Khalid killed Pearl despite being told not to do so: WikiLeaks

Boston, April 27: 9/11 attacks mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was warned by a senior Al-Qaeda military commander not to kill Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002 and that he should be "freed" but the American was killed anyway, according to leaked WikiLeaks documents.

38-year-old Pearl, who was the South Asia Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal, was beheaded by his Pakistani captors in February 2002 after being abducted.

"A senior Al Qaeda military commander strongly warned Khalid Shaikh Mohammed not to kill Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002, cautioning him ''it would not be wise to murder Pearl'' and that he (Pearl) should ''be returned back to one of the previous groups who held him, or freed,'' a report in the Los Angeles Times said.

Quoting US military documents posted by WikiLeaks, the report said Mohammed told his US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay that he cut off Pearl's head anyway.

Former top Al Qaeda military commander Sayfal-Adl was "outspoken in cautioning Mohammed against killing the reporter," the report said.

Mohammed, however, turned for guidance to another Al- Qaeda leader, identified as Sharif al-Masri, the group's chief financial officer, and the two of them "disagreed with Adl on this point." Next, "Pearl was taken to the house of Al Qaeda's finance chief in Pakistan, Saud Memon, and murdered" there.

The self-proclaimed mastermind of the September 11 attacks also told his captors of the aborted attempt by shoe bomber Richard Reid aboard a London-US flight in late 2001.

Mohammed "stated that he had instructed Reid to shave his beard prior to boarding the airplane and to detonate the bomb inside the airplane bathroom." But Reid refused to shave his beard, tried to ignite the bomb in his seat, and was stopped. He was arrested and sentenced to life in prison.

Mohammed said Reid had been "irresponsible," according to the documents.

Whistle-blower website WikiLeaks released classified material detailing information about detainees imprisoned at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Mohammed, captured in March 2003, had boasted in the documents that the "planes operation" of September 11 was his "dream and life's work."

PTI