Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told a military court this morning at Guantanamo Bay that he wishes to plead guilty to all charges and become a martyr. 

Mohammed told the judge, Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, that he wishes to represent himself. Kohlmann asked Mohammed numerous times if he understood that he faces the death penalty, and Mohammed at one point said, "That is what I wish. I wish to be martyred." 

This is the first time Mohammed has appeared in public since his capture in Pakistan in 2003. A profile of the five suspects being arraigned today can be read here. 

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Last week, the State Department Report released its report on various countries' performances in fighting terrorism around the globe. As far as catching terrorists and keeping them in custody, the USG calls Pakistan's performance "uneven."

In fact, the policy more closely resembles "catch and release," as exemplified by what happened with London Planes Plot mastermind Rashid Rauf. 

Pakistani security services cooperated with the United States and other nations to fight terrorism within Pakistan and abroad. Hundreds of suspected AQ operatives have been killed or captured by Pakistani authorities since September 2001.

Close cooperation between Pakistani, British, and American law enforcement agencies exposed the August 2006 London-Heathrow bomb plot, leading to the arrest in Pakistan of Rashid Rauf and other alleged conspirators connected to the case. On December 15, 2007, Rashid Rauf escaped from police custody in Rawalpindi and remained at large. Two of the police officers guarding him were arrested and questioned. 

I wrote about this here.  

The UK trial of the rest of the cell — charged with plotting to blow up as many as eighteen airliners –  goes on.

To read: U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Terrorism 2007 (html format). 

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It's been widely reported that several of the London Planes Plot jihadists visited Pakistan in the months and weeks leading up to their arrest.

Yesterday, the court learned the group's ringleader, Abdulla Ahmed Ali, also visited Saudi Arabia. In an attempt to hide those visits and the passport marks they leave behind, Ali claimed he lost his passport. 

A cleaner found Ali's passport on the street and turned it over to authorities. 

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were from Saudi Arabia. What role does Saudi Arabia play in the London Planes Plot, which was made up of a majority of Pakistani nationals with British citizenship?

Weeks before his arrest Ali reported that he had lost his own passport and applied for a new one. He said it had “fallen out of a window”. Prosecutors say he was trying to get a “clean” replacement before launching attacks.

A cleaner later found the damaged document discarded outside his flat. It had details of visits to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Abdulla Ahmed Ali had also applied for a passport for his baby whom he was considering taking on the suicide mission for use as a decoy. 

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British undercover agents conducted surveillance on Abdullah Ahmed Ali, the ringleader of the London Planes Plot, as he checked flight timetables and relayed information to other operatives — a British court heard today.

Ali and seven other Muslim males are accused of plotting to blow up as many as eighteen passenger aircraft en route from England to the United States and Canada. 

Abdulla Ahmed Ali was observed by an undercover officer checking flight timetables in an internet cafe and speaking on his mobile.

Woolwich Crown Court heard how Ali entered T&I Communications in Wood Street, Walthamstow, east London on August 6, 2006.

Richard Whittam, prosecuting, described how he was watched speaking in "hushed tones in a foreign language" on taking a mobile phone call.

Ali was observed looking at the BAA Heathrow website showing "some sort" of timetable, then flicking to a flight-booking website.

He was seen taking a second call, this time in English, where he was overheard, no longer whispering, referring to radios in boxes.

Ali and seven other men are on trial accused of conspiring to murder thousands of people by exploding home-made liquid bombs on passenger jets in August 2006.

In Ali's martyrdom video, he says: "The time has come for you to be destroyed" and that he is "over the moon that Allah has given me the opportunity to lead this blessed operation."

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A British court hearing more testimony in the trial charging eight Muslim men in a conspiracy to blow up as many as eighteen transatlantic airliners en route from England to various cities in the United States (New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, San Francisco) and Canada (Montreal and Toronto) in August 2006.  

From the Times Online:

"The gang accused of plotting to lead a wave of suicide bomb attacks on transatlantic airliners threw away bomb-making materials as they were watched by undercover police, a court heard today.

