For his part in the Pearl killing he says there is photographic evidence. And there may be. But he is still straining credulity here. After all, he also brought down the Towers. And masterminded the Bali bombing. And on and on. If they don’t rein him in soon, he will be claiming responsibility for the Mahdi uprising in Sudan in the late 19th century, and Saladin’s defeat of Richard Coeur de Leon. And I’m pretty sure that he single-handedly defeated the Quraysh at the Battle of Badr.
“9/11 mastermind admits killing reporter,” by Katherine Shrader for Associated Press:
WASHINGTON – Suspected 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confessed to the beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl and a central role in 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.
Mohammed’s claimed involvement in the 2002 slaying of the Wall Street Journal reporter was among 31 attacks and plots “” some of which never occurred “” he took responsibility for in a hearing Saturday at the U.S. naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Pentagon said.
It released the bulk of the transcript late Wednesday, but held back the section about Pearl’s killing to allow time for his family to be notified, said Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman.
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that it had learned that the transcripts released Wednesday evening had blacked out the reference to Mohammed’s confession about the Pearl slaying. 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.
Sealing a legacy of historical notoriety, Mohammed portrayed himself as al-Qaida’s most ambitious operational planner in a confession to a U.S. military tribunal that said he planned and supported a series of terrorist attacks, topped by 9/11. 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.