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Khalid Sheikh Mohammed on confessathon

Cal

Well-known member
http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,258817,00.html

Al Qaeda Chief Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Confesses to Planning Sept. 11, Gitmo Transcript Shows
Thursday , March 15, 2007


Khalid Sheikh Mohammed portrayed himself as Al Qaeda's most ambitious operational planner in a confession to a U.S. military tribunal that said he planned and supported 31 terrorist attacks, topped by Sept. 11, that killed thousands of innocent victims since the early 1990s.

The gruesome attacks range from the suicide hijackings of Sept. 11, 2001 — which killed nearly 3,000 — to a 2002 shooting on an island off Kuwait that killed a U.S. Marine, according to an account released by the Pentagon.

Many plots, including a previously undisclosed plan to kill several former U.S. presidents, were never carried out or were foiled by international counterterror authorities.

"I was responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z," Mohammed said in a statement read Saturday during a Combatant Status Review Tribunal at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Mohammed's confession was read by a member of the U.S. military who is serving as his personal representative.

• PHOTO ESSAY: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 's Legacy of Terror

The Pentagon released a 26-page transcript of the closed-door proceedings on Wednesday night. Some material was omitted, and it wasn't possible to immediately confirm details. The document refers to locations for which the United States and other nations have issued terrorism warnings based on what they deemed credible threats from 1993 to the present.

Mohammed, known as KSM among government officials, was last seen haggard after his capture in March 2003, when he was photographed in a dingy white T-shirt with an over-stretched neck. He disappeared for more than three years into a secret detention system run by the CIA.

In his first public statements since his capture, his radical ideology and self-confidence came through. He expressed regret for taking the lives of children and said Islam doesn't give a "green light" to killing.

• Click here to see the Pentagon's transcript of the interview (pdf).

Yet he finds room for exceptions. "The language of the war is victims," he said.

He also said some people "consider George Washington as hero. Muslims many of them are considering Usama bin Laden. He is doing same thing. He is just fighting. He needs his independence."

In laying out his role in 31 attacks, his words drew Al Qaeda closer to plots of the early 1990s than the group has previously been linked, including the 1993 World Trade Center truck bombing in which six people died.

Six people with links to global terror networks were convicted in federal court and sentenced to life in prison for that attack.

• VIDEO: Mohammed Admits Planning Sept. 11 'From A to Z'

Mohammed made clear that al-Qaida wanted to down a second trans-Atlantic aircraft during would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid's operation.

And he confessed to the beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in a section of the statement that was excised from the public document, The Associated Press has learned. Pearl was abducted in January 2002 in Pakistan while researching a story on Islamic militancy. Mohammed has long been a suspect in the slaying, which was captured on video.

President Bush announced that Mohammed and 13 other alleged terror operatives had been moved from secret CIA prisons to the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay last year. They are considered the 14 most significant captures since 9/11.

The military began the hearings last Friday to determine whether the 14 should be declared "enemy combatants" who can be held indefinitely and prosecuted by military tribunals.

If the 14 are declared enemy combatants, as expected, the military would then draft and file charges against them. The detainees would be tried under the new military commissions law signed by Bush in October.

The military barred reporters or other independent observers from the sessions for the 14 operatives and is limiting the information it provides about them, arguing that it wants to prevent the disclosure of sensitive information.

Legal experts have criticized the U.S. decision, and The Associated Press filed a letter of protest, arguing that it would be "an unconstitutional mistake to close the proceedings in their entirety."

The transcripts refer to a claim by Mohammed that he was tortured by the CIA, although he said he was not under duress at Guantanamo when he confessed to his role in the attacks. The CIA has said its interrogation practices are legal, and it does not use torture.

Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, questioned the legality of the closed-door sessions and whether the confession was actually the result of torture.

"We won't know that unless there is an independent hearing," he said. "We need to know if this purported confession would be enough to convict him at a fair trial or would it have to be suppressed as the fruit of torture?"

In listing the 28 attacks he planned and another three he supported, Mohammed said he tried to kill international leaders including Pope John Paul II, President Clinton and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

He said he planned 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 nightclubs there 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 in New York City, the Panama Canal, and Big Ben and Heathrow Airport in London — none of which happened.

The Pentagon also released transcripts of the hearings of Abu Faraj al-Libi and Ramzi Binalshibh. Both refused to attended the hearings, although al-Libi submitted a statement claiming that the hearings are unfair and that he will not attend unless it is corrected.

