Hey! My milk went bad last week way earlier than it should have. Now I know why! KSM was behind that, obviously.

Once again, bending over backward to accomodate a monster. Kevin, this is ridiculous.

though one assumes U.S. intelligence is bright enough to see through this.

Even so, so what? This admin uses what it can for whatever political advantage it can, not to promote the safety of this country.

Alternatively, given that they've been torturing him for five solid years now, if you asked him nicely he'd probably also admit to sinking the Maine.

I dunno -- it looks more to me like megalomania than selflessness. Difficult to tell just from the news reports, though.

I enjoyed Josh Marshall's take on aspects of this:

"BREAKING! 9/11 Mastermind who confessed to being mastermind after being captured like five years ago confesses again at Gitmo hearing and now the transcript is released by the Pentagon to get Gonzales off the front pages! BREAKING!"

I guess it would be kinda obvious to point out that Frequency Kenneth and his sockpuppets bend over forward to accommodate a monster, huh?

"Maybe, though one assumes U.S. intelligence is bright enough to see through this."

Seriously, Kev. What the heck made you type that nonsense after spending the last half decade describing just how pathetic the US intel system (and a good many people... er, appointees) has been. The only thing one can assume is that you can't make any assumptions about their competence.

Imaginary, I suspect they've conditioned him to only confess to Al-Queda acts listed on the wikipedia web page. He probably gets his left testicle zapped for anachronisms.

Oh come on Martin,

The guy was one of the top al Qaeda planners (or is he really some kind of Rovian plan?) and clearly played a role in their efforts, both successful and unsuccessful, to attack the US.

We already know this, and KSM's confession only marginally adds to whatever political advantage the administration already got from his capture. Except I suppose that it reminds us of the extent to which al Qaeda has been trying to attack the US and other western nations. But if reminding Americans that al Qaeda is trying to kill us in vast and horrible numbers is merely "a political advantage" for Bush, then this really shows us how badly this nation's political environment has fallen apart.

No matter how much you hate the president and feel his administration is corrupt, incompetent, etc. there are still evil men in the world seeking to do us tremendous harm. KSM is one of those men. This confession serves to confirm that, nothing more and nothing less.

Wasn't that KSM on the grassy knoll?

It could be KSM is also trying to fluff up his terrorist rep -- if knows he's screwed anyway, there's certainly nothing to lose.

Better to die a glorious martyr than a second-banana. Bush isn't the only one allowed to be obsessed with his legacy after all.

Shortstop:

Of course, the Gonzales/firings story was on the front page of the Post and the Times today. And I'm willing to bet it will continue to be front page news in the weeks to come, whereas this KSM story will be a front-page story today only. In other words, Josh's comments while wonderfully conspiratorial are, unsurprisingly, unlikely to be true.

Hacksaw,
I don't see how you can believe any confession issued under those kinds of circumstances.

We have admitted that he was tortured. He knows he will never be released from prison whether he confesses or not.

I'm sure he is guilty of some terrible things. His confession doesn't give us a clue what roll he played in any terrorist attacks.

Intel,Worked great untill 9/11 2001.Where was Bushco before 9/11.Oh never mind he and Cheney where splitting up Iraqi oil fields.

DR,

Where I will agree with you is that this confession in and off itself is no holy grail for determining what KSM did or did not do. He has already admitted his role in the major events on the list. And there is ample evidence outside of his own words to demonstrate his role (see The Looming Tower or any number of other books on al Qaeda and 9-11). Moreover, if you read the actual transcript, he makes the point for some of the activities on the list that he wasn't in charge of the attacks but played a role in planning them. I also think it is fair to question if he is taking the blame for everything for misdirection purposes. I'm quite sure we won't simply take his word for it.

All in all though, there isn't anything on the list KSM confessed to that would surprise anyone familiar with the literature on al Qaeda and KSM's position within it. It is remarkable only in that it is his words this time that indict him.

Perhaps he wants the death penalty instead of life at Guantanamo.

If W. Bush were interrogated the same way as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, we might find out the real reason for invading Iraq.

How is this going to play out with the "Loose Change" and "Truthout" whackjobs?

I think he's going to confess to the Lindbergh kidnapping next.

confessed to all this stuff just to avert suspicion from others:

You mean divert, not avert.

The validity of the confessions depends on the evidence corroborating all the descriptions of the ancillary details. His children are in the U.S., and for all the talk about how Muslims are sacrificing their children, that only applies to a few of them. I'd suspect that his deal includes good treatment for his children.

Hacksaw: In other words, Josh's comments while wonderfully conspiratorial are, unsurprisingly, unlikely to be true.

