As is known, U.S. DoD spokespeople have announced that Mohammed, who was the number three in al-Qaeda, has voluntarily claimed responsibility for the appalling September 11, 2001 attack in the U.S., as well as for the orchestration or planning of some 30 more terrorist operations around the world. If he is telling the truth, Mohammed has masterminded practically all of the high-profile bomb attacks and assassination attempts where Al-Qaeda was involved, starting from 1990s.
Mohammed’s criminal record is strikingly long, as he confessed to his U.S. interrogators. According to his own testimony, prior to the arrest, he was the one who directly managed and coordinated all of Al-Qaeda’s foreign operations planned by Osama Bin Laden and Aiman Al-Zawahiri. He also was in charge of the terrorist cell which manufactured biological weapons, such as anthrax pathogens, and orchestrated the “dirty bomb” operations on U.S. soil.
Mohammed even confessed to his involvement in the attack on New York’s World Trade Center back in 1993, the 2002 bomb attacks on a night club in Bali (Indonesia) and a hotel in Kenia. He also professed responsibility for a number of alleged plots, including plans to destroy Heathrow airport, the Canary Wharf buildings and even the famous Big Ben – the parliament building – in the UK. He claims to have had a role in the failed attempt to down a U.S. jet liner, when Al-Qaeda follower Richard Reid tried to blow it up with explosives hidden in his shoes.
This super-villain even says he was in charge of making plans to assassinate former United States Presidents, including Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, as well as President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf and the deceased Pope John Paul II. He also mentioned alleged plans to blow up the NATO Headquarters in Brussels, the Empire State Building in New York, the Sears Towers in Chicago, the Library Towers in LA, and to attack U.S. warships in the Straits of Hormuz, Gibraltar and Singapore.
The captured terrorist confessed to a series of other shocking crimes, including having personally decapitated several hostages.
A Pakistan national, Mohammed was captured in Pakistan back in 2003 and extradited to the U.S. For a long time he was kept in custody in secret CIA prisons, then transferred to the notorious facility in Guantanamo, Cuba. In fact, he had given his sensational testimony long before that. He had confessed to all those crimes during intensive interrogations by CIA and military intelligence officers.
What caused the sensation was the formal presentation of his testimony at the recent Guantanamo hearing of what is known as a Combatant Status Review Tribunal, the first step toward a possible war crimes trial. Mohammed went before that tribunal along with 14 other “high-value” Guantanamo detainees. Hearings in Guantanamo are held behind closed doors. Therefore, all the startling revelations came from a transcript of Mohammed’s tribunal, no doubt edited and abridged, released by the Pentagon.
The transcript had to be translated from Arabic into English, the Pentagon spokespeople explained, and classified information had to be left out. However, they added, Mohammed partially repented his crimes, especially the murder of innocent women and children. Even the low-browed U.S. media couldn’t ignore the obvious melodrama of this alleged repentance.
In this connection, many observers conclude that the sensation has been skillfully staged and perfectly timed. Increasingly slammed for its “achievements” in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush Administration desperately needs some good news on its war on terror in the run-up to the presidential election.
Meanwhile, many lawyers and human rights activists, both in and outside the United States, express strong doubts about the reliability of Mohammed’s confessions. The international community has more than once criticized Guantanamo practices which include, as was officially admitted, the use of torture, beating, psychological pressure and psychoactive drugs on inmates. The recent photos of Mohammed are indirect evidence of that, as he looks rather dazed and confused on them.
The Pentagon denies it, of course. But, as all the interrogations were conducted in the absence of lawyers and international observers, one can only guess how the sensational confessions have been extracted from Bin Laden’s “operational director.” He probably gave the testimony under duress, including the controversial waterboarding technique, as some Western media reported referring to sources in U.S. special services.
In addition, observers point out, Mohammed admitted to have collaborated with U.S. intelligence when he fought against the Soviet Union during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s and 1990s, which means he could have been a CIA agent then. In this case, his former employers could have made a deal with him in Guantanamo – possibly by using psychological pressure.
That is why many international experts think Mohammed’s confessions need to be carefully studied and independently verified. As for the U.S. military justice, it had better not base case on the suspect’s testimony, sensational or not, but present real evidence to the public – provided such evidence does exist.
