The Al Qaeda militant accused of masterminding the September 11 terrorist attacks described the assault as a “natural reaction” to U.S. foreign policy in a scathing letter to President Obama published this week.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed defended the Sept. 11 attacks in a blistering letter that was written for Mr. Obama in 2015 but not delivered to the White House until days before he left office last month, The Miami Herald reported this week.
The 18-page document contains repeated attempts to justify the attacks that claimed roughly 3,000 lives across New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania, and cites multiple examples of Washington’s policies with respect to the Middle East before and after 9/11.
The letter is addressed to “the head of the snake, Barack Obama,” and begins by calling the United States a “country of oppression and tyranny” overseen by “evildoers.”
“You have been killing Muslims in Palestine for 60 years: expelling more than 4 million Palestinians; destroying their homes, schools, mosques and markets by supporting Israel militarily, economically and politically; and by protecting all of their crimes through the U.N. Security Council,” Mohammed wrote. “In return for those 60 years, Allah aided us in conducting 9/11, destroying the Capitalist economy, catching you with your pants down and exposing all the hypocrisy of your long-held claim to democracy and freedom.”
“The two blessed attacks in Washington and New York adhered to all universal laws and were a natural reaction to your destructive policies towards the Islamic world; your unlimited support to Israel, the Jewish Zionist State and your continued support and protection for dictatorial rulers in the Islamicworld aimed at protecting your own interests,” he continued.
The Pakistani-born terror suspect wrote the letter in January 2015 but was initially prohibited from sending it the president. His Pentagon-provided attorney intervened eight months later, and a military judge agreed to let Mohammed petition the president days before his term expired, The Herald reported.
Col. James L. Pohl ruled on Jan. 6 that there was no “legal basis for continued sealing of the letter’s contents” and ordered the document to undergo a 30-day review period prior to being made public, the newspaper reported. The Herald obtained the letter from Mohammed’s attorneys and published it in full Wednesday after that period expired. On Thursday, however, a spokesperson for the Pentagon told the newspaper that the document has since been classified it as “not for public release.”
Mohammed, 52, was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and later transferred to the Guantanamo Bay military detention facility where he remains today, awaiting trial for his alleged role in the 9/11 terror attacks. He has reportedly confessed to being responsible for multiple atrocities conducted internationally, although he has argued that his confessions were gained by torture.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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