No one but you used the word "conspiracy." The descriptive phrase I would've chosen would be "another pathetic attempt to manage the news, executed in the fine Bush administration tradition of blind incompetence." In other words, you are once again confusing intent with result.

Did KSM confess to the killing of Jon Benet Ramsey as well? Inquiry minds want to know!

Shortstop at 12:22 got to Josh before I did. So yeah, what they said.

Hacksaw: there isn't anything on the list KSM confessed to that would surprise anyone familiar with the literature on al Qaeda and KSM's position within it. It is remarkable only in that it is his words this time that indict him.

After 5 years of duress, possibly including extreme duress, I can't believe any independent court would accept his confession as probative. Unless he confessed to details previously unknown, and those details are corroborated, that confession isn't worth anything.

Hacksaw,
Torturing prisoners (whether that includes sensory deprivation, waterboarding, or electric shock) for confessions provides you with the confession that you expect to get. You keep torturing them until you believe they are telling you the truth. How do you know they are telling the truth? Because it matches up with everything else you know.

That is why this confession is not trustworthy.

Uh, he claims to have killed Daniel Pearl with his own hands. If that's not a massive red flag to taking any of this seriously I don't know what is.

Here is my prediction:
1. In several days outside experts are going to start questioning some of these claims.

2. Reporters are going to find out that many of these confessions were obtained earlier.

3. People who formerly worked on this case will come forward saying the confessions were not considered reliable.

4. Aligations that the confessions were publicized over the objections of the professional staff will be made.

5. Questions about the timing of the news release will be raised.

6. The administration will deny everything.

Whatever.

Tomorrow's breaking news will be that some homeless men found with sterno and an old NYT frontpage with an article about al Qaeda were arrested for planning the bombing of several shopping malls across the US.

RED ALEEEEERT!!!11!

one assumes U.S. intelligence is bright enough to see through this

Why?

Fraud and torture are complementary. KSM's universal confession is a tribute to the effectiveness of torture and the greed of his "questioners." Just as Cheney and Bush cannot restrain their greed (need?) for more power and violence, KSM's custodians decided to go beyond a narrow coerced confession to one that includes everything but the kitchen sink.

Now we know who to blame for everything that has gone wrong. Whom will we blame for the next attack?

Two words: "Lindbergh baby"

I'm glad we tortured him. It got his confession out much more quickly. Looks like we stopped a ticking-time-bomb!

Huzzah for torture!

Shortstop,

It doesn't really matter how you or I characterize Josh's comments, the bottom line is his point was not true today (front pages stories in the Post and Times on Gonzales, including one Josh linked to) not is his point likely to be true in the future (in that the KSM story will almost certainly leave the front page before the Gonzales story does).

Matthew:

"Unless he confessed to details previously unknown, and those details are corroborated, that confession isn't worth anything." - Well they are worth something, in particular I think KSM's discussion of how al Qaeda views itself is extremely important for people to read and understand. But I actually agree with you in the sense that, after 5 years, his confession alone would not be enough to say he is in fact responsible for all or some of these things. However, there is ample other evidence to show he is.

DR - are you suggesting you believe KSM was not responsible for planning 9-11?

There is also the possibility he had confessed to stuff under torture, no use to start denying it now.

The whole torturing for politically motivated/timed public confessions instead of information used to be considered less admirable when it happened to white westerners in Saudi Arabia.

Come to think of it, the whole lice checking videotape underwear parade hanging video thing with Saddam was worse than what Saddams soldiers did to captured US soldiers on TV. Back then people suggested this was against the Geneva convention. How are the investigation into these things moving along anyway?

An ugly way to treat prisoners... and dangerous in a conflict which is two thirds pride.

Have they checked to see if KSM might have been the unknown culprit in the Jon Benet Ramsey case? I'll bet he is on a confessional roll -- and they might be able to close that one too.

Did KSM admit to all those unpaid Boston parking tickets?

It doesn't really matter how you or I characterize Josh's comments, the bottom line is his point was not true today (front pages stories in the Post and Times on Gonzales, including one Josh linked to)

Good lawd, Hack. Today's dead tree copies of the NYT and WaPo were put to bed before the Pentagon released the transcripts. Check out tommorrow's dead tree editions, or the current online versions of NYT and WaPo, and you will find that KSM is the top story.

He was tortured. Of course he's gonna confess to everything. I'm shocked Jimmy Hoffa's not on the list.

KSM is quoted as saying:

I was responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z

"A to Z"? Isn't it interesting how middle easterners love to use idiomatic American English whenever they are quoted in the press?