"The detainee is in a lose-lose situation," he said.

Al-Libi, whose name means he is a Libyan, reportedly masterminded two bombings 11 days apart in Pakistan in December 2003 that targeted Musharraf for his support of the U.S.-led war on terror.

Binalshibh, a Yemeni, is suspected of helping Mohammed with the Sept. 11 attack plan on New York City and Washington and is also linked to a foiled plot to crash aircraft into London's Heathrow Airport. His hearing was conducted in his absence.
 

Econ101

Well-known member
On the television, they quoted him as saying something to the effect that his "blessed right hand" chopped off Pearl's head.

If this is the case, under sharia law, can't his right hand be chopped off?

I am glad they have this guy out of the picture.


What strikes me is that he confessed he was involved in 31 incidents. If this man was that involved, it would only take a handful of people like him to round up most of the terrorists leadership.

I have my doubts that he could have been involved in that many but it is possible. Time will tell whether that confession holds up as stated.

Didn't they catch him some time ago in Pakistan? If so, they were able to get a whole lot of the terrorist structure early on.
 

kolanuraven

Well-known member
They are gonna use this guy to take the heat and attention away from hunting for UBL, which they can't find and seem to have quit looking!


This guy sounds like he's bragging, I've no doubt he's a major player but come on, when did he even have to take a pi$$ with a schedule like that???? Guess I'd claim everything I could also to stop the water-boarding!
 

Steve

Well-known member
KolanuRaven:
This guy sounds like he's bragging, I've no doubt he's a major player but come on, when did he even have to take a pi$$ with a schedule like that???? Guess I'd claim everything I could also to stop the water-boarding!

Most terrorists are proud of what they do, and often "brag" aboiut past actions...the key is to get current information,....and few torture methods produce that....interrogation tactics often do..

while I do agree he sounds like he is just bragging, I do not believe he is top level...seems to me he is more middle, / go between...

As for the Water boarding comment, why denegrate our side constanty with out any proof?

This scum admitted to taking part in Killing thousands of Americans and beheading another.....your compassion for him seems misguided,..I personnally could care less if they tortured him till his fat ugly heart gave out.....but with out proof I would not accuse our boys of tortureing him....

Why would you falsly accuse our own over this scum?*


and since you can't prove theses same men were at Abufratgrabe.....it is again another baseless claim to say they were...
 

kolanuraven

Well-known member
and since you can't prove theses same men were at Abufratgrabe.....it is again another baseless claim to say they were...


What? Where did I say they were @ Abu Ghraib??


The waterboarding came from a Fox News broadcast. I was watching it in the dentist office yesterday. Oh...you want proof I was @ the dentist office??
 

Steve

Well-known member
KolanuRaven:
I was watching it in the dentist office yesterday. Oh...you want proof I was @ the dentist office??

No.proof required... :wink: .......did some one knock your teeth out? :shock: :lol: :p

As for the Water boarding comment, why denigrate our side constantly with out any proof?

This scum admitted to taking part in Killing thousands of Americans and beheading another.....your compassion for him seems misguided,..I personally could care less if they tortured him till his fat ugly heart gave out.....but with out proof I would not accuse our boys of torturing him....

Why would you falsely accuse our own over this scum?*
 

kolanuraven

Well-known member
Where did I ' accuse'...I don't care if they waterboarded him, used a hose pipe for an enema!

You spend way too much time reading words ' into' what people state.

If you " question" a person sooo much you can not be sure that the info you get is correct. You just get answers that will stop the ' questions', the degree of truthfulness could be questioned .

As you also stated & we agree that this guy seemed to be everywhere and claiming fame to everything.

I still go with my theory that this info is to distract the public attention for the failure to capture UBL
 

Mike

Well-known member
I still go with my theory that this info is to distract the public attention for the failure to capture UBL

Kind of like bombing an "Aspirin Factory"? :lol:

More on UBL:

December 5, 2001


Clinton Let Bin Laden Slip Away and Metastasize
Sudan offered up the terrorist and data on his network. The then-president and his advisors didn't respond.

By MANSOOR IJAZ
President Clinton and his national security team ignored several opportunities to capture Osama bin Laden and his terrorist associates, including one as late as last year.

I know because I negotiated more than one of the opportunities.

