Suspected 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confessed to the beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl and was central to 30 other attacks and plots in the U.S. and worldwide that killed thousands of victims, said a revised transcript released Thursday by the U.S. military.
"I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan," Mohammed is quoted as saying in a transcript of a military hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, released by the Pentagon.
"For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head," he added.
NYT:
In a rambling statement, Mr. Mohammed, a chief aide to Osama bin Laden, said his actions were part of a military campaign. "I'm not happy that 3,000 been killed in America," he said in broken English. "I feel sorry even. I don't like to kill children and the kids." [Excerpts, Page A23.]
He added, "The language of war is victims."
Though American officials had linked Mr. Mohammed to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and to several others, his confession was the first time he spelled out in his own words a panoply of global terror activities, ranging from plans to bomb landmarks in New York City and London to assassination plots against former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and Pope John Paul II. Some of the plots he claimed to plan, including the attempt on Mr. Carter, had not previously been publicly disclosed.
Mr. Mohammed indicated in the transcript that some of his earlier statements to C.I.A. interrogators were the result of torture. But he said that his statements at the tribunal on Saturday were not made under duress or pressure.
His actions, he said, were like those of other revolutionaries. Had the British arrested George Washington during the Revolutionary War, Mr. Mohammed said, "for sure they would consider him enemy combatant."
Bloggers: Barcepundit,
Related news: US Senate rejects to take the troops out of Iraq for 2008 (ABC.es) More here in NYT.
NO. 3 of Saddam Regime will be executed soon (ABC.es) He will be hanged in the next days.
Blogbis links to an article by Victor Davis Hanson about the new US commander in Iraq.
Right Truth points out that he has also mentioned plans for exploding a dirty bomb in USA and to assassinate former US Pressidents (such as Clinton and James Carter).
More on Google News.
ABC NEWS doubts that he actually did all the things he has confessed as doing:
Several counterterrorism experts and former intelligence officials believe that Mohammed, who made the mass confession during a military hearing at Guantanamo Bay, is a fabulist. Their reasons: the lack of evidence to implicate him in many of these plots and his reputation as a self-aggrandizing egotist.
"I get a sense that his ego was enormous, and that he would take credit for anything and everything," said Jack Cloonan, an ABC News analyst and former senior agent on the FBI's bin Laden squad who investigated Mohammed. "What's missing is the evidence and details about the plots - the fact that he can't provide that shows that he is in lying mode."
But there is evidence that he actually killed Pearl: the hands in the photo which shows the decapitated head are the ones of KSM.
Anyway, they are already saying he was tortured to get the confession, something he has stated in previous confessions but has denied on this one. For my part, I think he has confessed things that are already true and some others are a kind of lies just to be sure he is considered a martyr in the future...
Telegraph: Osama is like George Washington.
More on MNM. Pajamas Media,
KSM confessions may aid other Al-Qaeda Defendants: In acknowledging his role in more than 30 terrorist attacks and plots, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed may have complicated the prosecution of his former colleagues.
More about Iraq: Is Iran's honeymoon in Iraq over?
En español también: EL MUNDO, LD.
[If you want to laugh a bit, go to My Pet Jawa Report]
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