How long has this guy been in custody?

What assurances do we have that his "confessions" aren't the result of torture?

Do these "confessions" serve the interests of his captors?

Count me skeptical that any of these "confessions" are connected to reality.

I'm Sparticus!

I guess it would be kinda obvious to point out that Frequency Kenneth and his sockpuppets bend over forward to accommodate a monster, huh? Posted by: shortstop

Shouldn't monster be in quotations?

Adam at 12:49 PM has this story and the future story nailed down.

Sorry Disputo, but the story is on the front page of the Post and Times' print editions today.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/print/asectionfrontimage.html

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/todayspaper/index.html

asdf - go ask Jessica Lynch or Shoshana Johnson how well they were treated by Iraqi soldiers.

"...though one assumes U.S. intelligence is bright enough to see through this"

Bright enough is one thing, intellectually honest enough is another matter.

asdf - go ask Jessica Lynch or Shoshana Johnson how well they were treated by Iraqi soldiers.
Posted by: Hacksaw on March 15, 2007 at 1:34 PM | PERMALINK

Even MORE importantly, ask Jessica Lynch or Shoshana Johnson how well they were treated by the VA system.

It's not likely to work, but it might explain why he decided to so fully take the rap for everything under the sun.

I don't know, Kevin. Torture might explain that, too. It's not unheard of. For instance, I hear KSM has also confessed to being an enemy of the people; a saboteur and wrecker; a Trotskyite, Zinovievite, and Bukharinite; that he plotted to shoot Lenin in 1919; and that he kept a mistress whose third cousin was a banker for Tsar.

No doubt the smarter members of the intel community do realize the ruse. Alas, I have a feeling that won't keep the President's party and its dead-enders from celebrating all the charges as true, and trumpeting KSM's confession as a crowning achievement for the administration and all its methods.

HACKSAW: It doesn't really matter how you or I characterize Josh's comments, the bottom line is his point was not true today (front pages stories in the Post and Times on Gonzales, including one Josh linked to) not is his point likely to be true in the future (in that the KSM story will almost certainly leave the front page before the Gonzales story does).

Give me 2 years in a secret CIA prison I could get you to confess to this too Kevin. Or to being a witch.

KSM is probably a bad guy. He's probably a terrorist. However, this confession is in no way evidence that he committed any of these acts.

Torture is terrible at producing the truth, but it's fantastic if you want a confession.

Sorry Disputo, but the story is on the front page of the Post and Times' print editions today

Those must be the metro area versions. In any case, it invalidates your own point.

Do these "confessions" serve the interests of his captors?

Count me skeptical that any of these "confessions" are connected to reality. Posted by: Carl Nyberg

Both the CIA and the 9/11 Commission dismissed this guy as unreliable if not delusional. One of those is probably the case or, by willingly taking the blame for every crime by a "foreign agent" since the Lindbergh baby was kidnapped (a crime supposedly committed by a German immigrant - and yet 'ol Lucky Lindy was pro-Nazi), he helps muddy the water or complicate on-going investigations into other possible al Qaeda operatives who may have been part of the planning and still in the U.S. or at large elsewhere.

Btw, it should be noted that while releasing KSM's "confession", the Pentagon refuses to release other statements that KSM has made at trial, like, eg, the torture he went through.

helps muddy the water or complicate on-going investigations into other possible al Qaeda operatives who may have been part of the planning and still in the U.S. or at large elsewhere.

The Bush torture regime has probably made it impossible to find out the truth about 9/11 and other attacks. Why would they do that?

I lost faith in his confession when he claimed credit for shooting J.R.

...the Pentagon refuses to release other statements that KSM has made at trial, like, eg, the torture he went through.
Posted by: Disputo on March 15, 2007 at 2:04 PM | PERMALINK

Yeah. Here's the transcript:

KSM: Ahhhhhhh! My fingernails! Ahhhhh! My testicles! Please for the love of Allah stoooop! I'll tell you anything!! Ahhhh!

My God Brojo you've nailed it - it was Cheney all along.

Disputo:

Not sure how it invalidates my point. Josh asserted that this information came to light in order to bump Gonzales off the front page. I noted that, given the information in the confession is not really new it was unlikely to knock Gonzales off the front page, and then I went and looked and found that it had not, in fact, knocked Gonzales off the front page.

JeffII:

So are you also claiming that KSM was not the planner for 9-11?

Kevin:Maybe, though one assumes U.S. intelligence is bright enough to see through this.

Maybe the analysts, but they saw through Curveball, too. It's their bosses, the politicians, who will be trumpeting this as a great victory in the GWOT.

