By Laura Parker, USA TODAYKhalid Sheikh Mohammed, whose confession as the mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks was revealed this week by the Pentagon, also claims to have beheaded American journalist Daniel Pearl.
"I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan," Mohammed said in a revised transcript the Pentagon made public Thursday of a secret military hearing last week at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "For those who would like to confirm it, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head."
A 26-page transcript of the hearing released late Wednesday did not contain the claim about the killing of the Wall Street Journal reporter. Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said it was withheld until Thursday to allow time to notify Pearl's family.
Pearl was slain after being abducted in January 2002. Mohammed, a Pakistani, has long been a suspect in his murder. He has been in U.S. custody since his capture in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, in March 2003.
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