLU has a point with its lawsuit; we wouldn’t want Khalid wetting himself any more when he is under stress.

Has the CIA considered simply approaching Khalid and asking him, “Pretty please, would you mind not killing millions of Americans?”

Perhaps, the CIA is simply blind to the benefits of leaving an after-dinner mint on Khalid’s pillow at night; you never know unless you try. They could suddenly withhold the mints and say, “No more mints until you tell us the names of others actively working to kill thousands of Americans.”

Greg Lloyd

Spokane Valley