Yeah, very strange. I'm not sure what the hell they are they playing at. They seem to be doing everything they can to cause panic and confusion.
Now why would they do that?
It's not like you could sell off a bunch of the BTC they're holding, stop BTC withdrawal, tank their own exchange, buy up the cheap BTC on their own exchange, then open BTC withdrawals and claim "see, we're good guys"... The community has proven they'll come back to MtGox no matter how stupid shit gets.