Al-Qaida operative admits USS Cole, embassy attacks

A top operative of al-Qaida has acknowledged his role in the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998 and in the attack on the destroyer USS Cole off Yemen in 2000, according to a hearing transcript released on Monday by the Pentagon.

The operative, Walid bin Attash, who is also known as Khallad, made his statement, according to the transcript, to a combatant status review tribunal on March 12 at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The tribunal will determine whether bin Attash has been properly designated an enemy combatant, which would make him subject to indefinite military detention. He may also be charged with war crimes before a separate tribunal known as a military commission.

During the status review tribunal, an official whose name was not released asked bin Attash to outline his role in the three attacks.

"Many roles," bin Attash said, according to the transcript and apparently speaking through a translator. "I participated in the buying or purchasing of the explosives. I put together the plan for the operation a year and a half prior to the operation. Buying the boat and recruiting the members that did the operation."

He added that he had been with Osama bin Laden in Kandahar, Afghanistan, at the time of the attack on the Cole.

"And at the time of the embassy attacks?" an unidentified member of the tribunal asked.

"I was in Karachi meeting the operator, the guy that basically did the operation a few hours before the operation took place," bin Attash replied.

There was no indication in the transcript that bin Attash, one of 14 "high value" detainees transferred to Guantanamo from secret CIA prisons last year, was speaking under duress. In contrast to a hearing involving Khalid Shaikh Mohammed released last week, there was no indication that bin Attash claims he was mistreated while in CIA custody.

The broad outlines of bin Attash's admissions were consistent with the findings of the Sept. 11 Commission and other sources, but it is possible that bin Attash misstated or inflated his role.