What's behind Khalid's 'confessions' by Michael Scheuer

What's behind Khalid's 'confessions'

By Michael Scheuer

Osama bin Laden and his chief lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahiri have long made clear to their followers that the road to paradise can be found in the enemies' prisons as well as on the battlefield. From prison, they argue, a captured al-Qaeda leader can mislead his interrogators, provide accurate but dated material that leads the enemy nowhere, or speak to the Muslim nation if the opportunity arises.

Until last week, the most successful from-jail operation was run by captured senior al-Qaeda leader Ibn Sheikh al-Libi, who

described non-existent WMD (weapons of mass destruction) cooperation between Iraq and al-Qaeda, a claim Washington used to support its case for war with Iraq. Libi later recanted his claims, and he may still be smiling at the effects of his statement.

Libi's laurels have now passed to Khalid Shaikh Mohammad (KSM) on the basis of his presentation to a US military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay on March 10. Al-Qaeda's former operations chief, who was captured in Pakistan in March 2003, made the most of his testimony before the tribunal in at least six areas, each of which benefits al-Qaeda and causes problems for the US government. Clearly, KSM's remarks were addressed to both Western and Muslim audiences. [1]