Guantanamo detainee says he helped bomb USS Cole, Kenya US embassy News
Guantanamo detainee says he helped bomb USS Cole, Kenya US embassy

[JURIST] The US Department of Defense reported [AFPS report] Monday that Guantanamo detainee Walid Muhammad Salih bin Attash admitted to collaborating on the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Kenya [Wikipedia backgrounder] and the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole [Wikipedia backgrounder; US DOD inquiry report; JURIST news archive] at a Guantanamo Bay military hearing last week. According to the hearing transcript [PDF text], bin Attash said he "participated in the buying or purchasing of the explosives…[and] put together the plan for the operation." AP has more.

Last week, suspected terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed [BBC profile] said during his own status hearing that he had masterminded the 9/11 attacks [JURIST report] and claimed responsibility for some 30 other terror attacks. Hearings on whether Mohammed and 13 other top terror suspects [DNI profile, PDF] qualify as "enemy combatants" [CFR backgrounder] began last Friday. Among the other 13 suspects are Abu Zubaydah [BBC profile], Ramzi bin al-Shibh [Wikipedia profile], and Riduan Isamuddin [Wikipedia profile].

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