A photograph of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as
introduced during the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui.
Photograph: EPAAs has been reported more or less universally today, al-Qaida's alleged number three, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, has confessed to just about every terrorist attack planned or committed in recent years, from September 11 to mooted attempts to kill president Clinton and the late pope.
However, the 26-page transcript of the unclassified section of his military hearing at Guantanamo Bay, released by the Pentagon, is not just remarkable for the 31 offences Mohammed admits to.
You are also struck by his seeming insouciance at confessing to such a litany of offences.
While human rights groups around the world are condemning what they see as the unfairness of the tribunal system, the man at the centre of the storm sounds positively breezy.
"Do you have any questions concerning the tribunal process?" asks the tribunal president. "Okay by me," the defendant responds.
And while he freely admits to being al-Qaida's "military operational commander", who planned September 11 "from A to Z", at times Mohammad more closely resembles a slightly pedantic accountant, quibbling over a few details before agreeing to sign off some company figures.
He disputes a couple of seemingly minor points, among them a claim he received funds from Kuwait, and complains that official documents have spelt his name incorrectly.
And as the list of 31 planned and actual attacks is read out, Mohammad interrupts only once, to stress that he was jointly, not solely, responsible for a plot to murder Pope John Paul during a visit to the Philippines.
But of course, critics stress that any more contentious material - notably any complaints by Mohammad of torture during his three-and-a-half years in secret CIA detention centres - is likely to be in the classified part of proceedings.
In one apparent allusion to such claims, a deleted section is followed by the tribunal president noting: "Now what you have told us about your previous treatment is on the record of these proceedings now, and will be reported for any investigation that may be appropriate."
The whole process - notably Mohammad's long list of confessions - has created perhaps understandable scepticism, with the Outside The Beltway blog noting acidly:
"He apparently stopped short of claiming credit for killing the czar and his ministers, and shooting either the sheriff or his deputy."
It adds:
"The story is creating a major blogstorm, and is obviously news. Still, I'm not sure what to make of it. He has been in American custody nearly four years, without access to an attorney, and claims to have been subjected to torture. I'm just not sure how seriously to take his claim of responsibility for the 9/11 attack, let alone for all the other crimes. That he's a liar is a given; that he's insane, a distinct possibility."
The Road to Surfdom, based in key US ally Australia, takes a similar line:
"It wasn't in the article, but I reckon he kicked his dog too, and stole my milk money."
