Three things I noticed about KSM's confession...

[Sir Jeffrey]

For this discussion, I will assume that the confession is true (ignoring all the obvious red flags). I have read the official transcript and I am posting a summary from the Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida/story/0,,2034383,00.html

SNIP

What Mohammed told the tribunal:

· I was member of al-Qaida council

· I was director for planning and execution of 9/11, fr om A to Z

· I was commander for foreign ops

· I was directly in charge ... of cell for biological weapons, and follow-up on dirty bomb ops on American soil

· I was responsible for shoe bomber operation to down two US planes

· I was responsible for Bali bombing

· I was responsible for second wave attacks after 9/11: California; Chicago; Washington; Empire State, NY

· I was responsible for operations to destroy American vessels in the Hormuz, Gibraltar, and Singapore

· I was responsible for planning operation to destroy Panama canal

· I was responsible for planning assassination of ex-US presidents, including Carter and Clinton

· I was responsible for planning operation to destroy Heathrow, Canary Wharf and Big Ben

· I shared responsibility for assassination attempt on John Paul II in Philippines

· I was responsible for operation to assassinate President Musharraf

END

Three things jumped out at me about this:

1. No mention of any attempt to assassinate Bush.

2. No mention of the Anthrax attacks of late 2001.

3. No mention of the ISI's involvement in financing.

Anything else jump out at YOU about this confession?

[no_hypocrisy]

1. What jumped out at me was the breadth of the "confession" like

it was a code of some kind to hint that it was coerced and not a voluntary admission of guilt.

[acmavm]

2. My goodness, he was certainly a busy boy. Did he indicate

where he buried Hoffa by any chance?

[sammythecat]

20. Ha! That was my first thought too

:rofl:

Quite a long list!

[Skidmore]

3. There was an FBI or CIA somebody on NPR about half an hour ago

saying that he strongly suspects that the confession was not wholly the truth, citing some of the reasons stated in these posts. I don't know his name because the interview was already in progress when I turned the car radio on.

[Sir Jeffrey]

4. Do you remember which program it was by any chance?

[Skidmore]

6. Might have been towards the end of Morning Edition. I'm not sure

since they've recently changed their lineup locally. It couldn't have been The Exchange because it has a male host. The interviewer was a female.

[Sir Jeffrey]

8. Thanks...I'll try to find the podcast nt

[Skidmore]

17. Try this.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8922950

[Sir Jeffrey]

18. Thank you...

I couldn't find the podcast yet but this is better.

On edit: The gentlemen being interviewed here, Jack Cloonan, was the FBI guy interviewed by Michael Moore in F-911

[Skidmore]

23. Interesting footnote.

I didn't catch the whole interview. My first thought early this morning when I heard the initial story was how on reliable the confession could it be since you just know he was tortured. This Cloonan guy said that KSM was renditioned out.

[ck4829]

5. No anthrax, good catch. K&R

[MorningGlow]

7. Yeah

When exactly Osama handed over the reins, since he supposedly said HE was in charge of the whole thing. Whatever happened to that guy...hm...

[mmonk]

9. They aren't covering all their bases, are they?

[Sir Jeffrey]

11. Bingo!

So now the question hinges on a crucial fact:

Is KSM really responsible for everything listed, or not?

If he is, then we have our answers regarding my three points.

If he is not, then he is a patsy to some degree. A patsy suggests (does NOT necessarily prove) a cover-up. A patsy could also suggest political scapegoating.

[Faryn Balyncd]

10. What is "the ISI"?

[Sir Jeffrey]

12. Here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter-Services_Intelligence

[AllegroRondo]

13. I'm wondering if he's taking the fall for others

He already knows he's probably going to get the death penalty anyway. So why not claim to be responsible for just about everything else al-Quaida may have been involved in? It may make our intelligence people not look as hard for the real leaders.

[Sir Jeffrey]

14. I considered this...

but ruled it out. He has no reason to trust that the US authorities will rely on his words. He also has no reason to trust that the US authorities would strike a deal with him and still uphold their end of the bargain.

The guy has been tortured for years by the US and their proxies.

[AllegroRondo]

19. I figured that after a certain point

he would just say "screw all this" and give the US as much bogus and half-false information as he could think of, just to keep our intelligence agencies tied up for years checking it all out. He's not looking for a deal, he already knows hes getting a death sentance.

[Sir Jeffrey]

21. Your argument relies on a pretty big assumption...

that the US doesn't already know everything about KSM, his actions, involvement with 9-11, etc.

I am not saying you're wrong. I am saying that I think the evidence is there, from public and leaked sources, that leads me to conclude the US would know what was true and was BS.

[kestrel91316]

15. Well, I'd say the MISSION has definitely been ACCOMPLISHED.

We can pull out of Afghanistan and Iraq now, right? Since we have obviously won the WARONTERRA by nailing this guy?

[Sir Jeffrey]

16. No!

The war must go on forever...and ever...and ever...and ever...

[tanyev]

24. We got him before we even invaded Iraq.

As the result of a CIA operation in Pakistan. I'm not seeing that factoid pushed very hard in any of the coverage.

[ripple]

22. The timing of the Pentagon release raised my eyebrows

This will certainly divert press attention from the Gonzales/DOJ/WH scandal for a while.

What better way to shift the attention away from a corruption scandal that goes all the way to the WH, than to remind people of 9/11 and the need to protect us from the world's "evil-doers". They're betting that once again, fear will trump democracy. In light of the events of the past six years, it's probably a pretty safe bet.