Monday, April 25, 2011

Al-Qa'ida 'hid nuclear bomb in Europe'

Herald Sun

KHALID Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on the US, claimed under interrogation in Guantanamo Bay that Al-Qa'ida hid a nuclear bomb in Europe to be detonated if Osama bin Laden was ever killed or captured.

Mohammed, the operational commander of Al-Qa'ida warned militants would unleash a "nuclear hellstorm" on the West, according to Wikileaks documents published today by several US and European media outlets including The Washington Post and the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph.

The files, known as Detainee Assessment Briefs or DABs, contain details of the interrogations of more than 700 Guantanamo inmates, and reveal the background to their capture and the information they provided during interrogations. However, they do not reveal the methods of interrogation used to obtain information from prisoners, said to include water-boarding and sleep deprivation.

Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
Related Coverage

* US knew GITMO inmates innocent Herald Sun, 2 hours ago
* Hicks 'wanted to be a mercenary' Adelaide Now, 5 hours ago
* 'Nuclear hellstorm' if bin Laden caught Herald Sun, 5 hours ago
* Hicks posed threat to US, says Wiki Courier Mail, 5 hours ago
* Al-Qa'ida threat to stage nuke hellstorm The Australian, 5 hours ago

End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.

The 15-page-long file on Mohammed, who faces a military tribunal later this year over the 9/11 attacks, revealed that he claimed he was plotting more attacks in America and Britain, as well as in Asia and Africa.

"Detainee had numerous plots and plans for operations targeting the US, its allies, and its interests worldwide," the file said.

Prisoners also claimed that there was a plot to put cyanide in the air-conditioning units of public buildings in the US. The documents also revealed that biological and chemical attacks were being plotted against targets in the UK.

The files confirm that 20 underage youths, including a 14-year-old boy were incarcerated at the military facility while a number of pensioners including an 89-year-old with serious health problems were also held there.

About 220 of the 780 prisoners were assessed to be dangerous international terrorists. A further 380 people were lower-level foot-soldiers, while 150 people turned out to be no more than innocent farmers or drivers.

The Pentagon told The Washington Post that the decision to publish some of the material was "unfortunate" and stressed that the DABs provided were incomplete and not necessarily the present view of individual detainees.

No comments: