Is Binalshibh cooperating with authorities or not? We can't tell from today's Washington Post article Binalshibh Said to Provide 'Useful Information' .

Binalshibh is the former roomate of Mohammed Atta who allegedly was supposed to be the 20th hijacker but couldn't get a visa. Authorities think Moussaoui may have been Binalshibh's stand-in and have charged that Binalshibh funneled money to Moussaoui. Binalshibh was arrested in Pakistan a few weeks ago, turned over to the U.S and taken to a secure location to be interrogated.

The lead-in to the Post article says he's talking. The remainder of the article suggests he is not.

"Officials said they hope the Yemeni-born Binalshibh, 30, will corroborate and expand on details..." he gave in an Al-Jazeera television interview. (our emphasis)

"But officials cautioned that questioning of Binalshibh was in its early stages. "He has not been in captivity that long and it takes time to get significant information," one official said, adding, "We are learning some more every day."

There are two other men in custody the Government believes are high level Al Qaeda operatives: "Abu Zubaida, who helped direct the network's operations and was captured in March, and Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, who had run an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and was seized in January."

"The interrogators are playing the testimony of the three men off against each other, officials said. "Then," an official said, "we can try to put it all together in a mosaic."

Sorry, but this sounds to us like spin. To us it translates to, we're working on Binalshibh as hard as we can, we're lying to him and telling him his buddies and superiors have given him up so there is no point in him holding out, it hasn't worked yet but we're gonna keep trying.