WASHINGTON - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11
attacks, confessed to that attack and a string of others during a military
hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to a transcript released Wednesday by
the Pentagon.
Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed is shown in this photograph during his arrest on March 1,
2003. Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks on the
United States, has claimed responsibility for those and other major al
Qaeda attacks, according to the transcript of a hearing at Guantanamo Bay
released on Wednesday. [Reuters]
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Mohammed claimed responsibility
for planning, financing, and training others for bombings ranging from the 1993
attack at the World Trade Center to the attempt by would-be shoe bomber Richard
Reid to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with explosives hidden in his shoes.
In all, Mohammed said he was responsible for planning 29 individual attacks,
including many that were never executed. The comments were included in a 26-page
transcript released by the Pentagon, which also blacked out some of his remarks.
The Pentagon also released transcripts of the hearings of Abu Faraj al-Libi
and Ramzi Binalshibh.
Binalshibh is suspected of helping Mohammed with the Sept. 11, 2001, attack
plan and is also linked to a foiled plot to crash aircraft into London's
Heathrow Airport. Al-Libi is a Libyan who reportedly masterminded two bombings
11 days apart in Pakistan in December 2003 that targeted President Pervez
Musharraf for his support of the US-led war on terror.
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.
Hearings for six of the 14 have already been held. The military is not
allowing reporters to attend the sessions and is limiting the information it
provides about them, arguing that it wants to prevent sensitive information from
being disclosed.
The 14 were moved in September from a secret CIA prison
network to the prison at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, where about 385
men are being held on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the
Taliban.