Richard Reid, the notorious “shoe bomber,” was charged with eight criminal counts related to his acts of terrorism including, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, attempted homicide, placing an explosive device on an aircraft, attempted murder, interference with flight crew members and attendants, attempted destruction of an aircraft, using a destructive device during and in relation to a crime of violence and attempted wrecking of a mass transportation vehicle. Reid pled guilty to all eight counts on October 4, 2002.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the September 11 attacks, called himself a “jackal” and was quoted by American interrogators as saying that “the language of war is victims.” On Dec. 8, 2008, Mohammed, along with four co-defendants, sent a note to a military judge at Guantánamo asking to confess and to plead guilty.

Now suppose you are a young Afghani born Muslim who grew up in Pakistan but moved with your parents to the States to attend high school in New York City. Later, you decide to join Al-Qaida and seek revenge against the U.S. because of what the U.S. military is doing to civilians in Afghanistan. You receive weapons training at a camp in Pakistan where you learn about explosives and how to detonate a bomb. When you return to the U.S., you build a powerful explosive while living in Denver and then drive to New York City where you plan a martyrdom operation to detonate the bomb in the subway system. However, good police work eventually results in your arrest and charges that include conspiracies to use weapons of mass destruction and to commit murder in a foreign country, and to provide material support for a terrorist organization. You are twenty-five years old and if convicted of the charges, you probably will spend the rest of your life in prison. How do you plead?

Well, if you are Najibullah Zazi, you plead guilty in U.S. District Court, but only because your mother could face criminal immigration charges. Huh???

If he really were a committed terrorist who believed in martyrdom and a cause like Reid or Mohammed, why wouldn’t he plead guilty? Maybe, like Oklahoma City bomber and terrorist Timothy McVeigh, who instructed his lawyers to use a necessity defense when he was charged with eleven federal offenses and faced the death penalty, Zazi only believed in the act and not the cause.

With wealthy parents and lawyers swarming to represent him, it seems unlikely that 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the “underpants bomber,” will remain committed to his cause and plead guilty. But why should taxpayers have to pay for the costly trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his four co-defendants when they have asked to plead guilty to all the charges?