Key 9/11 suspect confesses guilt

The alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks has confessed to his role in them, and 29 other terror plots around the world, the Pentagon says. "I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z," said Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a transcript of a US hearing at Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

He also said he had planned attacks on Big Ben and Heathrow airport in London. The hearing held at the weekend ruled he was an "enemy combatant" who should remain in detention indefinitely. It now opens the way for Mohammed to face criminal charges and eventually a trial before a special military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay.

According to the transcripts, Sheikh Mohammed admitted responsibility for a series of attacks, including the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York and the attempt by the so-called shoe bomber, Richard Reid, to down an American plane. He also claimed to be behind plots to assassinate the late Pope John Paul II and former US President Bill Clinton.

Many of the operations, including plans to attack Heathrow Airport and Big Ben in London, never happened. Transcripts of his testimony were translated from Arabic and edited by the US Defense Department to remove sensitive intelligence material before release.

Mohammed is the most high-profile of 14 "high value" detainees recently transferred from secret CIA prisons abroad to the Guantanamo Bay camp in Cuba. The closed-door hearings were held over the weekend.

It is the first time Mohammed has faced a court since his capture in March 2003 in Pakistan.

Mohammed, a Pakistan national, was said to be the third most senior al-Qaeda leader before his capture.
BBC