Guantanamo Detainee Majid Khan's Plea Deal After nearly nine years in custody, first at a secret overseas prison and then at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp (a not-secret overseas prison), Majid Khan has struck a plea bargain with the United States government. He pleaded guilty to five war crimes, including helping Al Qaeda plot attacks from Pakistan, his home country, and swore he'd give the government his full cooperation, in part by providing testimony at military trials for other detainees. Mr. Khan also promised not to sue the United States for his treatment. It's not yet clear if he'll even be able to talk about it. In exchange, he will receive a sentence of no more than 19 years, not including the time he has already served. What's the takeaway? Mr. Khan, who has admitted to working for Khalid Sheik Mohammed after the September 11th attacks, is a high value detainee - and the administration will likely hold up the plea deal as a victory for the military tribunal system. At Guantanamo, the lucky prisoners get a choice between the purgatory of indefinite detention or pleading guilty. Naturally, there's a catch for those who go for the second option: At the conclusion of a detainee's sentence, the government reserves the right to hold him as an enemy combatant until the end of hostilities, which may well be never. (That's the case for Mr. Khan. His 19-year maximum is really 19-years-unless-we-don't-feel-like-it.) Those who favor the current procedure claim that it's the only way to have some semblance of justice while guaranteeing security. The prosecutors have tremendous leverage, and the government gets to keep a trump card in reserve. But I'm one of the hold-outs who still doesn't get why the Bush administration established, and why the Obama administration decided to retain, a parallel justice system for alleged terrorists - make that alleged Muslim terrorists. If Mr. Khan had been found guilty in a regular civilian trial, with old-fashioned adornments like a jury, he could have been sentenced to life in prison. I'm confident that the same prisons that house serial killers, rapists - and terrorists - could handle Mr. Khan. If there are politicians out there who think otherwise, they should take a tour of a maximum security facility. Ninety-five percent of criminal cases end with a plea bargain. Civilian prosecutors have enormous power to press whatever charges they want, forcing defendants to accept serious charges that are, comparatively, lenient. Defendants cooperate in exchange for a long sentence that is, comparatively, shorter than what the initial charges justified. While the back-and-forth between a prosecutor and a defense lawyer is called a "negotiation," it heavily favors the government - just like at Guantanamo. Moreover, the way we handle alleged terrorists further damages America's reputation. As the ACLU's Zachary Katznelson, who observed today's proceedings, put it "any plea deal and testimony must be seen in the context of Khan's years of secret, incommunicado detention and torture at the hands of the CIA, and the prospect of trial by an unfair military commissions system." This case is another reminder that the establishment of Guantanamo Bay, and the creation of these military tribunals, was an enormous and easily avoidable mistake.