9/11 man planned Big Ben blast

The alleged mastermind of the September 11 terror attacks on the US has claimed he also wanted blow up Big Ben.Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confessed to the attacks in a hearing at the US detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.Mohammed said he was responsible "from A to Z" for the strikes on America, which left more than 3,000 people dead.The Pakistani national also said he was responsible for a 1993 attack on New York's World Trade Center, a nightclub bombing in Bali, Indonesia, an attempt to down two American planes using shoe bombs and other attacks.He also outlined plans to destroy Heathrow Airport and the Canary Wharf Building.Mohammed is among 14 prisoners identified by US authorities as "high-value" terrorism suspects and was transferred to Guantanamo last year from secret CIA prisons abroad.Mohammed spoke both on his own and through his representative, a member of the US military."I was the operational director for Sheikh Usama (Osama) Bin Laden for the organising, planning, follow-up and execution of the 9/11 operation," he said through his representative.Mohammed's full statement claimed responsibility for 28 separate attacks or plots.It also said he shared responsibility for three other plots, including one to assassinate Pope John Paul in the Philippines and another to kill Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.Mohammed, in a long statement in broken English, appeared to express some regret at the deaths caused by the September 11 attacks, but suggested they were justified as part of a war against the US."I'm not happy that three thousand been killed in America. I feel sorry even," he said."The language of any war in the world is killing. I mean the language of the war is victims."Mohammed also referred to US journalist Daniel Pearl, killed in Pakistan in 2002, but his comments were unclear.Mohammed is a prime suspect in Pearl's murder and Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf wrote in a memoir published last year that Mohammed executed Pearl.The president of the three-member military panel conducting the hearing referred to a written statement "regarding alleged abuse or treatment that the detainee received."© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

ITN | March 15, 2007