Al-Qaeda Operative Admits Cole, African Embassy Bombing Involvement

Via Playfuls.com -

Alleged al-Qaeda operative Walid bin Attash admits he masterminded a 2000 attack on a US warship and helped organize the 1998 truck bombings of two US embassies in East Africa that killed 213 people, the US military said Monday.

Bin Attash, one of the "high-value" terrorist suspects the US moved out of secret detention last year, made the statements during a military tribunal hearing at the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to a Pentagon transcript.

Bin Attash said he "put together the plan" for the October 12, 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 US sailors and wounded 39 while the destroyer was refuelling in the Yemeni port of Aden, according to the transcript.

"I participated in the buying or purchasing of the explosives," he was quoted as saying. "Buying the boat and recruiting the members that did the operation. Buying the explosives."

Last week, the Pentagon released the transcript from the hearing of another high-profile prisoner, alleged September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who took responsibility "from A to Z" for the 2001 terrorist attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

In the 1998 embassy bombings, bin Attash said he was the link between al-Qaeda head Osama bin Laden and his deputy Sheikh Abu Hafs al-Masri and the cell chief in Nairobi, Kenya, according to the transcript.

On August 7, 1998, near-simultaneous truck bombings ripped through the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 213 people, including 12 Americans. More than 4,000 others were wounded.

"I used to supply the cell with whatever documents they need from fake stamps and visas, whatever," bin Attash told the tribunal. He also said he channelled them from Afghanistan, al-Qaeda's base at the time, to Pakistan.

US military officials also presented evidence that bin Attash told an al-Qaeda operative in the summer of 1998 to prepare for a suicide mission against a US embassy in East Africa, the transcript said.

As provided by the Pentagon, bin Attash's statements went beyond the more limited, largely circumstantial charges cited by US military officials in relation to the three bombings.