Do the gloves fit?

In the closed session of a military tribunal, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said, if we're to believe what we're told, "I was the military operational commander for all foreign operations around the world,'' and under Bin Ladin's leadership planned other attacks. The problem is in believing what we're told. There were no media present but more importantly the man has been subjected to interrogation methods which make confessions unreliable at best. I'm no stranger to pain, but if you hold my head under water day after day for a year or so, I might tell you I shot Lincoln just to get it to stop.

He may well be guilty of all he's confessed to and more, but his confession is tainted by torture and his trial will be tainted by secrecy and by the fact that he will be tried by the Bush administration, not by an international tribunal. I tend to believe he is really guilty and that he probably will get a reasonably fair trial, but in the eyes of the world - a world who has no trust or faith in us or our conduct, we may be getting too much like the people we claim superiority to.

I am sure Bush will try to parlay this confession into a justification for everything he has done and I wouldn't doubt that he will regain a few supporters, but al Qaeda isn't the kind of organization that can't replace him instantly and his trial and probable removal from the world will do nothing to diminish their movement.