From 1996 to 1998, I opened unofficial channels between Sudan and the Clinton administration. I met with officials in both countries, including Clinton, U.S. National Security Advisor Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger and Sudan's president and intelligence chief. President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir, who wanted terrorism sanctions against Sudan lifted, offered the arrest and extradition of Bin Laden and detailed intelligence data about the global networks constructed by Egypt's Islamic Jihad, Iran's Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas.

Among those in the networks were the two hijackers who piloted commercial airliners into the World Trade Center.

The silence of the Clinton administration in responding to these offers was deafening.

As an American Muslim and a political supporter of Clinton, I feel now, as I argued with Clinton and Berger then, that their counter-terrorism policies fueled the rise of Bin Laden from an ordinary man to a Hydra-like monster.

Realizing the growing problem with Bin Laden, Bashir sent key intelligence officials to the U.S. in February 1996.

The Sudanese offered to arrest Bin Laden and extradite him to Saudi Arabia or, barring that, to "baby-sit" him--monitoring all his activities and associates.

But Saudi officials didn't want their home-grown terrorist back where he might plot to overthrow them.

In May 1996, the Sudanese capitulated to U.S. pressure and asked Bin Laden to leave, despite their feeling that he could be monitored better in Sudan than elsewhere.

Bin Laden left for Afghanistan, taking with him Ayman Zawahiri, considered by the U.S. to be the chief planner of the Sept. 11 attacks; Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, who traveled frequently to Germany to obtain electronic equipment for Al Qaeda; Wadih El-Hage, Bin Laden's personal secretary and roving emissary, now serving a life sentence in the U.S. for his role in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya; and Fazul Abdullah Mohammed and Saif Adel, also accused of carrying out the embassy attacks.

Some of these men are now among the FBI's 22 most-wanted terrorists.

The two men who allegedly piloted the planes into the twin towers, Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi, prayed in the same Hamburg mosque as did Salim and Mamoun Darkazanli, a Syrian trader who managed Salim's bank accounts and whose assets are frozen.

Important data on each had been compiled by the Sudanese.

But U.S. authorities repeatedly turned the data away, first in February 1996; then again that August, when at my suggestion Sudan's religious ideologue, Hassan Turabi, wrote directly to Clinton; then again in April 1997, when I persuaded Bashir to invite the FBI to come to Sudan and view the data; and finally in February 1998, when Sudan's intelligence chief, Gutbi al-Mahdi, wrote directly to the FBI.

Gutbi had shown me some of Sudan's data during a three-hour meeting in Khartoum in October 1996. When I returned to Washington, I told Berger and his specialist for East Africa, Susan Rice, about the data available. They said they'd get back to me. They never did. Neither did they respond when Bashir made the offer directly. I believe they never had any intention to engage Muslim countries--ally or not. Radical Islam, for the administration, was a convenient national security threat.

And that was not the end of it. In July 2000--three months before the deadly attack on the destroyer Cole in Yemen--I brought the White House another plausible offer to deal with Bin Laden, by then known to be involved in the embassy bombings. A senior counter-terrorism official from one of the United States' closest Arab allies--an ally whose name I am not free to divulge--approached me with the proposal after telling me he was fed up with the antics and arrogance of U.S. counter-terrorism officials.

The offer, which would have brought Bin Laden to the Arab country as the first step of an extradition process that would eventually deliver him to the U.S., required only that Clinton make a state visit there to personally request Bin Laden's extradition. But senior Clinton officials sabotaged the offer, letting it get caught up in internal politics within the ruling family--Clintonian diplomacy at its best.

Clinton's failure to grasp the opportunity to unravel increasingly organized extremists, coupled with Berger's assessments of their potential to directly threaten the U.S., represents one of the most serious foreign policy failures in American history.
*

Mansoor Ijaz, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, is chairman of a New York-based investment company.
 

Steve

Well-known member
KolanuRaven:
Where did I ' accuse'. I don't care if they waterboarded him,

KolanuRaven:
Guess I'd claim everything I could also to stop the water-boarding!

One could clearly see that you insinuated he was water boarded,..

in·sin·u·ate (ĭn-sĭn'yū-āt') pronunciation
v.,
1. To introduce or otherwise convey (a thought, for example) gradually and insidiously.

in·sid·i·ous (ĭn-sĭd'ē-əs) pronunciation
adj.
1. Working or spreading harmfully in a subtle or stealthy manner: insidious rumors; an insidious disease.

