The BBC’s report on the confession of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed at Guantanamo Bay is notable for the extent to which the BBC anchor bends over backwards to cast doubt on the veracity of the Pentagon transcript of KSM’s confession.
No matter where you stand politically, you must admit that a British newsman’s seeming willingness to give a person like KSM the benefit of the doubt, while being suspect of a transcript from a U.S. military tribunal, is a tragedy. Is the cause of the anchor’s apparent attitude the result of knee-jerk anti-Americanism and his sort’s penchant for terrorist appeasement, or the recent human rights record of the Pentagon and the U.S. government in prosecuting the war on terror — or both? We’ll let you be the judge.
We’ll only add that if this is how the BBC covers it, just imagine how it’s new Arabic TV service will, or for that matter, existing Arab satellite channels. Wouldn’t it have been better if the military let press cover the hearing? Or at least released their own film of it?