KSM also confessed to being the investment banker for Fritz Thyssen, the german industrialist who supported Hitler and helped build the Nazi war machine in the 1930s.

Oops, no, that was actually Prescott Bush.

JeffII:

"Both the CIA and the 9/11 Commission dismissed this guy as unreliable if not delusional."

I guess you skipped this part of the 9-11 commission report:

"No one exemplifies the model of the terrorist entrepreneur more clearly than Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks." (Chapter 5 of the report).

HACKSAW: So are you also claiming that KSM was not the planner for 9-11?

I hoping he will confess to my failure to pay taxes.

Rather than name his own CIA Director, Bush retained George Tenet, who had been chosen by Bill Clinton. Amazingly, Andrew Tobias considers the retention of Clinton's appointee to be evidence that Bush was politicizing the CIA. In fact, it's evidence of the opposite.
Posted by: ex-liberal on March 15, 2007 at 2:22 PM | PERMALINK

No - that's evidence that Tenet was a TOOL. He had a pretty crappy track-record under Clinton by the way.
- Chinese Embassy in Bosnia
- Aspirin Factory in Sudan

The fact that Bush did NOT fire Tenet just proves that whole "left-wing cabal in the CIA" claim to be utter crap.

Jayarbee,

I certainly agree that we should not accept that KSM is responsible for any of these things based on his word alone. But there is ample external evidence that makes his role in Bojinka, 9-11, Danny Pearl's murder, and other things on the list pretty damned clear.

"Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has confessed to everything."

Yes he did. FOUR years ago.

KSM was captured March 1, 2003. The 9-11 commission completed its report by September 20, 2004. The chapters pertaining to KSM (Ch.5/7) "rel[ied] heavily on information obtained from captured al Qaeda members" including KSM. The report details admissions by KSM that he "masterminded": a) the WTC bombing in 1993; b) Operation Bojinka in 1994; c) the conception in 1995 and subsequent planning, execution of 9/11 from 1998 through 2001.

The commission did not deem KSM "unreliable" despite lack of direct access to detainees.

In other words, yesterday's "revelation" was nothing more than the regurgitated remains of "confessions" which the 9-11 commission digested 3 yrs. ago.

It does affirm, however, that this administration maintains effective wag control over media lapdogs willing to print anything the administration deems essential, i.e., distracting the U.S. electorate from Purgegate.

corr. KSM was [arrested] March 1, 2003 [in Rawalpindi, Pakistan].

KSM may or may not be guilty of any or all of the things he's confessed to, but if I'd been detained and tortured for years, I'd probably confess to everything he has confessed to, too. I'd probably confess to the Kennedy assassinaton and involvement in the Gunpowder Plot, too.

Bite me:

"It does affirm, however, that this administration maintains effective wag control over media lapdogs willing to print anything the administration deems essential, i.e., distracting the U.S. electorate from Purgegate."

And yet the Senate Judiciary Committee voting to authorize subpoenas to bring Justice Department officials before it is prominently features on every major news website right now.

Wanna bet whether the Gonzalez story or the KSM story is more featured in the print papers tomorrow morning? On the talk shows Sunday?

"And yet the Senate Judiciary Committee voting to authorize subpoenas to bring Justice Department officials before it is prominently features on every major news website right now."

Good to hear. Though it hardly excuses media pooches who barked up the non-story of KSM's 4-yr old "confession."

ksm also admitted to commenting on the political animal blog under the names "al" "american hawk" and "egbert"

KSM has been tortured for years. His confessions are worthless. He's done some nasty stuff, but the words they beat out of him are meaningless.

JeffII:

So are you also claiming that KSM was not the planner for 9-11? Posted by: Hacksaw

I stand corrected. I was confusing KSM with Abu Zubaydah.

The commission avoided the more egregious mistake of categorical dismissal concerning information which may have been obtained through torture. By its own admission, the commission attempted to corroborate and compare problematic testimony using documentary and/or other cross-referenced interrogatory evidence.

The commission:

We have nonetheless decided to include information from captured 9/11 conspirators and al Qaeda members in our report. We have evaluated their statements carefully and have attempted to corroborate them with documents and statements of others. In this report, we indicate where such statements provide the foundation for our narrative.

Nearly everything else he's confessed to may well be tainted, but KSM claimed to be the main planner of 9/11 nearly a year before he was arrested.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,906911,00.html

So that's who left the toilet seat up last week.

HACKSAW: I certainly agree that we should not accept that KSM is responsible for any of these things based on his word alone.

