Khalid The Confessor

What can I say that hasn't already been said today about the remarkable confessions of Khalid Sheik Mohammed?

Not a lot - but I can do a round-up of those who echo what many of us are thinking.

The Guardian has a handy partial synopsis of the one-man terrorist spree's confession:

What Mr 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

And also notes why so many (and not just on the Left) are sceptical:

Mr Mohammed was arrested in Rawalpindi in March 2003 and detained and interrogated by both the FBI and CIA in secret locations.

He is understood to have gone through torture, including "waterboarding", when the suspect being interrogated is strapped to a board and placed underwater. According to the New York Times, the use of harsh techniques was approved in his case by the justice department and the CIA.

Mr Mohammed and the 13 other suspects were moved to Guantánamo last September.

This is, in a nutshell, what is wrong with the whole system of illegal renditions, secret prisons and interrogation by torture that the Bush administration has pushed as its most effective "police" strategy in the War On Terror. It automatically removes all credibility from any evidence and even from confessions.

The Guardian's news blog notes James Joyner's opinion:

The whole process - notably Mohammad's long list of confessions - has created perhaps understandable scepticism, with the Outside The Beltway blog noting acidly:

"He apparently stopped short of claiming credit for killing the czar and his ministers, and shooting either the sheriff or his deputy."

It adds:

"The story is creating a major blogstorm, and is obviously news. Still, I'm not sure what to make of it. He has been in American custody nearly four years, without access to an attorney, and claims to have been subjected to torture. I'm just not sure how seriously to take his claim of responsibility for the 9/11 attack, let alone for all the other crimes. That he's a liar is a given; that he's insane, a distinct possibility."

The Road to Surfdom, based in key US ally Australia, takes a similar line:
"It wasn't in the article, but I reckon he kicked his dog too, and stole my milk money."

Noah Shachtman notes that there's even more Khalid has confessed to, including everything from "attempting to destroy an American oil company in Sumatra owned by...Henry Kissinger" to to "launching a Russian surface-to-air missile at an El Al airliner leaving Mombasa" and says "to me, it sounds like a man taking on as many bodies as he can, so the rest of his group can go free."

The Talking Dog suggests that the entire confession is a script given to Khalid and that it's main purpose is to distract from the Bush administration's many troubles.

Mahablog agrees, writing:

I don’t have much to say about the confessions of Khalid Sheik Mohammed that others haven’t already said; see, for example, Kevin Hayden and Taylor Marsh. Given the nature of the, um, inducements to the confessions, we have no way to know how much is true and how much is I’ll tell you anything you want to hear. All we know for certain is that the Bush Administration is, once again, waving the bloody shirt of 9/11 to distract us from its political problems.

Phil Carter at the Intel Dump, finally, repeats the broad-based belief that this "confession" is tainted by torture and repeats his belief that it shows "that we have compromised such liberal, democratic ideals like adherence to the rule of law to counter terrorism."