Little in the just released confession of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the presumed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, is new. The U.S. government long ago cataloged those alleged crimes based on extensive interrogations of Mohammed and other prisoners held in the CIA's controversial and now liquidated overseas prisons. But the transcripts of Mohammed's hearing — part of proceedings that began last Friday at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — are the first time the U.S. government has made publicly available his personal description of a stunning range of terrorist plots he claims to have had a hand in. These include both the 1993 and 2001 assaults on the World Trade Center, as well as the beheading of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Mohammed boasts he had complete or partial participation in 29 terror plots, some of which were never carried out.
At a time when the Bush Administration is facing stiff criticism in a variety of domestic scandals as well as for its conduct of the Iraq war, Mohammed's confession has quickly become a focus of cable TV and other media coverage, a reminder of America's ongoing battle against international terrorism. But the attention focused on Mohammed, thought to be al-Qaeda's third-ranking leader, also underscores the fact that the terrorist organization's chief, Osama bin Laden, and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, remain at large at a time when their former Taliban protectors in Afghanistan are resurgent.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1599423,00.html
And what about Mullah Omar? I understand that KSM also has taken credit for the Cole bombing, the Bali Bombing, and a myriad of other bombings, murders, and a myriad of failed attempts.
Mohammed portrayed himself as Al Qaeda's most ambitious operational planner in a confession to a U.S. military tribunal that said he planned and supported a series of terrorist attacks including a 2002 shooting on an island off Kuwait that killed a U.S. Marine, according to an account released by the Pentagon.
He listed for the Guantanamo tribunal 28 attacks he claimed to have directly planned or carried out, and another three he supported, including trying to kill Pope John Paul II, President Clinton and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.He also said he planned the 2002 bombing of a Kenya beach resort frequented by Israelis, the failed missile attack on an Israeli passenger jet after it took off from Mombasa, Kenya, and the bombing of a nightclub in Bali, Indonesia that killed more than 200.
Other plots he said he was responsible for included planned attacks against the Sears Tower in Chicago, the Empire State Building and New York Stock Exchange in New York City, the Panama Canal, and Big Ben and Heathrow Airport in London — none of which happened. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,258907,00.html
We are being handed KSM at a time where it is very benificial time to take the increasing heat off Bush and his misadministration. we are being led to believe that this guy alomst single handedly took on the entire western world and is responsible for most of the death and destriction we have been dealing with.not only does this take the heat of Bush but KSM's misadmission would take the pressure off whoever is out there that really did all this. I hope we ware not stipid enough to let this happen. It coculd be true but I wouldn't believe it for a minute. All of a sudden this guy seems to be the Holy Grail of Al Qaeda and again only for Bush's political games. As I said, what happpened to Bin Laden, Zawahiri, Mullah Omar, and the rest of them? They seem to have dropped off the map?
James Joiner
Gardner, Ma
www.anaveragepatriot.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Excellent point, AAP, and well written. I, like you, hope people don't accept his claims whole cloth.
Post a Comment