By Andrew L. Jaffee

When fighting a war for the preservation of civilization, what’s your emphasis? Apparently, Amnesty International’s is defending those who would destroy the very civilization that makes its existence possible. The rights organization is very worried about how “al-Qaeda mastermind” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is being treated at Gitmo — never mind all the murders he planned and committed himself, and never mind that Jew, Daniel Pearl, that the “Sheikh” now admits to beheading. We’re already handing out personal Korans and special Muslim meals at Gitmo. Given the magnitude of 9/11 and all the other Islamist atrocities, like 40,000 dead by Muslim hands alone in Iraq, could we expect that Amnesty use a bit of common sense (i.e., “we’re at war with some pretty bad folks”)?

Every civilization needs checks and balances, like the ones our Founders built into the Constitution. Fortunately — or rather unfortunately, in this case — several generations of Westerners have grown up without having to defend democracy. They’ve had too much time to waste contemplating their guilt by association with the West’s imperial excesses of the past. So a possible check and balance like Amnesty has devolved into advocacy for the worst evils possible by humans. I doubt anyone at Amnesty would admit such advocacy, but here it is, and seeing is believing:

Alleged al-Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has confessed to the killing of US journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan in 2002, the Pentagon says.

“I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew Daniel Pearl,” he is quoted as saying in a revised transcript of US hearing.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is being held at Guantanamo Bay, and was questioned by the tribunal there at the weekend.

He also reportedly confessed to plotting 9/11 and many other attacks.

But Amnesty International urged caution in assessing Mr Mohammed’s statements, which it said were made without any of the normal legal safeguards.

“Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s ‘confession’ was not made in a court of law but in a secret screening process that bars lawyers,” said Amnesty UK spokesman Mike Blakemore.

“Before his six months at Guantanamo, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was apparently held in a totally secret CIA-run prison for three-and-a-half years where he alleges torture.”