According to a nearly illegible transcript (PDF) released by the Pentagon yesterday, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has confessed to planning every single aspect of the 9/11 attacks.The transcript doesn't reveal much about the planning, but it does show that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was refused permission to have witnesses testify in his behalf. The witnesses he wanted to call were ruled "irrelevant", despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that they would have denied specific charges made against the Sheikh.
But none of this can possibly matter, since the transcript contains a confession. As ABC reported (from p. 18 of the transcript)
"I was responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z," Mohammed said in a statement read during the session, which was held last Saturday.ABC was unable to provide any more details about the Sheikh's planning of the 9/11 attacks, because the transcript doesn't contain any more details.
Needless to say, a large number of questions remain unanswered. Chief among them, in my mind, is this one: How did Khalid Sheikh Mohammed manage to schedule all the war games that were happening on September 11?
As I understand it, if you want to schedule military exercises, you have to be in the military. And it helps if you're an officer -- the higher-ranking the better.
So it's difficult for me to imagine how Khalid Sheikh Mohammed could have scheduled the exercises that stripped the Northeastern US of its air defenses -- and caused massive confusion in NORAD headquarters -- on the morning of 9/11.
I'm curious about some other things, and I imagine you are, too. You can post your questions in the comments thread, but I can't promise that they'll be asked -- let alone answered.