The BBC has posted on its website a 26-page transcript issued by the Pentagon of a March 10, 2007 session at the Military Tribunal in Guantanamo in which a person presented to the secret Tribunal as Khalid Mohammed Sheikh “confesses” or rather boasts to have been involved in all of these crimes. The Military Tribunal was apparently not interested in finding out whether these confessions bear any relation to the truth. Thus, the detainee was not given an opportunity to explain how he managed to have his men place explosives in the Twin Towers and World Trade Center No. 7, which ensured the demolition of these high-rise steel buildings. He probably will never been asked that question.

However, doubt remains about the identity of the person who has “confessed” to all these crimes. According to Wikipedia, Khaled Mohammed Sheikh “attended Chowan College, a small Baptist school in Murfreesboro, North Carolina, for a few years (beginning in 1983) before transferring to the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and completing a degree in mechanical engineering in 1986”. According to Jason Burke (Al Qaeda, The True Story of Radical Islam, p. 113), by 1989, “Shaikh was in Peshawar, teaching engineering at Sayyaf’s University of Da’wa”. In order to teach engineering in a Pakistani university, one is required to be fluent in English.  Between 1992 and 1996, he is reported to have lived in Qatar and worked there “in a government office as a project engineer for the Qatari Ministry of Electricity and Water.” Also in such a post, he would be working at least partly in English.  Anyone who reads the released transcript will immediately be struck by the puzzling fact that the US-educated engineer could hardly make one correct sentence in English. The real “Khaled Mohammed Sheikh” is also reported to have been a playboy who in the Philippines “had parties with alcohol and spent lavish times with Manila women. He often went to go-go bars and karaoke clubs and held meetings at expensive hotels.” (Wikipedia). Yet the person before the Military Tribunal repeatedly invokes religious principles and Islam as his alleged guiding principles. Who was the man, presented to the Military Tribunal, and who allegedly confessed to have masterminded practically all large international crimes in recent history?

It should be noted that the US authorities have never authenticated the identity of the person they have arrested in 2003 and kept in custody since then under the name “Khaled Mohammed Sheikh”. That detainee has never been presented to outsiders or even to a civilian judge in order to ascertain that person’s identity. Questions remain even about the circumstances of his arrest. In 2004, the U.S. government refused to admit it had KSM in custody. “The insurance companies want the U.S. Justice Department to serve summonses and complaints on Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other militants named as defendants in a lawsuit in federal court in New York City. But U.S. authorities said they have never officially acknowledged holding the men…. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined Friday to discuss the case.”

It should be mentioned that the released transcripts from the Military Tribunal are not signed by any person, do not bear any official sign, and do not indicate the names of any court member. This means that no person has actually confirmed, through his signature, that the transcript represents what it purports to represent. Neither CNN nor the BBC mention these legally crucial facts.

Finally, it might be good to remember that even if someone confesses to have planned a crime, such confession does not constitute a proof as to the identities of those who actually committed the crime, nor as to the method in which the crime was committed. Anybody can boast of having been planned or financed 9/11 or of any other crime. But such claims cannot be taken at face value. As long as the US authorities do not produce compelling evidence that the 19 individuals accused by the FBI for having hijacked the aircraft on 9/11 and piloted these aircraft onto the known landmarks, had actually boarded these aircraft and had the skills to pilot the aircraft and overwhelm both crew and passengers, great caution must be exercised in taking at face value confessions such as that by the alleged Khaled Mohammed Sheikh. The very likelihood that the Twin Towers and WTC-7 were demolished by explosives puts into question the whole official account, including the alleged confession of the alleged Khaled Mohammed Sheikh. Media workers have still much work to do before reestablishing some of their lost credibility.
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