Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Loves Big Brother

Forgive us for being slow.

But when the neoconamorata argued so fervently for extraordinary rendition, for lawyerless tribunals and for the Military Commissions Act, they used the "ticking time-bomb scenario" (an absolute fiction, by the way) to justify it. These terrorists hold vital information to the War of Terror, they said. Allowing them to go through the clunky rigmarole of due process will just let their plots unfold, they said.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, having been imprisoned by the U.S. for over three years (after having been snatched, tortured by the CIA, and then deposited quietly in Gitmo), just now confessed to:

1. The 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

2. The 9/11 attacks, "from A to Z."

3. The shoe bomber operation to down two American planes.

4. A 2002 shooting in Kuwait that killed an American marine.

5. The Bali nightclub bombing that killed more than 180 in 2002.

And twenty-five others, including assassination attempts on Pope John Paul II, President Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

So we now have a benchmark. It takes three and a half years of torture to make a terrorist mastermind confess the details to attacks that have already taken place or never happened. Even when allowed ruthless efficiency and zero oversight, the U.S. government still can't finish on time or under budget.