So if you don't mind backing up your misguided support for this murdering thug....and answer my accusation:

As for the Water boarding comment, Why denigrate our side constantly with out any proof?

This scum admitted to taking part in Killing thousands of Americans and beheading another.....your compassion for him seems misguided,..I personally could care less if they tortured him till his fat ugly heart gave out.....but with out proof I would not accuse our boys of torturing him....

Why would you falsely accuse our own over this scum?
 

kolanuraven

Well-known member
Steve...I don't insinuate ANYTHING to anyone. I either say it or I don't PERIOD!

Where did I say I supported this man....show me where I typed those very words. I dare you....show me the written text of where I vouch my support.


You remind me of an old lady gossip who starts out with one bit of info and by the time she gets done with it the story is no where near the original.
 

Red Robin

Well-known member
kolanuraven said:
Steve...I don't insinuate ANYTHING to anyone. I either say it or I don't PERIOD!


You remind me of an old lady gossip who starts out with one bit of info and by the time she gets done with it the story is no where near the original.
He reminds me of someone who got it right. You insuinated that wake boarding was being done. PERIOD!
 

Mike

Well-known member
Steve...I don't insinuate ANYTHING to anyone.

She's right Steve. That was no insinuation the way I read it. She just came right out and said it! :lol:

quote:
Guess I'd claim everything I could also to stop the water-boarding!

another
They are gonna use this guy to take the heat and attention away from hunting for UBL

Poor guy!!!!!!!!!! :roll:
 

Cal

Well-known member
I understand that al Qaeda's Rosie O'Donnell made the statement that we "took away his humanity" or something stupid like that. I think it's very odd how Rosie would look just like him if she didn't have her back waxed.
 

Econ101

Well-known member
Cal said:
I understand that al Qaeda's Rosie O'Donnell made the statement that we "took away his humanity" or something stupid like that. I think it's very odd how Rosie would look just like him if she didn't have her back waxed.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 

aplusmnt

Well-known member
kolanuraven said:
They are gonna use this guy to take the heat and attention away from hunting for UBL, which they can't find and seem to have quit looking!


This guy sounds like he's bragging, I've no doubt he's a major player but come on, when did he even have to take a pi$$ with a schedule like that???? Guess I'd claim everything I could also to stop the water-boarding!

What makes you think they are not looking for UBL? You seem to assume a lot of things!

Why do you feel compelled to always jump on the side against America? You assume our Military is doing a bad job looking for UBL, you assume our Military is doing evil things to this Al Qaeda leader. And you assume that this man is not as evil as he claims he is.

Why you always looking for a hook that will make the terrorist seem less evil and America seem more evil? :mad:
 

Econ101

Well-known member
I do think Kol and Rosie have a point. The point is not that these guys should be treated better, it is whether or not the confession is valid.

These guys are the scum of the earth and should be dealt with accordingly.

I do think we fool ourselves into believing that everything they say is truthful just because some of it may be.

I find it hard to believe that this one guy could do all that he confessed to. As I said before, if it is true, we only need to corral less than 100 people to get a grip on this terrorist thing. I find that hard to believe but if we are to believe his confession in whole as the government presents it, the terrorist threat applied so far is limited to a very short list.

I don't think we should have to tip our whole economy to get at this few of people. If we do, we are so inefficient at combating the threat that we will screw ourselves.
 

kolanuraven

Well-known member
Do you folks EVER look at something in an objective manner?

Look at all sides before you commit it to stone in your 3 celled brain?

Just because someone looks at all aspects of a situation DOES NOT mean they are anti anything.

If ' Dubya' had of slowed down and looked all all things regarding Iraq in an objective matter, chances are pretty high we'd not have our young men and women fighting/dying in a centuries old grudge match between 2 religious factions.
 

Red Robin

Well-known member
kolanuraven said:
Do you folks EVER look at something in an objective manner?

Look at all sides before you commit it to stone in your 3 celled brain?

Just because someone looks at all aspects of a situation DOES NOT mean they are anti anything.

If ' Dubya' had of slowed down and looked all all things regarding Iraq in an objective matter, chances are pretty high we'd not have our young men and women fighting/dying in a centuries old grudge match between 2 religious factions.
I thought you were out of here?
 
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