That Credibility Thing Taints It
I expect to read and hear lots [and lots] today about Khalid Shaikh Mohammed confessing to responsibility (from A to Z) for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
Unfortunately for those looking for some closure on this his confession came out of Guantanamo Bay, a US military interrogation camp tainted by multiple claims of torture and abuse.
Given what we know about the methods used at places like camp Gitomo and Abu Ghraib the confession will, unfortunately, always be suspect; something that will, also unfortunately, affect the sense of closure for the families of the September 11, 2001 victims.
Hold on a second, SL – if this confession is “the truth,” does that mean we can now stop looking for Osama? We now know he wasn’t the mastermind and organizer of the event?
Isn’t that wonderful? No need for bunker bombs in Afghanistan anymore!
How can we know that “the truth” is what came out? Torture is a very undependable way of getting “the truth” out of anyone.
You have a guy in an interrogation centre, he’s being tortured on a regular or even semi-regular basis, he knows he’s never gonna go home, he knows he’s probably never gonna get out of that detention centre – why not tell ‘em what they want to hear if it will stop the abuse?
Hell man, in a situation like that I’d admit to masterminding JFKs assassination to make the abuse stop, and I was only 4 at the time.
On a related note, the Americans prosecuted Japanese interrogators for war crimes for doing things like water boarding US prisoners – it brings up that uncomfortable “H” word again doesn’t it?
Closure comes from seeing justice done and the perpetrators hunted down and killed. Acceptance of acceptance of grief will give no closure.
Sorry, that should read: “Acceptance of grief will give no closure.”
Why is this news?
As Canadian Cynic points out, this was announced in 2003. I suspect this is nothing more than a well timed diversion considering Gonzales’ current issues with perjury and the truth.
Al-Qaida more decentralized
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?s capture four years ago didn?t shut down al-Qaida. But if his mega-confessio
Sure it’s tainted. No way Al-Qaeda No 3 could have been involved. The “I killed him with my blessed hand” confession was also dictated to him by the FBI as they were cutting poor man’s balls and (worse!) flushing Koran down the toilet.
Anyway, what’s the fuss about? The progressives have figured it a looong time ago that the whole thing was Mossad + CIA, right?
That sort of comment really is beneath you shlemzl, did I say anything at all about some Mossad/CIA conspiracy? You can choose to argue the point, or you can choose to try and throw up a bunch of smoke and mirrors – a real argument disputing my statement is the better option IMO.
My premise is that the confession is tainted by the fact that the US used torture to extract the information. I make that statement using the values that western society has developed surrounding the use of confessions obtained using those tactics and the decisions we came come to regarding the use of those tactics against our own citizens on home soil.
– can you imagine a federal prosecutor standing up in front of any judge in the land and claiming that, after an extended period of confinement and water boarding, the defendant confessed to beating up that little old lady and stealing her handbag so he must be guilty?
(Having said that I will also state that I operate under no illusions (or delusions) that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is anywhere close to “salt of the earth” category so please don’t bother going down that road.)
If you believe that information/confessions obtained by torture and abuse is/are legitimate and that torture and abuse are legitimate methods of gaining information/confessions that will promote the cause they are used in aid of then come out and say so…. and then, if you are so inclined, we’ll discuss that.
Have you read the confession? There is no way it was extracted under torture. Where is the boundary between torture and legitimate pressure justifed to save hundreds/thousdands of lives is a complex argument, but had you read the whole confession, no way you would have written this post.
The only reason the confession is suspect is that the guy is obviously boasting of heinous crimes. There will be other evidence to confirm which of his rather detailed confessions check out. That’s not my job and neither it’s the job of mass media. Nothing will change what the moonbats are going to say, but then… who cares?