'Al-Qaida members detail September 11 plot'

Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera says it has conducted interviews with two wanted al-Qaida members who disclose how the terrorist network planned and carried out the September 11 attacks in the US.

The Qatar-based pan-Arab station, which became known for carrying interviews with al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants, said the interviews would be aired next Thursday in the second part of a documentary to mark the September 11 terrorist attacks anniversary. The first part aired yesterday.

Al-Jazeera said Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh were interviewed recently at a secret location. They reportedly detail how the attacks that killed more than 3,000 people were planned and conducted.

Binalshibh, a Yemeni believed to be in his late 20s or early 30s, was a member of a Hamburg-based cell led by Mohammed Atta, the Egyptian-born suspected lead September 11 hijacker. Binalshibh remains at large.

Mohammed, 36, is one of the FBI’s most-wanted terrorists and is believed to be at large in Afghanistan or nearby. US investigators believe Mohammed, working under bin Laden’s leadership, planned many aspects of the September 11 attacks.

US officials regard him as one of the highest-ranking al-Qaida leaders still at large and believe he is still planning attacks against US interests. Although he was born in Kuwait, officials there say he is a Pakistani national and note that people born in Kuwait do not automatically qualify for citizenship.

Mohammed is accused of working with Ramzi Yousef in the first World Trade Centre bombing, which left six dead in 1993. He and Yousef, who is now in prison, were also accused of plotting in 1995 to bomb several trans-Pacific airliners heading for the US.

Federal prosecutors in New York charged Mohammed in 1996 in connection with the alleged 1995 plot.

Other bin Laden lieutenants are also believed to have helped put together the September 11 attacks, US officials have said. Evidence is mounting that Mohammed was at the centre of the operational planning.

Al-Jazeera chief editor Ibrahim Helal told The Associated Press yesterday that the station will mark the September 11 anniversary by running "human reports on how the attacks and the war affected the lives of the American and Afghan people, and investigative reports on the attacks themselves".

The channel caught the world’s attention after it began airing statements from bin Laden, the suspected ringleader of the September 11 attacks that killed more than 3,000 people and sparked the US-led war on terrorism.

The Bush administration has criticised Al-Jazeera for giving bin Laden and his aides a forum to address the Arab public.

Al-Jazeera, a popular, independent-minded pan-Arab station, insists that it would broadcast any items it sees as newsworthy.