Five GITMO detainees say they planned 9/11

Washington, Mar.10 (ANI): The five detainees at Guantanamo Bay charged with planning the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have filed a document with the military commission at the United States naval base there expressing pride at their accomplishment and accepting full responsibility for the killing of nearly 3,000 people.

The document, which may be released publicly on Tuesday, uses the Arabic term for a consultative assembly in describing the five men as the "9/11 Shura Council," and it says their actions were an offering to God.

The document is titled "The Islamic Response to the Government's Nine Accusations," the military judge at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp said in a separate filing, obtained by The New York Times, that describes the detainees' document.

The document was filed on behalf of the five men, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who has described himself as the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.

President Obama halted the military proceedings at Guantanamo in the first days after his inauguration, and the five men's case is on hiatus until the government decides how it will proceed.

Several of the men have earlier said in military commission proceedings at Guantanamo that they planned the 2001 attacks and that they sought martyrdom.

In his brief court order describing the filing, the military judge who has been handling the case, Col. Stephen R. Henley of the Army, said the men sought no specific legal action. Judge Henley ordered that the filing be released immediately, but officials said objections from lawyers for two of the men had held up release Monday. (ANI)