Out of respect for his victims, I am refraining from jumping on the bandwagon (at least with both feet) of pundits who are cracking wise over Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s claim that he was responsible for everything from masterminding the 9/11 attacks to tutoring shoe bomber Richard Reid to the Bali nightclub bombing to beheading Danny Pearl.

But it does beg credulity that a man whom my buddy blogger Will Bunch says looks like Stanley Kowalski in “A Streetcar Named Desire� has been in custody for four years and has just gotten around to spilling all those beans.

The release of his confession certainly has nothing to do with trying to divert attention from the dire state of the scandal-sodden Bush presidency. Nooo.

It seems even more incredible that KSM had a hand in 31 terrorist plots in a line of work that is notoriously compartmentalized, and some of his claims are most certainly bogus. The big question is, how many?

Then there is the matter of the U.S.’s own credibility in prosecuting terrorists.

Was KSM coerced into his multiple confessions?

And how many times have grandiose claims been made by the White House and Justice Department about the dastardly deeds of alleged terrorists (read Jose Padilla) that later had to be rescinded after being scrutinized?

We can expect more of the same after the self-promoting KSM is put under the media microscope.

More here and here.

(If you don’t have a clue about who Judge Crater is, click here to find out.)