Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's capture four years ago didn't shut down al-Qaida or bring the Americans to Osama bin Laden. But if his mega-confession is to be believed, his arrest was a crushing blow to bin Laden's plans for even more deadly attacks in the wake of 9/11. His expertise was never replaced and his absence has contributed to the group's transition from a fear-inspiring attack force to a hate-filled voice on the Internet, urging others to wage terror against the West."In terms of competence for managing, planning and executing terrorist attacks, KSM was the best in al-Qaida," said Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert and author of a book on al-Qaida. "That's why Osama bin Laden and other important al-Qaida leaders entrusted him with so many operations."
In his testimony to a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, released in redacted form by the Pentagon on Wednesday, Mohammed claimed involvement in 31 attacks and plots. Some are almost surely true.
Wow. There's a positive statement. Some are almost surely true. Meaning, I guess, that most are probably false?
He was the mastermind of the 9/11 jetliner attacks and, in their wake, certified his bloodthirst by personally beheading Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl — bragging about it on the Internet then and in the testimony transcript of last Saturday. "I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan," he said. "For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head."
His operations ranged from his admitted involvement in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, as well as a failed scheme known as Bojinka to bring down 12 Western airliners in Asia — claims that are well documented.
He "sang" to interrogators almost from the start, after his March 2003 arrest at a house outside the Pakistani capital. Much of the information in the 26 pages of released testimony has been long known.
But even if his self-proclaimed status is somewhat exaggerated, he "gave the Americans lots of information about what kind of ideas al-Qaida had, and how they put their plots together," said Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at the Swedish National Defense College. "Mohammed's information gives us a glimpse into the group's imagination. On an operational level, I don't think they have ever been able to replace his experience," he said.
Experts agree the arrest was a major setback for bin Laden's terror network, and one from which the group has never quite recovered.
Which experts? Un-named sources-type experts? The author? The editor?
| 'Experts', man, 'experts'. |
I chose to not edit the most gratuitous slam:
One thing his arrest didn't accomplish was the arrest of bin Laden or his top deputy, al-Zawahri.
No, and it didn't help with the death of Zarko-boy, either.
Pakistani intelligence agents say Mohammed was carrying a letter from bin Laden at the time of his arrest, but there is no evidence he knew bin Laden's exact whereabouts.
Mohammed's knowledge now is dated. And clouding the picture further is the view, widely held especially in the Islamic world, that his confessions are not entirely credible — either coerced by American captors or exaggerated by Mohammed himself, in the hope of carving out a place in the pantheon of terror.
| Oh. Well. Golly. Guess we just have to release him, don't we? |