The man the Bush administration and other authorities around the world have long said masterminded the suicide hijackings of 9/11 apparently confessed during a secret hearing held recently by military officials at Guantanamo Bay that, indeed, he “was responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z.” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) also said he was tortured by CIA operatives after being captured in 2003 and, according to a report by The New York Times, the once chief aide to Osama bin Laden, made various other rambling statements, including one in which he described his actions were part of a military [...]
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 [...]
On Friday, Nikolai Rurua, head of the Georgian Defense commission announced that Georgia’s current 850-strong Iraq contingent will be expanded, bringing the total to 2,000 Georgian boots on Iraqi ground in 2007. The deployment is intended to last around a year. Rurua also announced a smaller surge in Georgian presence in Afghanistan. With refreshing earnestness, Rurua laid out the logic behind the move: “Our strategic partner needs help. This is why we are doing this.” He described the additional deployment as “a form of political support for the United States.” In fact, it would have been hard to imagine tiny [...]
