Voice of terror

IT’S NOT NEWS THAT Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks or that he was involved in other terrorist conspiracies. It was precisely because of his central role in Al Qaeda that he was hunted down and captured in Pakistan four years ago and subjected to harsh interrogation.

Still, Mohammed’s admission before a military tribunal in Guantanamo last weekend that “I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z,” was chilling, both for what he said and for the way his confession brings the gruesome reality of 9/11 back to the fore of Americans’ consciousness.

It isn’t just the passage of time that has distanced Americans from the horror of that day. That 5 1/2 years have passed without a similar attack on U.S. soil has made it easier for us to think of 9/11 as an aberration. There is also something about the scale of that day’s horror that makes it hard to continue viewing it as the handiwork of a few determined terrorists rather than as some larger, preordained apocalypse.

Mohammed’s admissions about 9/11 and his insistence that “I’m not happy that 3,000 been killed in America” only underline the obscenity of that act. And in itemizing unconsummated conspiracies, including assassination plots against former U.S. presidents and a pope, Mohammed reminds us that the future holds dangers from those who share his faith-based hatred of the U.S. and the West. Even if the man was exaggerating a bit in detailing the projects that had been on his terrorist to-do list, the world is undoubtedly a safer place for having this monster in captivity.

Mohammed’s rationalizations for his actions, it goes without saying, are appalling. He compares the mass murder of innocents at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to the War of Independence waged by George Washington against the British. Similarly bogus apologies have been offered by, and on behalf of, terrorists from Belfast to Beirut. Those who make such arguments believe them, and it’s distressing that plenty of people in the Mideast will accept Mohammed’s reasoning.

Whether you call it militant Islam, Islamic fascism or a clash of civilizations, there is a movement that has declared war on the U.S. and the West. It is neither a figment of President Bush’s imagination nor a byproduct of the Iraq war. Americans disagree about how to engage that enemy, but its existence is undeniable. So is the willingness of its adherents to kill -- and die -- for the cause. The passage of time since 9/11 may have dulled our appreciation of that reality, especially as partisan bickering consumes Washington. By confessing -- and boasting about -- his crimes, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed has sharpened it.