By
Lyle Brennan
12:51 EST, 25 May 2012
|
14:31 EST, 25 May 2012
The U.S. military is investigating how pictures apparently showing the 9/11 mastermind relaxing at Guantanamo Bay could have ended up on a jihadist website.
In one of the photographs, posted on Wednesday by pro-jihad media group Al-Ebdaa, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is seen smiling and reading, his greying beard now extremely long.
Mohammed, who is currently facing a military tribunal over the 2001 terror attacks, is virtually unrecognisable from the pictures released after he was captured during a raid in Pakistan in March 2003.
A new photo shows a smiling Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, his beard long and graying, reading at the Guantanamo detention center
If they are found to be genuine, investigators will launch a probe to find out how the pictures could have left the high-security detention camp in Cuba.
According to the rules of the facility, unauthorised photos must not be taken or distributed – meaning the portraits of Mohammed could constitute a major security breach.
The Kuwait-born militant is facing murder and terrorism charges alongside four other alleged Al Qaeda members, who are also being held at the controversial facility.
Hunted down: Mohammed shortly after his capture during a raid in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, in 2003
Earlier this month the five men refused to enter any plea to the charges in connection with the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
If found guilty of organising the attacks, in which almost 3,000 people died, they could face the death penalty.
Mohammed is the most prominent terror suspect in American custody and is said to have confessed in March 2007 to playing a part in 31 Al Qaeda plots, including some of the most devastating terrorism acts of the past 20 years.
Among them are the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the second attack on the same building in 2001, the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing that killed 202 people and the beheading in 2002 of kidnapped U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl.
Brought to justice: A courtroom sketch shows Mohammed (right) and co-defendant Walid bin Attash facing a military tribunal at the U.S. Navy base earlier this month
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Ooh, that beard will need a bit of a trim before they hang him I reckon
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look at that smug skunk. sure would be fun to meet him in a dark alley
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It’s an Islamic uncle Albert!
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Is the guy who drew the picture an idiot? Looks nothing like that real man.
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Prison is getting pretty slack – why has he not been shaved and cleaned?
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“If found guilty of organising the attacks, in which almost 3,000 people died, they could face the death penalty”.
Only “could”? dead or alive, they will become martyrs the best way of dealing with these people is the way the Seals dealt with Bin Laden. Why waste money and spend months preparing trials, if he had managed to capture Obama we would have seen him (Obama) being decapitated on Al Jazeera!
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WAS IT ? why the hell do you ask questions in the title ? it is a newspaper not a quiz show !!!!
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I can put your president in there if you like…
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Looks like a “Glama-shot”… What no trout pout? Show me the pic with his brains blown all over the same wall and I’ll be a little more impressed.
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At least it shows all these claims of torture are baseless. It’s a shame they did not just use a drone on him.
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