Officers recovered two plastic bags from public bins in Lloyds Park, Walthamstow, containing short plastic wires attached to miniature bulbs with their filaments exposed.  

…The two plastic carrier bags were recovered from bins in the public park on July 31, he said. One contained Lucozade bottles, latex gloves, plastic cylinders, needles and parts of a battery. The other contained the lightbulbs.

The court heard how the park was a short walk from the gang’s bomb factory at 386A Forest Road.

Other items found in the flat included jars full of batteries, wires, sticky tape and food colouring. [sic]

The prosecution claim these are all vital ingredients in the bombs, which were to be disguised as soft drinks. They would then be carried aboard non-stop flights to major north American cities and detonated in mid-air, the jury heard." 

Further evidence included a suitcase found buried in the woods near one of the alleged bomb plotter's house "that contained materials for making the high explosive HMTD."

"Jurors at Woolwich Crown Court were shown the items in the case, which was found by police searching woodland in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, in 2006. They included glass flasks, syringes, thermometers, the chemical hexamine (a key ingredient for the explosive), hydrogen peroxide and a bag of citric acid. Officers had previously seen Assad Sarwar going into King’s Wood and observed him buying a spade and a suitcase.

Jurors were told that DNA found on the flasks matched the profile of Mr Sarwar, who is one of eight men accused of plotting to bomb seven transatlantic airliners en route from Heathrow to six North American cities."

Prosecutors also introduced evidence regarding the men's recorded suicide videos, linking fibers from a black flag used as a backdrop in the video to a mattress in one of the defendant's bedrooms.   

The men deny the charges.   

(Photo montage credit: The Times: Top row, left to right: Abdullah Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar, Tanvir Hussain and Mohammed Gulzar. Bottom row, left to right: Ibrahim Savant, Arafat Waheed Khan, Waheed Zaman and Umar Islam)

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In one of the most damaging reports ever filed about the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), ABC news headlined yesterday with "9/11 Redoux:'Thousands of Aliens' in U.S. Flight Schools Illegally." The article paints a pathetic portrait of the TSA in a free-fall, unable to handle the most basic of its Constitutionally-mandated jobs.

If you thought news of bombs getting on planes, or a mass-exodus of 67,000 screeners leaving their jobs was indicative of a failing agency, how about TSA allowing 8,000 foreign pilots to train without background checks required by federal law?

In an internal TSA memo obtained by ABC, Assistant Federal Security Director Richard A. Horn called the situation "urgent" and likened it to the run up to 9/11. 

"Some of the very same conditions that allowed the 9-11 tragedy to happen in the first place are still very much in existence today," wrote one regional security official to his boss at the TSA.

ABC provides documents which show that since 2005, TSA has been made aware that thousands and thousands of foreign student pilots have been training illegally in American flight schools. FAA inspectors have been trying to get TSA to correct the dire situation but TSA continues to turn a blind eye to the problem. 

No one at DHS or TSA would comment for the story and instead told ABC they were preparing an official response. ABC broadcast a television version of the story last night during "World News With Charles Gibson."  

(Photo: 9/11 Hijacker Pilot Hani Hanjour's 1999 FAA Pilot License. In 2001, managers at an Arizona flight school reported Hanjour to the FAA at least five times)

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I have a piece running at Pajamas Media: Let's Hope Pakistan's Nukes Are More Secure Than its Prisoners.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf clearly doesn’t like being asked about terrorists who “escape” his police force’s custody. This does not inspire Annie Jacobsen’s confidence…

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Five, undersea telecommunication cables have been confirmed as cut. From Khaleej Times:

A total of five cables being operated by two submarine cable operators have been damaged with a fault in each. These are SeaMeWe-4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4) near Penang, Malaysia, the FLAG Europe-Asia near Alexandria, FLAG near the Dubai coast, FALCON near Bandar Abbas in Iran and SeaMeWe-4, also near Alexandria.

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