Woke up this morning to hear that Khalid Sheikh Muhammed (a guy in custody in Gitmo Military Prison) had confessed to a laundry list of terrorist attacks and plots. I read the transcript from the tribunal and he doesnt actually confess to anything. Some US Military guy reads off a list of allegations and he responds in poor English, "I was not responsible, but share" by which he means he didn't do any of the things listed but 'shares' in the struggle. The laundry list of accusations includes ploting to bomb a building in Seattle that doesn't exist, plotting to bomb Big Ben, and plotting to bomb the Panama Canal (from the movie TEAM AMERICA). They also accuse him of being reponsible for the bombing of a nightclub in Bali, Indonesia. Depite the fact that members of Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian militant organization, were convicted for the bombings. Several members of that group were sent to jail and three people were executed for the crime. Oh, and best of all, every time Khalid Sheikh Muhammed starts to bring up the fact that he was tortured and was 'confessing' to things he didn't do... [REDACTED]. What a joke.

I lost faith in his confession when he claimed credit for shooting J.R.

And killing Laura Palmer.

Hacksaw, you're really missing the point. Regardless of KSH's guilt in anything the fact that the administration released three year old confessions is proof that they attempted to distract the public.

Whether or not they are or will be successful has no bearing on their attempt to do so.

But I think you already realize that and are just being willfully ignorant.

"I lost faith in his confession when he claimed credit for shooting J.R."

And killing Laura Palmer.

Not to mention that he was Emmanuel Goldstein's ghostwriter while working as an agent for Freedonia.

I heard that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has also confessed to the Great Train Robbery, The Thomas Crown affair and the Italian Job,
but these were all redacted from his statement...

An overeager administration intent on burying the (most recent) illegal activities of the justice department hard at work.

He's also now confessed to personally beheading Daniel Pearl with his own two hands, and personally ordering Richard Reid to wear those exploding shoes. He hasn't yet confessed to the murder of Abraham Lincoln, but it's only a matter of time. So much for the reliability of torture as an interrogation tool.

Ooh, ooh. I bet he was the one that fired the United States Attorneys too.

For performance reasons of course.

I've had *three* car stereos taken in the past few years. Can they *please* ask him about those? Ask him nicely, if you know what I mean (wink, wink).

http://otherstuffkaliddid.blogspot.com/

Please pass this email along to as many other people as you can. It is up to all Americans to discover the “truth� ...

WWKSMD ???

Big surprise - KSM exaggerated his claims. Funny what torture will make people say. Once again, even a monster like this dirty T-shirted monster does NOT deserve torture.

When the United States government behaves like barbarians, how can we claim to be “morally superior� to anyone?

"I shot the deputy. But I did not shoot the sheriff."

I think he shot the Sheriff, too.

OJ can finally stop searching for the real killer.

I was on board until that part about him being the father of Anna Nicole's baby.

After four years in CIA custody, wouldn't be easier to list what he didn't confess to?

He's responsible for the death of Princess Di as well! He admits to having posed as Michael Jackson's plastic surgeon, and did that terrible excuse for a nose job! He killed Anna Nichole Smith! He put the nail in my left rear tire and made me late to the dentist!

The problem with confessions given after torture is that nobody can believe them. The purpose of torture is not to extract the truth, but to build a volunteer scapegoat for a kangaroo court (huh, goats and kangaroos. *ahem*)

At least they didn't have to arrest Michael Jackson again for a suitable mass distraction.

The Mandarin has the story: KSM has confessed to killing Buckwheat. http://themandarin.blogspot.com/2007/03/khalid-sheikh-mohammed-i-shot-buckwheat.html

'Buckwheat' had actually changed his name a few years ago; upon conversion to Islam (raised baptist) he adopted the name Kareema and was henceforth known as

Kareema Wheat

BREAKING!

KSM Confesses Under Torture To Firing Eight Federal Prosecutors

If you torture someone long enough they’ll “confess” to having planned Napolean’s invasion of Russia. This is soon before this individual is to have not an open trial but a closed military tribunal. Funny how this supposed “confession” news is based upon not something videotaped and shown on the “news” but a written transcript from the DoD. The same DoD that claimed Pat Tillman was cut down while charging up a hill in the teeth of Taliban machine-gun fire when he was behind a boulder and shot by friendly fire from trigger-happy Army Rangers. The same DoD that every time a helicopter gets shot down in Iraq or Afghanistan they always say it made an “emergency landing” after suffering “mechanical problems”. (The same DoD that still claims Agent Orange and depleted uranium aren’t harmful). Anyone who takes them at their word has rocks in their head.