I think ^(link) therefore I err

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Fun with al Qaeda

The LA Times has a story from interviews with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 911 plan that's worth the couple of minutes to read.
Here's the fun part though.

Quote 1: The hallmark of the system, he said, was unquestioned control: Everyone up the chain of command did as they were told, didn't ask questions and never bucked authority — all for the common cause of the enterprise, which in this case was killing as many Americans as possible.

"I know that the materialistic Western mind cannot grasp the idea, and that it is difficult for them to believe," Mohammed wrote. "But in the end," he gloated, "the operation was a success."

Note the gloating.

Quote 2: "[Shaikh] Mohammed stated that he was usually compelled to do whatever Bin Laden wanted with respect to operatives for the September 11 operation," the interrogation summary states. "That said, [Shaikh] Mohammed noted that he disobeyed Bin Laden on several occasions by taking operatives assigned to him by Bin Laden and using them how he best saw fit."


Quote 3: Mohammed succeeded in rejecting three attempts by Bin Laden to accelerate the plot. But he said his boss canceled an entire overseas element of the hijacking scheme that he was orchestrating.

Quote 4: Had Mohammed not insisted on such security measures, he suggested, Bin Laden might have endangered the whole mission. That's because Bin Laden, an exiled Saudi multimillionaire with a huge trust fund, apparently had a knack for forcing Mohammed to take operatives who couldn't follow directions or keep their mouths shut.

Quote 5: By mid-2000, Mohammed moved to kick Almihdhar out of the group because he defied his orders and left the United States for Yemen, leaving Alhazmi alone in San Diego.

Quote 6: Soon after he reached the United States, Moussaoui violated the order, sending Mohammed an e-mail detailing his attempts to get flight training on various aircraft.

And once more!
Quote 1: The hallmark of the system, he said, was unquestioned control: Everyone up the chain of command did as they were told, didn't ask questions and never bucked authority — all for the common cause of the enterprise, which in this case was killing as many Americans as possible.

"I know that the materialistic Western mind cannot grasp the idea, and that it is difficult for them to believe," Mohammed wrote. "But in the end," he gloated, "the operation was a success."

Note the gloating. LOL