Why Stipulate Now?

So now al Qaeda, by way of al Jazeera, stipulates that bin Laden was, indeed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. It seems that the big-wigs at al Qaida central now want us to know that they did it, without doubt. A quick glippse at the calendar reveals that, if tradition holds, we can expect another attack any day now.

Make no mistake, these are sophisticated, media savvy handlers the terrorists have hired. Note near the end of the news story that they have their own studio, cameras and the like even now, post-Afghan collapse.
It's easy to dismiss the Arabs as semi-illiterate nontechnological buffoons, but the truth is that some of them are highly accomplished and educated. The number two guy, al Zawahri, is a medical doctor as well as a homicidal maniac. At least three of the four pilots on 9/11 were competent pilots. I have an old copy of Flight Simulator, and can tell you that hitting the WTC is not as easy as it looks. So when al Qaida makes a decision, don't assume that it is a mistake... Taking your opponent lightly is always a bad idea.

So one has to wonder what their calculus is. Why do they feel the need to take credit for the attacks, especially when the Arab Street is ready to declare them innocent. I submit that it is to that very Arab Street that the current confession is directed. They actually want to be known as mass murderers.

It is too easy to dismiss the culture of our enemy as a barbarian entity. That would be a mistake. In historical terms, it is we who are the barbarians. Until recently, say, the last two hundred years, it was the Muslim world that was the pinnacle of human civilization as white Europeans were the more brutish, violent, anti-education, dirty neighbors. A large part of our problem with Islam is their desire to recapture that position of honor. They believe that they deserve to be the world's leading power again, to recapture lost territories and conquer new ones. But their position has declined to the point where they are using barbarity to achieve it.

Their own holy book, which is truly just a book of rules, clearly and unambiguously condemns actions against innocents, military action undertaken in secret, and the killing, even by accident, of their co-religionists. But they feel desperate, in my opinion. They see their "civilization" crumbling, before an assault upon it by weapons of mass information, so they counter with weapons of mass destruction.