Bomb mastermind confesses
A SUSPECTED top Al-Qaeda operative has confessed to plotting the bombings of the USS Cole and two US embassies in Africa.
In a Guantanamo Bay hearing transcript, Waleed bin Attash admits he was the mastermind behind the 1998 embassy attacks in Kenya and Tanzania which killed more than 200 people.
He also admits recruiting the suicide bombers who steered an explosives-laden boat into the guided missile destroyer Cole in 2000, killing 17 sailors and injuring dozens more.
"I participated in the buying or purchasing of the explosives," bin Attash said.
"I put together the plan for the operation a year and a half prior to the operation, buying the boat and recruiting the members that did the operation."
Bin Attash, alleged to have been bin Laden’s bodyguard at one time, is a Yemeni who was born and raised in Saudi Arabia.
He is one of 14 so called "high-value" prisoners transferred last year to US military custody at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base after being held by the CIA at a secret location.
Hearings for them are being conducted in secret by the military to determine whether the detainees should be declared "enemy combatants" who can be held indefinitely and prosecuted by military tribunals.
If, as expected, the 14 are declared enemy combatants, they could then be charged and tried under the new military commissions law signed by President Bush in October.
Bin Attash allegedly helped choose the September 11 hijackers and made two flights on US airlines to assess in-flight security procedures.
The Sun
In a Guantanamo Bay hearing transcript, Waleed bin Attash admits he was the mastermind behind the 1998 embassy attacks in Kenya and Tanzania which killed more than 200 people.
He also admits recruiting the suicide bombers who steered an explosives-laden boat into the guided missile destroyer Cole in 2000, killing 17 sailors and injuring dozens more.
"I participated in the buying or purchasing of the explosives," bin Attash said.
"I put together the plan for the operation a year and a half prior to the operation, buying the boat and recruiting the members that did the operation."
Bin Attash, alleged to have been bin Laden’s bodyguard at one time, is a Yemeni who was born and raised in Saudi Arabia.
He is one of 14 so called "high-value" prisoners transferred last year to US military custody at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base after being held by the CIA at a secret location.
Hearings for them are being conducted in secret by the military to determine whether the detainees should be declared "enemy combatants" who can be held indefinitely and prosecuted by military tribunals.
If, as expected, the 14 are declared enemy combatants, they could then be charged and tried under the new military commissions law signed by President Bush in October.
Bin Attash allegedly helped choose the September 11 hijackers and made two flights on US airlines to assess in-flight security procedures.
The Sun
posted by Subrosa at Monday, March 19, 2007
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