First, let’s look at waterboarding: Conservative talker Henry Makow admitted it was torture after six seconds. He didn’t want to admit it, but he did. Sean Hannity has thus far chickened out on his “waterboarding for charity” stunt. People have died from it. Others have suffered brain damage. During the process, a surgeon is right there to perform an emergency tracheotomy to restore air flow to the lungs if the glottis spasms. This is a mammalian response to drowning and waterboarding is controlled drowning.

Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM) confessed to planning the 1993 WTC bombing. This probably is a false confession. He confessed to planning an attack on the Plaza Bank in Washington State. This bank was not chartered, and construction not started until three years after his arrest. Another false confession, it would seem.

Because KSM is the self-confessed mastermind of 9/11 “from A to Z,” this is a perfect opportunity to talk of 9/11 and his role in planning the events of that day. His most eloquent stroke of genius or just sheer dumb luck, was to do it on Sept. 11, 2001, a day when the Pentagon was conducting several military war games under the umbrella of Amalgam Virgo 2.

Some of these exercises siphoned off fighter jets to the Arctic Circle, the North Atlantic near Iceland and the Gulf of Mexico. Other exercises simulated hijacked commercial jetliners being flown into famous buildings. “I’ve never seen so much stuff go ‘real world’ during an exercise before” is heard on the 9/11 NORAD tapes. Yes, indeed, KSM is either the true 9/11 mastermind or just got really lucky on 9/11/01.

What was his role in the planning of Operation Amalgam Virgo? Did he arrange travel plans for the Israel Mossad agents, dressed as dancing Arabs filming the collapses, later arrested and deported that afternoon? These same agents appeared on an Israeli talk show admitting they were sent to America to film events. Was this part of his plan, too?

KSM, like bin Laden, has a long history with the CIA. He was an operative in the 1980s during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and Bosnia in the ’90s. Robert Bear, a former CIA field officer, says, “KSM … comes across as boasting, at times mentally unstable. It is clear he is making things up. I’m told by people involved in the investigation that he was present during Danny Pearl’s execution but was, in fact, not the person who killed him. There exists videotape footage that minimizes KSM’s role.”

So, can the tortured confessions of KSM, or anyone else for that matter, be reliable and accurate? Is Ken Thomas ready to put his belief on the line and submit to a waterboarding? Maybe Kenny and Sean can do a double dunk. I’d pay to see that.

Paul Ames
Eureka