And much, much more.
Mohammed has also acknowledged being responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, as well as other attempted terrorist attacks around the world in the years since.
The confessions come from a transcript of a hearing held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Saturday in which the Al Qaeda terrorist also acknowledged a plot to assassinate Bill Clinton while the former president was visiting the Philippines in 1994. The transcripts also show Mohammed admitted to plotting the October 2002 terrorist attack in Bali, Indonesia.
The Beeb says he also admitted to plots against Big Ben and Heathrow.
Looking for the transcript. Standby.
Update: Fox has updated their story. He confessed to 29 plots in all, including the Richard Reid shoebomb plot and planned assassinations of the pope and … Jimmy Carter?
Odd that Daniel Pearl isn’t mentioned given Mohammed’s suspected role in his beheading.
Update: Interesting. Ramzi Binalshibh refused to appear and Abu Farraj al-Libi threatened not to appear again because of the alleged unfairness of the proceedings, but Mohammed seems to be playing ball. Maybe he’s glory-seeking, confessing to some things he wasn’t involved in to build up his legend.
The transcripts also lay out evidence against Mohammed, saying that a computer seized during his capture included detailed information about the Sept. 11 plot _ ranging from names and photos of the hijackers to photos of hijacker Mohammad Atta’s pilot’s license and even letters from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Update: Fox has KSM’s full confession in bullet points. Sample: “Planning new wave of attacks on the following skyscrapers following 9/11: Library Tower in Calif., Sears Tower in Chicago, Plaza Bank in Washington state and the Empire State Building in New York City.” He also had designs on U.S. embassies in places as far afield as Japan and Azerbaijan.
The Library Tower plot was the one he allegedly confessed to after being waterboarded.
Update: The Blotter has a PDF of the list of plots Mohammed confessed to. NATO headquarters, the Panama Canal, the New York Stock Exchange, and the southern Israeli city of Eilat were also targeted, the last with “airplanes leaving from Saudi Arabia.” Note the redacted item, too. Is that one still in the works or just too scary for public consumption? If the latter, it must be awfully scary — item 25 specifies that he wanted to hit American nuclear power plants.
Update: The Times of London profiles the brain behind Al Qaeda.
Update: If you click only one link here, click this and read the Defense Dept. account of the hearing (via the Jawas).
He offered a chilling confession to “managing and following up on the Cell for the Production of Biological Weapons, such as anthrax and others, and following up on Dirty Bomb Operations on American soil.”…
Muhammad’s lengthy closing oral statement began with a pledge to Allah in Arabic followed by a refusal to take an oath as part of the tribunal. He explained that he was not lying, but that his religious beliefs prevented him taking the oath and thereby accepting, at least in part, American law and its constitution.
Muhammad went on to say that he was not trying to make himself out to be a hero, but an enemy of America.
He drew a comparison between bin Laden and George Washington, both fighting for independence, and said that the term terrorist is “deceiving.” He said that during the Revolutionary War, Washington would have been considered a terrorist by the British.
Muhammad said he did not like to kill people, especially children.
“I don’t like to kill people. I feel very sorry they been killed kids in 9/11,” Muhammad said in broken English. But, he said, their deaths are part of the “language” of war.
He closed by stating that war is part of life and that it will never stop.
The full transcript is supposed to be at the bottom of the page here, but it’s not there as of 9:30 ET.
Update: All right, the full transcript is up. The list of plots starts on page 17; his apologia — one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, we’re just as bad as they are, he doesn’t like to kill people but what can he do when we’re oppressing yadda yadda — begins on page 20. Note the passage at the bottom 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 in broken English so it’s hard to figure out what he means. He seems to be accusing him of having worked for Mossad.
Update: HuffPo readers react. So do the DUers.
Update: According to a Fox bulletin at 8:30 a.m. ET, Mohammed has now also confessed to beheading Daniel Pearl.
Update: Here’s the article. “I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew Daniel Pearl.”
