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Guantanamo detainees say they planned 9/11: report

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-11 00:05

WASHINGTON -- The five detainees at the US Guantanamo Bay prison camp charged with plotting the September 11 attacks have filed a document expressing pride at their accomplishment and accepting responsibility for the deaths of nearly 3,000 people, The New York Times reported on Monday.

A US Army soldier walks through a cell block at Camp Delta at Guantanamo Naval Base in Guantanamo, Cuba, in 2004. [Agencies]

The document, which the newspaper said may be released publicly on Tuesday, describes the five men as the "9/11 Shura Council," and says their actions were an offering to God, according to excerpts of the document read to a reporter by an unidentified government official, the report said.

"'To us,' the official read, 'they are not accusations. To us they are a badge of honor, which we carry with honor,'" the paper said.

Related readings:  9/11 suspects ask to make 'confessions'  US marks 7th anniversary of 9/11 terrorist attacks  Global poll shows doubt about al-Qaida role in 9/11 attacks  9/11 plotter says: 'You don't understand al Qaeda.'

The document is titled "The Islamic Response to the Government's Nine Accusations," the military judge at the US Naval base said in a separate filing, obtained by the Times, that described the detainees' document.

The document was filed on behalf of the five men, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who has called himself the mastermind of the attacks.

Some of the men had said earlier that they planned the 2001 attacks and that they wanted to be martyrs. The reason for the new filing, which the report said reached the military court on March 5, was not clear. The brief court order describing the filing said the men sought no legal action.