9/11 suspect 'confessed to attacks'
Press Association
Thursday March 15, 2007 4:43 AM
The September 11 attacks, the Bali bombing and plots against British targets are among the confessions of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed during a military hearing at Guantanamo Bay, according to a transcript released by the Pentagon.
"I was responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z," Mohammed said in a statement read during the session, which was held last Saturday.
In a list of attacks -- some of which were carried out, some not -- Mohammed claimed responsibility for planning, financing and training others for plots ranging from the 1993 truck bombing of the World Trade Centre to the attempt by would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid to blow up a transatlantic flight with explosives hidden in his shoes.
He said he was involved in planning the 2002 bombing of a Kenya beach resort frequented by Israelis and the failed missile attack on an Israeli passenger jet after it took off from Mombasa, Kenya. He also said he was responsible for the bombing of a nightclub in Bali, Indonesia. In 2002, 202 were killed when two Bali nightclubs were bombed.
Other plots he said he was responsible for included planned attacks against the Sears Tower in Chicago, the Empire State Building and New York Stock Exchange, the Panama Canal, and Big Ben and Heathrow Airport in London -- none of which occurred.
In all, Mohammed, who is believed to have been the number three al-Qaeda leader, said he was responsible for planning 28 individual attacks. The comments were included in a 26-page transcript released by the Pentagon, which blacked out some of his remarks.
Mohammed also claimed he was tortured by the CIA after his capture in 2003 in Pakistan, according to an exchange he had with the military colonel who heads the three-member panel that heard his case.
"Is any statement that you made, was it because of this treatment, to use your word, you claim torture," the colonel asked. "Do you make any statements because of that?"
Portions of Mohammed's response were deleted from the transcript, and his immediate answer was unclear. He later said his confession read at the hearing to the long list of attacks was given without any pressure, threats or duress.
The hearings, which began last Friday, are being conducted in secret by the military as it tries to determine whether 14 alleged terrorist leaders should be declared "enemy combatants" who can be held indefinitely and prosecuted by military tribunals.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/s...481374,00.html
9/11 suspect 'confessed to attacks'
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