Khalid Shaikh Mohammed confesses to 9/11 plot

NYT - Suspected Leader of 9/11 Attacks Is Said to Confess

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, 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.

“I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z,” he said.

I find it interesting that some of the plots he confessed to were assassination attempts on former US Presidents.

Though American officials had linked Mr. Mohammed 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.

Later in the article it notes that the assassination plot against Clinton was back in 1994, which would have been while he was still president, but it is not clear if the attempt on Carter was way back when he was president or if it was a more recent plot. Considering Mohammed's age, I would think it would have to be a more recent plot, since he would have only been about 15 when Carter left office. I wonder why he would want to assassinate a former president?

I also found this statement by Mohammed to particularly interesting:

His actions, he said, were like those of other revolutionaries. Had the British arrested George Washington during the Revolutionary War, Mr. Mohammed said, “for sure they would consider him enemy combatant.”

I find the analogy so interesting because I have heard it made so many times by one of my former professors. It is just interesting to hear the exact same analogy made by the terrorist himself.

One does have to wonder, however, if he is really responsible for all the things he has confessed to or if he is just boasting.