KSM - Terrorist Tells All

Experts: Mohammed Arrest Slowed al-Qaida:

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."

... Experts agree the arrest was a major setback for bin Laden's terror network, and one from which the group has never quite recovered.

Khalid Sheik Mohammed has admitted involvement in most of the major Al Qaeda attacks on Western soil. Khalid Sheik Mohammed's testimony(PDF, his admissions starting on page 17) of his terrorist actions, includes "organizing, planning, followup and execution of the 9/11 Operation" and also "Cell for the production of Biological Weapons" (Anthrax) and "Dirty Bomb Operations on American Soil." The danger posed by KSM was huge when you consider multiple plots KSM was involved in after 2001, many that fortunately did not succeed, some that unfortunately did: Scoping out the NYSE stock exchange, Sears tower, and other U.S. cities; multiple plane attack attempts, including the Richard Reid shoe bombing; attacks in Bali, Thailand, Phillipines; supporting and financing attacks in Turkey, Britain, and elsewhere.

KSM is the man who murdered journalist Daniel Pearl by cutting off his head. We know why and how Danny Pearl was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan in 2002:

It was at this meeting that an idea cropped up in Omar Sheikh’s twisted mind. He would kidnap Pearl to pressure the US Government to change its policies on Guantanamo Bay.

... Then in May 2002 we arrested someone named Fazal Karim, a militant activist. When we interrogated him we discovered that he was involved in Pearl’s slaughter. He also told us that he knew where Pearl was buried.

He was asked how he knew. Chillingly, he said he knew because he had actually participated in the slaughter by holding one of Pearl’s legs. But he didn’t know the name of the person who had actually slit Pearl’s throat. All he could say is that this person was “Arab-looking”.

He led us to the small house in a neighbourhood in Karachi where Daniel Pearl had been held captive. He then took us to a plot of land near by and told us where he was buried. We exhumed the body and found it in ten badly decomposed pieces. Our doctors stitched the pieces back together as best as they could.

The man who may have actually killed Pearl or at least participated in his butchery, we eventually discovered, was none other than Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, al-Qaeda’s No 3. When we later arrested and interrogated him, he admitted his participation.

Yet strangely, many of the media reports are not focussed on the details of his confessions and what they tell us about Al Qaeda operations. Rather than focus on this, idiots like Rosie are offended by the label 'terrorist', and there are calls to investigate KSM's claims of mistreatment. To add to their other hyper-partisan and useless anti-admistration hearings,
Senators Urge Inquiry After Mohammed Alleges Abuse.

Why is the media and Democrats going out of their way to discount Khalid Sheik Mohammed's terrorist confessions? Maybe it's the Iraq connection: "Of particular interest is the revelation about Mohammed's involvement in the '93 bombing. It shows a linkage not only between the '93 WTC attack and 9/11, but also between Iraq and al-Qaida." It wasn't always this way - Gore in 1992 said the Bush administration was ignoring Saddam's terrorist ties.