Muhammed: It's All Me, Me, Me (Updated)

The star detainee in Gitmo, Khalid Shaik Muhammed, confessed to everything short of taking the kitchen sink:

Khalid Shaikh Muhammed, long said to be the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, confessed to them at a military hearing held in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, on Saturday, according to a transcript released by the Pentagon yesterday. He also acknowledged full or partial responsibility for more than 30 other terror attacks or plots.

Though American officials had linked Mr. Muhammed to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and to several others, his confession was the first time he spelled out in his own words a panoply of global terror activities, ranging from plans to bomb landmarks in New York City and London to assassination plots against former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and Pope John Paul II. Some of the plots he claimed to plan, including the attempt on Mr. Carter, had not previously been publicly disclosed.

Oh, and add the beheading of Daniel Pearl to all those.

Muhammed insists his confession wasn't induced by torture. Sure.

He's likely guilty as sin, but the problem with torture aside from being morally reprehensible is that it makes separating the truth from the b.s. difficult since a guy being tortured will likely tell you anything you want to, you know, stop the pain.

My first thought: this guy is nuts. Not hard to believe if you've been held and tortured in Gitmo for four years.

Grandstanding is also a possible motive. Heck, if you're gonna go down as the most hated architect of 9/11, why not go down for a host of other high profile crimes? Some government officials think so, too.

Which raises the question, as Heather Hurlburt astutely thought, why is the Bush administration helping him brag, especially since we'll never know the full story via trial in open court? And if this guy is such a prolific terrorist, why did it take so long to take him into custody?

It's also possible Muhammed is taking responsibility for all these crimes and plots to call attention to himself and away from the rest of his posse.

"Shakespeare's Sister" wonders if this is another "look, a wahbbit" moment.

Taylor Marsh also asks, are we supposed to breathe a sigh of relief now and thank Bush that 9/11 is finally avenged? Are we supposed to stop hunting Osama bin Laden down now? If we haven't stopped already, that is.

Update:

Here' s a telling tibit: Glenn Greenwald points to comments on Little Green Putzballs expressing regret that Muhammed didn't succeed in at least one plot, that of assassinating President Carter. This is the same hysterical brigade who expressed outrage over those who regretted the Afghanistan bombing missing Dick Cheney, an outrage that was dutifully picked up by the so-called liberal media.

Will the same media pick up this one? Howsaboutit, Howie Kurtz?



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