Bin Laden's Son-In-Law's Trial Is America at Its Best

Jury selection began yesterday in the trial of Osama bin Laden's son-in-law, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, and if you looked out the courthouse window, you could see Freedom Tower, which has risen in place of the World Trade Center. That's because Abu Ghaith is being tried in a civilian court in New York, and that's a beautiful thing, writes Michael Daly at the Daily Beast. "The real tower of freedom that stands in downtown Manhattan is the system of justice that has finally recovered itself."

When the Obama administration attempted to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed this way, fear-mongers pounced. "All of Manhattan will have to shut down for months! How can we protect ourselves with only thousands of cops?" But yesterday, Abu Ghaith had to listen as juror after juror came forward proclaiming that they would strive to be fair in judging a man who, after 9/11, called for the deaths of thousands more people. "Here was the opposite of fanaticism, voices of simple justice that would make the ravings of an al-Qaeda fanatic sound like exactly that." Click for the full column.