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03/15/07
In confession, terror suspect says he beheaded Pearl
By MICHAEL MELIA
Associated Press Writer
Suspected 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed boasted at
a military hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba that he personally
beheaded American journalist Daniel Pearl, according to a
revised Pentagon transcript released Thursday.
Mohammed has been considered a suspect since shortly after
the kidnapping. Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf
wrote in a memoir published last year that Mohammed either
killed Pearl or took part in the murder.
But Mohammed was not officially linked to Pearl's murder during
Pakistani police investigations or the trial that resulted
in four Islamic militants being convicted for the killing.
One of the men was sentenced to death, and the others to life
in prison.
"I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of
the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan,"
Mohammed told a U.S. military panel Saturday. "For those
who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the
Internet holding his head."
The Pentagon released the bulk of the transcript late Wednesday,
but held back the section about Pearl to allow time for his
family to be notified, said Defense Department spokesman Bryan
Whitman.
Pearl's parents said it was impossible to know whether Mohammed's
claim about killing their son "has any bearing in truth."
"We prefer to focus our energy on continuing Danny's
lifework through the programs of the Daniel Pearl Foundation
which aim to eradicate the hatred that took his life,"
Judea and Ruth Pearl said in a statement.
In a muddled statement in broken English, Mohammed also claimed
that Pearl had been working for Israel's Mossad secret service
and had a relationship with the CIA when he was abducted in
Pakistan in January 2002 -- allegations rejected by terrorism
experts and Pearl's Wall Street Journal colleagues.
"It's ludicrous and preposterous," said Paul Steiger,
the Journal's managing editor. "Danny was a journalist
first, last and always."
A spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Mark Regev,
dismissed the claim as baseless, and other analysts said it
lacked credibility.
Pearl was abducted while researching a story on Islamic militancy
in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Mohammed, who was born in Pakistan's Baluchistan province
and raised in Kuwait, said Pearl had been collecting information
about a trip to Israel once made by Richard Reid, who was
convicted of trying to use explosives hidden in his shoes
to destroy an airliner in December 2001.
"His mission in Pakistan from Israeli intelligence, Mossad,
to make interview to ask about when he was there," the
transcript quotes Mohammed as saying.
In all, Mohammed took responsibility for 31 attacks and plots
-- some of which never occurred -- during his closed hearing
at the U.S. naval prison at Guantanamo Bay.
Al-Qaida and other Islamic terror groups often accuse their
targets of working for Israeli intelligence as justification
for violence, according to Rita Katz, director of the SITE
Institute, which monitors extremist messages on the Internet.
"It's a way of getting more support, justification, and
sympathy for your actions," Katz said. "Rather than
saying we killed him because he's a reporter or just because
he's Jewish, you make a better case if you say he's an agent."
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On the Net:
Detainee transcripts:http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Combatant_Tribunals.html
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