Terrorist Leader Confession Raises Questions

By Gary Thomas Washington 15 March 2007

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According to a just-released U.S. transcript, accused al-Qaida operative Khalid Sheikh Mohammad has confessed to a leading role in at least 31 alleged terrorist plots, including the attacks of September 11, 2001. The admissions came in the transcript of a closed-door U.S. military hearing at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But, as VOA correspondent Gary Thomas reports, Mohammad's multiple confessions raise some questions.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (file photo)

Khalid Sheikh Mohammad says he was the foreign operations chief for Osama bin Laden and claims a key role, if not the leading one, in some 31 alleged plots around the world and spanning a decade.

But some experts believe that while Mohammad was indeed a key al-Qaida figure, they also say some of his claims are open to question and that he may be inflating his importance in some areas. In 2005, the commission that investigated the September 11 attacks noted Mohammad's sometimes extravagant ambitions and said that he liked to cast himself as a super-terrorist.

Former FBI agent Jack Cloonan, who was on the Osama bin Laden counter-terrorist team in New York, says Mohammad has what he terms an enormous ego. He also notes that the transcript of the March 10 military tribunal hearing has no details of any of the alleged plots.

"Well, one of the things that strikes out at me is that of the 31 operations that he has claimed credit for, claimed credit for himself, is actually the lack of specificity," he said. "Some of the ones are obviously well known, obviously the attacks on the [World] Trade Center, both in '93 and 2001. But some of the other things he's alluding to lack specificity. Now there may be more information that was provided either to the CIA or in fact to the military interrogators. And I hope that information was disseminated."

Other counter-terrorism experts, however, are not troubled by the fact that many of the plots Mohammad alludes to never actually occurred. Former CIA officer Michael Scheuer, who headed the agency's hunt for bin Laden, say al-Qaida was engaging in contingency planning. He adds that while Khalid Sheikh Mohammad may have embellished somewhat, even the potential planning he outlines is a chilling indicator of al-Qaida's danger.

"I think you come away from KSM's [Khalid Sheikh Mohammad's] testimony - even if you accept maybe a quarter of it being embroidery or swagger [exaggeration] - with a very clear view of a very potent, very intelligent, very innovative enemy," he said.

Mohammad was captured in March, 2003, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, near the capital city of Islamabad. As one of the so-called high-value terrorist detainees, he was held in a network of CIA secret prisons in various countries until his transfer to Guantanamo Bay last year. On March 10, he was given what the Pentagon calls a Combatant Status Review hearing to determine if he is to be released or detained indefinitely. The hearing was closed to the media.

Mohammad himself claims to have been tortured in his CIA interrogations, but the hearing transcript that was released edited out any further comment from him in that regard.

Tom Parker, a former British counter-terrorism officer, says Mohammad's claims of his terrorist leader status could be true. But he says what kind of treatment Khalid Sheikh Mohammad received could have affected his testimony.

"We don't know what he'd been through in the last three years," he said. "But if he has been subjected to highly coercive interrogation techniques, he could be a broken man. At this point he may be entirely prepared to confess to kidnapping [the late singer] Elvis [Presley]. We just don't know."

Former CIA officer Michael Scheuer says that while Mohammad could have been mistreated, he also knows that the issue of U.S. interrogation methods has been the subject of intense political debate.

"He is an informed observer of the propaganda and public diplomacy aspects of the war between the United States, and al-Qaida and its allies," he said. "And he has exploited that with a combination of truthfulness in terms of many of the attacks we know that he was involved with that he claimed, and in terms of a really acute eye for exacerbating problems of the American government in handling people that they capture."

Analysts say that because four years has elapsed since Khalid Sheikh Mohammad's capture, any further information gleaned from interrogation would be outdated and of little use now.

VOASE0315_Economics Report

15 March 2007

Worry Over Subprime Home Loans
Buyers who were given loans even though they have weak credit are missing their payments. Now investors and lawmakers are taking notice.

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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

Financial markets had a rough week again as investors grew more concerned about the United States housing market. Much of the concern is about home loans to people with poor credit or little history of borrowing money.

Most homebuyers are considered "prime," or a high-quality credit risk. Yet lenders have taken the risk of subprime loans because those buyers pay higher interest rates.

The number and complexity of nontraditional home loans grew along with the housing market. Now, that market has cooled. At the same time, many buyers, and not just in the subprime market, are seeing their monthly payments go up. Nontraditional loans often start with low payments for the first year or two.

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported this week on the condition of eighty percent of home loans nationally. It says five percent of all mortgage payments were at least thirty days late in the final three months of last year. But more than thirteen percent of all subprime loans had late payments -- the highest level in four years.

By the end of last year, fourteen percent of all home loans were subprime. Total mortgage debt in the United States was ten trillion dollars.

Some experts worry that the problems could affect the wider economy. Congress may act to control risky lending. And Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd says federal aid may be needed to protect buyers.

If a buyer misses too many payments, a lender may try to reclaim the house through a forced sale. Nationally, foreclosure rates increased in the fourth quarter, but especially among subprime loans.

A number of lenders have already failed or left the business. Yet some may be able to escape losses by passing their risk to others. Many lenders sell their mortgages to investment banks. The banks resell the loans, creating trillions of dollars in mortgage-backed securities. These are bought and sold on financial markets. But some of these investments can be very risky if homeowners cannot repay their loans.

Subprime loans are only part of the story, however. House prices have been slower to rise, and in some places have dropped. Housing expert James Diffley of Global Insights says prices for existing homes in California could drop sixteen percent this year. He says other states including Arizona, Hawaii, Florida and Massachusetts could have large declines as well.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.