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]
Claimed
responsibility for attacks Without remorse
or excuses, KSM admitted to having been involved
in 31 operations and said he was ready for "what
is coming to me". In broken English, he continued,
saying, "For this [the oath to tell the tribunal
the truth] is not necessary, as I responsible,
responsible."
Many of the Western media
failed to read the statement closely, and as a
result have defaulted to two incorrect
conclusions, claiming either that no single person
could have done what KSM claimed - and so he is
egotistical - or that he was such an important and
potent figure that now al-Qaeda is much less
threatening without him.
KSM, however,
simply said that as al-Qaeda's operations chief he
was involved in one way or another in the group's
operations; surely there is no surprise there, and
31 events over an 11-year period can hardly be
called excessive. KSM also made clear that some of
the planned operations he described occurred
"before I join al-Qaeda". He was proud of what he
and al-Qaeda have attempted and achieved in their
"war" against the United States and its allies;
for the millions of Muslims who support al-Qaeda,
he will be seen as an able, active and effective
military leader.
KSM's testimony was a
timely, if obviously uncoordinated, complement to
Zawahiri's March 11 criticism of Hamas for
adopting a "defeatist" attitude in agreeing to
join a unity government in Palestine. [2] KSM's
description of al-Qaeda's dozens of operations
over five continents depicts the group's unique
geographical reach and its determination and
ability to hurt Islam's perceived enemies.
Indeed, KSM kept his well-known egotism in
check and tried to keep the focus on al-Qaeda as a
powerful group, saying al-Qaeda conducted the
attacks and "what I wrote here, is not I'm making
myself a hero, when I said I was responsible for
this or that". Convincing Muslims that they have a
chance to defeat the vastly more powerful West has
always been one of the most difficult tasks
undertaken by bin Laden and Zawahiri. KSM's words
will serve as an example of that ability that will
stand alongside what the mujahideen believe are
Islam's coming victories in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Eroding the CIA's anti-al-Qaeda
capabilities Al-Qaeda leaders have claimed
that their organization has been hurt most since
September 11, 2001, by the Pakistan Army's
operations in the Pashtun tribal region and by the
US Central Intelligence Agency's rendition
program. KSM smartly framed his presentation to
undercut the latter by claiming that he had been
tortured by the CIA, adding that some of the
information he previously provided was false and
given under duress (Al-Jazeera, March 15).
Almost before he was done talking, the
president of the military tribunal assured him
that his allegations would "be reported for any
investigation that might be appropriate" and
prominent US senators from both parties publicly
called for KSM's charges to be investigated and,
if true, for the perpetrators to be punished
(Washington Post, March 17). As an added bonus for
al-Qaeda, KSM's claims of providing false
information will raise questions in the US
intelligence community and those allied with it
about how much of KSM's pre-March 10 information
can be trusted as the basis for either operations
or analysis.
By claiming that he was
tortured at the CIA's hands, KSM has thrown more
fuel on the raging debate between the United
States on the one side and, on the other, European
governments, European Union institutions and an
assortment of human-rights groups over the issue
of what to do with al-Qaeda and other Islamist
prisoners.
Furthermore, because the CIA is
an easy and already much-used target by Europeans
and the US Congress, KSM was careful to broaden
the target deck for US critics by devoting much of
his testimony to describing the "many, many
people" who are innocent and being held at
Guantanamo Bay. "So, I think God knows that many
who been arrested, they been unjustly arrested."
KSM pleaded with the military tribunal's president
"to be fair with [the] other [innocent] people"
who are being held, adding, "I hope you will take
care of other detainees with what I said. It's up
to you."
KSM uttered not a word about his,
al-Qaeda's or Muslim hatred for the way Americans
live, vote or think. There was nothing about
elections, liberty or gender equality. Apparently
sharing the belief of bin Laden and Zawahiri that
few Muslims are or can be motivated by hatred for
US liberty and society, KSM concentrated with the
laser-like focus of his superiors on US foreign
policy.
"For sure, I'm Americans'
enemies," KSM said. Quoting bin Laden, KSM cited
as reasons for this status as "American military
presence in Arabian Peninsula and aiding Israel
and many things". Because of US policy in the
Muslim world, he explained that he asked himself,
"What will I do?" His answer was, "This is the
language [of war, creating victims].
"Sometime I want to make great awakening
between American to stop foreign policy in our
[Muslim] land. I know American people torturing us
from the '70s." In his testimony, KSM hewed to the
letter of al-Qaeda's decade-old justification for
the jihad it is waging: US foreign policy is an
attack on Islam and its followers and al-Qaeda's
response is a "religious thing" to protect the
faith.
If any part of KSM's testimony
might be called refreshing, it was his constant
lecturing of the military tribunal about the
nature of war: "This is why the language of any
war in the world is killing. I mean the language
of war is victims." KSM engaged in none of the
charlatanism of Western discussions of war; he did
not speak of surgical strikes, limited collateral
damage, precision weapons or casualty-free wars.
Knowing history better than his
interlocutors, KSM told the tribunal: "But your
[sic] are military men. I did it [the list of
attacks] but this is the language of any war ...
Military [men] throughout history know very well.
They don't war will never stop. War start from
Adam when Cain he killed Abel until now. It's
never gonna stop killing people. This [killing and
victims] is the way of the language [of war] ...
You know never stopping war. This is life."
Since General Nathan Bedford Forrest of
the Confederate States Army said that "war means
fighting and fighting means killing", the
unchanging reality of war has seldom been better
described than it was by KSM in his broken
English.
Michael Scheuer served as
the chief of the Bin Laden Unit at the CIA's
Counterterrorist Center from 1996-99. He is now a
senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation. This
article is republished with permission fromTerrorism
Focus, a publication of the
Jamestown Foundation.
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