9/11 suspect says he beheaded U.S. reporter

By Andrew Gray

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The al Qaeda suspect who claimed responsibility for the September 11 attacks also said he beheaded U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl, according to a Pentagon transcript released on Thursday.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed admitted involvement in more than 30 attacks or plots during a hearing at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, but the Pentagon said it withheld sections on Pearl's killing until it could inform the reporter's family.

"I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew Daniel Pearl," Mohammed said in a statement, according to the transcript.

"For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head," said the statement read by a U.S. military staffer assigned to assist Pakistani national Mohammed at the hearing.

Pearl, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped and killed in Pakistan in 2002.

During Saturday's closed hearing, Mohammed also claimed responsibility for a nightclub bombing in Bali, Indonesia, and an attempt to down two American airplanes using shoe bombs, according to a Pentagon transcript released on Wednesday.

Mohammed, who was arrested in Pakistan in March 2003 and transferred to U.S. custody, was a main suspect in the Pearl case.

During the military hearing, Mohammed himself spoke about the killing and said it was not an al Qaeda operation.