The alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attack, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was captured in Pakistan in 2003, subsequently held in isolation and up for public condemnation while simultaneously being water-boarded and interrogated until finally confessing his complicity in the attack and plotting more.

Following his arrest he was held at a CIA secret prison, where he was subjected to harsh interrogation techniques and a practice known as waterboarding, that simulates drowning, until he was moved to Guantanamo Bay two years ago.

The US military says that as well as admitting involvement in the 11 September 2001 attacks on Washington and New York, he has confessed to being involved in more than 30 terrorist plots around the world, including plans to attack London's Big Ben and Canary Wharf.

Khalid and his fellow cohorts are to finally get their day in court, but that court is a military tribunal. Being held specifically in the legal limbo-land status as "enemy combatants" they go to trial at distinct disadvantage.

The five are among 19 prisoners due to face the military tribunals, which were set up in the wake of 9/11 to try non-American prisoners who have been classed as "enemy combatants" by the White House and therefore deemed to not be entitled to the legal rights normally afforded to prisoners.

I can only guess at the depth of grief suffered by those families who lost loved ones on 9/11. I know that I sat crying in front of my television as the events of that fateful day unfolded and I could not hug and hold my own family close enough as we all watched and cried in horror.

Dear God, I hope they have the men responsible. Suffer them a thousand deaths. Yes, I want revenge.

But, I...just...don't...know, as much as I want to believe it is true. No other White House or administration in my 60 years has ever betrayed or dishonored the sacrifice of its citizens and soldiers by such exploitation for political gain.

From turning the 9/11 attack into a trumped up excuse to invade Iraq, lying about the circumstances of one Jessica Lynch, lying to the family of Pat Tillman for political gain, banning photographers from Dover Airbase to avoid visual record of returning flag-draped coffins, using the tragedy of Katrina as just another political photo-op and sinking the entire country under a load of debt that will plague generations for their own temporary gains.

Have they no shame? No, I think not. And I put nothing past them.

So I am left to wonder if as US air force Brigadier General Tom Hartmann is quoted by the Associated Press according to BBC:

"In the course of trial they'll have opportunity to present their case, any way they want to present it, subject to rules and procedures," he said. "That's a great freedom and a great protection we are providing to them. We think... it is the American way."

I'm so glad the general feels that way and I'm sure he was all gung-ho America and more than willing to look the other way and hold off trial for the detainees until given the go-ahead this week by the White House.

I wonder if he sees the irony or wondered even, why the trial could not have begun even six months ago? Why did getting to this point, this trial of alleged perpetrators for a crime committed seven years ago and alleged masterminds in captivity for the last four years finally reach "point of action" two days after the start of a general election race for presidency of the U.S.?

Call me a cynic... but I think it's politics as usual from the Bush White House.