Posted on 09/05/2002 2:43:11 PM PDT by Shermy
DUBAI (Reuters) - Arabic television station al-Jazeera said on Thursday it had confessions from two men it identified as members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network claiming the group was responsible for the September 11 attacks.
A Jazeera official identified the two men as Ramzi bin al-Shaibah and Khaled al-Sheikh Mohammad, who the channel said were former room mates of Mohamed Atta, one of the 19 hijackers of aircraft which were flown into U.S. landmarks.
In the first part of a documentary aired on Thursday, the Qatar-based channel, noted for its footage of bin Laden, said the two men were interviewed in Karachi, Pakistan, but did not say when.
"In the second part of this documentary there will be the first direct confession as to how al Qaeda planned and executed the September 11 (attacks)," Yosri Fouda, the journalist who prepared the documentary said. The second part will be aired next Thursday.
The interviews were arranged by a liaison officer of al Qaeda the channel identified as Abu Bakr. It did not give further details about the interview but said the two men lived with Atta in Hamburg, Germany, until days before the attacks.
Top al Qaida leaders interviewed
WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- An Arabic language satellite television station Thursday previewed an interview with two top al Qaida leaders filmed in Karachi, Pakistan.
Khaled Shaikh Mohammad and Ramzi Binalshibh, who served in Osama bin Laden's network, spoke to the al Jazeera news channel from a hidden location in an interview that the station says will be continued next week.
Al Jazeera, based in Qatar, interviewed the two for its program "Top Secret," after al Qaida operatives brought the interviewer blindfolded to a Karachi apartment.
In the second part of the investigative program monitored in Washington by United Press International, the station says the two will speak publicly for the first time about last September's suicide hijacking attacks on New York and Washington.
Shortly after the attacks, in which four U.S. jetliners were hijacked and crashed into the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in rural Pennsylvania, U.S. officials charged that bin Laden was the mastermind of the plot that carried out by cells of al Qaida. Just over 3,000 people died in the attacks.
The station said the two men described in detail how al Qaida planned and carried out the attacks on what they call "Holy Tuesday." The interviews were conducted recently, the station said. It did not specify when, and did not explain how video pictures of the blindfolded interviewer in a car and climbing the staircase to the apartment were shot.
In a statement distributed Thursday, al Jazeera said the men interviewed were the head of al Qaida's military committee and the coordinator of the Sept. 11 operation. Both are on the FBI's most-wanted list as well as being wanted by German authorities.
The "Top Secret," program also included interviews with Lyndon LaRouche, the controversial conspiracy theorist and editor of Executive Intelligence Review, French author Thierry Meyssan, who has penned a book questioning the U.S. government's account of the Sept. 11 attacks, former CIA chief of counter-terrorism operations, Vince Cannistraro, and the father of Mohammed Atta, who is thought to have been the leader of the 19 hijackers.
"Live from Bedlam, it's the Lyndon LaRouche Hour!"
Nothing special about Abu Bakr -- a very common Arabic name, move along now.
I checked the Mecca phone book. Hundreds of Abu Bakr's. Abu Bakr Plumbing, Abu Bakr & Sons Moving Service, Abu Bakr Virginity Restoration Service.
Really. Nothing there. Move along now.
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