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Detainee denies role in Sept. 11 attacks

The Saudi received money transfers totaling $17,860 days before the attacks.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published March 30, 2007

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon released the transcript Thursday from a Guantanamo hearing involving a Saudi linked to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi said he got money transfers from two hijackers inside the United States before the planes struck the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Hawsawi, who was based in the United Arab Emirates on Sept. 11, 2001, denied that he was a member of the al-Qaida terrorist network and that he sent money to the hijackers.

Hawsawi is one of 14 "high value" detainees who were transferred to the U.S. base in Cuba in September after being held in secret CIA prisons abroad, and hearings are being conducted to determine if they are enemy combatants who can be held indefinitely and prosecuted.

In the hearing transcript, Hawsawi said he was told by al-Qaida operative Ramzi Binalshibh about the Sept. 11 plot one day in advance and was instructed to fly that same day from the United Arab Emirates to Pakistan, where he met Binalshibh the following day. Binalshibh is also being held at Guantanamo.

Asked by a member of the Combatant Status Review Tribunal for his reaction to realizing he was "part of that operation," referring to the Sept. 11 attacks, Hawsawi replied, "In the beginning I was surprised by the size of the operation."

The transcript does not fully explain the significance of the allegation that Hawsawi received money transfers from hijackers shortly before the attacks, other than establishing his association with them.

According to intelligence reports, Hawsawi was one of two key financial facilitators entrusted by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - who also is held at Guantanamo and has confessed to his role in the Sept. 11 plot - to manage the financing of the hijacking plan.

Hawsawi told the hearing that he had met with four of the hijackers in the United Arab Emirates before Sept. 11, but he did not provide details. Asked about the wire transfers of money from two of the hijackers, he said he did not know why he was sent the money, totaling $17,860, on Sept. 8 and 9.

Fast Facts:

Updates on other detainees

David Hicks: The prosecution will seek a sentence of "substantially less" than 20 years for Hicks, a 31-year-old Australian who pleaded guilty Monday to providing material support for terrorism, Air Force Col. Morris Davis, the chief prosecutor, said Thursday. Hicks will serve any prison sentence in Australia, and that government would not be able to reduce his sentence, Australian Attorney General Philip Ruddock said Thursday.

Bisher al-Rawi: The Iraqi national, a British resident who has been held at Guantanamo since 2002, will be released, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett told Parliament on Thursday.

[Last modified March 30, 2007, 01:30:45]