Five Guantánamo detainees claim responsibility for September 11 attacks

Daniel Nasaw in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 10 March 2009 14.30 GMT

Five terrorism suspects in the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba have claimed responsibility for the attacks of September 11 2001 and said they are proud of the effort that killed nearly 3,000 people, calling it a model of Islamic action.

The Pentagon this morning confirmed a report in the New York Times that five men, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, filed a document with the military commission that may try them in which they say the accusations against them cause them no shame.

"To us, they are not accusations," the document reads, according to the Times. "To us they are a badge of honour, which we carry with honour."

A Pentagon spokesman confirmed the men had authored the pleading and presented it to the judge. The men likely wrote it at the camp without their lawyers' assistance. The document describes the men as the "9/11 Shura Council", using the Arabic term for a consultative assembly, and said the attacks were an offering to God.

The statements come as high-level aides to Barack Obama are reviewing the status of the roughly 245 Guantanamo inmates there in order to determine which should released and which should face trial. In his some of his first actions as president, Obama ordered the prison at Guantánamo Bay closed within the first year of his presidency and halted the military commission trials. The administration hopes that many of the inmates will eventually be transfered to other countries, including Britain. Last month Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian-born British resident, was released from Guantanamo and returned to Britain. Other detainees may face trial in US courts.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind behind the September 11 attacks, was indicted in US federal court before he was brought to Guantánamo Bay. It is unclear whether statements he has made while in US custody there would be used against him in civilian trial. Hasawi has been described as the financial facilitator for the September 11 attacks. The two are among the suspected terrorists believed still to pose a national security threat to the United States.