He confessed to 31 plots at a Gitmo tribunal:
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. Manyplots, including a previously undisclosed plan to kill several formerU.S. presidents, were never carried out or were foiled by internationalcounterterror authorities. "I was responsible forthe 9/11 operation from A to Z," Mohammed said in a statement readSaturday during a Combatant Status Review Tribunal at the U.S.detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Mohammed's confession wasread by a member of the U.S. military who is serving as his personalrepresentative.
He claimed to have been "responsible" for the 1993 attack on theWorld Trade Center, Richard Reid's attempt to ignite a shoe bomb on anairliner over the Atlantic Ocean in December 2001, and the October 2002bombing of a nightclub in Bali, Indonesia.
Mohammed also said heplotted to assassinate several former presidents, including JimmyCarter, a scheme not previously revealed.
Mohammed described several other plots that never came about, such asattacks on buildings in California, Chicago and Washington state, andon the New York Stock Exchange.
But this "freedom fighter" is not entirely without heart, not to mention access to the Michael Moore talking points (also from the WaPo):
"Because war, for sure, there will be victims," he said. "When Isaid I'm not happy that 3,000 been killed in America. I feel sorryeven. I don't like to kill children and the kids."
Mohammedlikened al-Qaeda's quest to Colonial America's struggles in the ofAmerica's Revolutionary War, drawing parallels between Laden and GeorgeWashington.
"So when we made any war against America, we arejackals fighting in the nights," he said, adding later that hadWashington been arrested by the British, he, too, would have beenconsidered an enemy combatant.
Mmmm-hmmm.
Here's a transcript of the proceedings. Allah points out the highlights:
The list of plots starts on page 17; his apologia — one man’sterrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, we’re just as bad as theyare, he doesn’t like to kill people but what can he do when we’reoppressing yadda yadda — begins on page 20. Note the passage at thebottom of page 24 where he tries to justify attacking “economical”targets vis-a-vis U.S. bombing raids on Ayman al-Zawahiri’s house.
Daniel Pearl is mentioned on that page too but Mohammed speaks inbroken English so it’s hard to figure out what he means. He seems to beaccusing him of having worked for Mossad.
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The Daniel Pearl confession is also in there:
And he confessed to thebeheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in a section ofthe statement that was excised from the public document, The AssociatedPress has learned. Pearl was abducted in January 2002 in Pakistan whileresearching a story on Islamic militancy. Mohammed has long been asuspect in the slaying, which was captured on video.
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