Khalid Shaikh Mohammed Confesses to Beheading Daniel Pearl
WASHINGTON _ The al-Qaida killer who confessed this week to masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks also admitted beheading New York journalist Daniel Pearl “with my blessed right hand.”
During a military hearing last weekend, Osama bin Laden’s former No. 3, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, boasted of personally cutting off the head of the Wall Street Journal reporter in 2002.
“I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan,” Mohammed said in a statement read by his military representative. “For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head.”
The Pentagon waited a day to release the full transcript to notify Pearl’s family, officials said.
Video of the Pearl killing was leaked on the Internet in 2002, but Mohammed was not immediately identified as the murderer.
Pearl’s parents, Judea and Ruth Pearl, tried Thursday to ignore Mohammed’s bluster.
“It is impossible to know at this point whether Khalid Shaikh Mohammed’s boast about killing our son has any bearing in truth,” they said in a statement. “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.”
The litany of 30 other plots and attacks Mohammed copped to ranged from the two attacks on the World Trade Center to bombings of tourist spots in Kenya and in Bali.
He claimed he oversaw al-Qaida efforts to create and smuggle anthrax and radioactive “dirty” bombs into the U.S. He also plotted to assassinate Pope John Paul II and former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.
Two ex-CIA counterterrorism chiefs told the New York Daily News Mohammed didn’t exaggerate.
“There was a lot of swagger,” said Michael Scheuer, who founded the CIA’s bin Laden unit, Alec Station. “But all of it rang true to me.”
John Brennan, another retired CIA al-Qaida hunter, said Mohammed was “quite creative, and threw out a lot of seeds to see if they would actually germinate.”
Yet Mohammed’s role varied “to different degrees,” and many plots were only ideas, he said.
“They didn’t have the people or capability to do all of those,” said Brennan, who led the National Counterterrorism Center.
One example Brennan cited arose last year during the death penalty trial of al-Qaida thug Zacarias Moussaoui. The defense gave jurors a statement by Mohammed that his “second wave” attack after Sept. 11 was stymied early because of beefed-up security.
Mohammed’s brazen confession has given hope to Sept. 11 families that he’ll finally face justice for killing their loved ones.
“I didn’t think it would happen in my lifetime,” said widow Rosemary Dillard, whose husband, Eddie, was killed in the Pentagon. “Now I think he’s going to be tried by a military tribunal.”
Experts said Mohammed’s admissions changed things.
Gary Solis, a Georgetown University law professor and ex-Marine prosecutor, also never thought Mohammed would be tried because he underwent tortures such as waterboarding and was held in long confinement at secret CIA black sites.
“They could try him,” Solis concluded. “He has offered them a torture-free route to conviction.”
Carie Lemack, whose mom, Judy Larocque, was killed on American Airlines Flight 11, said, “We deserve to confront the man who planned the murders of our loved ones.”
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ARCHIVE PHOTO on MCT Direct (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): KHALID SHAIKH MOHAMMED
GRAPHIC (from MCT Graphics, 202-383-6064): KHALID
ARCHIVE GRAPHICS on MCT Direct (from MCT Graphics, 202-383-6064): KHALID SHAIKH MOHAMMED
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