The self-portrait of an Al Qaeda leader
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed put the murder of reporter Daniel Pearl on his long list of terrorist acts.
from the March 16, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
He added: "I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan. For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head."
Mr. Pearl was a Wall Street Journal reporter who was abducted and murdered in Pakistan in 2002.
Taking responsibility for many plots
Mohammed also claimed participation in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; the "shoe bomb" plot involving Richard Reid; the nightclub bombing in Bali, Indonesia in October 2002; a planned second wave of 9/11-like attacks on skyscrapers in Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, and New York; planned attacks on the Panama Canal; attacks on suspension bridges in New York and the New York Stock Exchange; attacks in London against Heathrow Airport, the Canary Wharf building, and Big Ben; and a missile attack against an El Al airliner near Mombasa, Kenya, among others.
He also admitted to involvement in assassination plots against then President Bill Clinton, former President Jimmy Carter, and Pope John Paul II.
"I'm not making myself [a] hero when I said I was responsible for this or that," Mohammed told the panel, in broken English.
He said he was engaged in a war against America and that the language of war is killing. "We are jackals fighting in the night," he said.
But at the same time, Mohammed said he felt remorse for the victims.
"I don't like to kill people," he said. "I feel very sorry kids [were killed] in 9/11."
In attempting to justify his actions, Mohammed likened himself to George Washington. "If now we were living in the Revolutionary War and George Washington [was] arrested [by] Britain, for sure they would consider him enemy combatant," he said. "But Americans they consider him as hero."
Torture allegations
In addition to admitting his widespread involvement with Al Qaeda, Mohammed also used his hearing before the panel to try to expose alleged illegal conduct by American officials in their treatment of detainees.
He said some statements he made while in the custody of the Central Intelligence Agency were made under "torture."
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