Cosmetics Company Makes Al-Qaeda Leader Pin-up for Hair Removal Advert

The photograph of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was taken
 in 2003 shortly after his capture during a raid in Pakistan.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the 9/11 mastermind, has inadvertently been used by a Turkish company to advertise hair removal cream

A Turkish cosmetics company has used a former al-Qaeda "mastermind" as the model to advertise its hair removal cream.

The advert shows a photograph of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – known as the "principle architect" of the September 11 attacks – wearing a baggy white T-shirt that exposes a hairy neck and shoulders.

Above the photograph, the advert's slogan reads: "The hair will not go away because you keep waiting!"

The cosmetics company said that the use of the image was accidental, saying they had not known the photograph showed a member a member of al-Qaeda. » | Ruth Sherlock, Gaziantep | Wednesday, November 05, 2014

Mastermind of 9/11 Says Koran 'Forbids' Violence to Spread Islam

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed makes his first public statement in five years, saying 'Holy Koran forbids us to use force as a means of converting'

The self-proclaimed mastermind of the September 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, has released a manifesto claiming that the Koran forbids the use of violence to spread Islam.

The document, published Tuesday by The Huffington Post and Britain's Channel 4 News, marks Mohammed's first public communication since 2009, when the US government officially accused him of terrorism.

Mohammed, the most high-profile of the five men accused over the 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on US soil, has been held at the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba since 2006.

In a major departure from his previous position, Mohammed said that "the Holy Koran forbids us to use force as a means of converting!" » | Wednesday, January 15, 2014

September 11 Mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed Facing Death Penalty

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 terror attacks, faces a potential death sentence after being formally charged with the murder of thousands of Americans.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators were referred by President Barack Obama's administration to a military tribunal at the Guantánamo Bay naval base in Cuba.

In what has frequently been trailed as "the trial of the century", they will soon stand accused of committing multiple counts of terrorism, hijacking and murder in violation of the law of war by devising the era-defining attacks on the American mainland.

"The charges allege that the five accused are responsible for the planning and execution of the attacks of September 11, 2001, in New York and Washington DC, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, resulting in the killing of 2,976 people," the Defence Department announced in a statement yesterday.

The full extent of their alleged crimes are detailed in an 88-page dossier listing every victim of the attacks by name. The charges were referred to a capital military commission, meaning that "if convicted, the five accused could be sentenced to death," the department said. » | Jon Swaine, Raf Sanchez in Washington | Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Obama’s New Year Gift to the Saudi King
FRONTPAGE MAGAZINE: Islam is in trouble at the heart of its birthplace, Saudi Arabia, and consequently in other Muslim countries. Muslim leaders and media are desperately trying to regain control both internally and externally. Muslims are starting to openly and defiantly ask questions about their religion and rulers; while the international image of Islam is being tarnished daily with by every act of Islamic terror, hate speech and calls for jihad from the pulpits of mosques. The traditional Muslim call for violence and jihad that Islam got away with for centuries is now under increasing — scrutiny especially after 9/11. Islam is now under the microscope. That is the quagmire of Muslims today. How can they continue teaching their basic religious jihad education but still save Islam’s reputation in a culture where image and honor is everything?

The West is not fully aware of what is happening in the Muslim world today, where taboo topics are being discussed by brave Muslim reformists and former Muslims. There are ground-breaking Arabic TV and internet shows aired inside homes in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Algeria, etc, discussing what ordinary Muslims were never allowed to hear before.

The brilliant Rachid Hmami, a former Muslim-turned-Christian and originally from Morocco, has a show, Suaal Garii ‘Daring Question,’ that is making shock waves across the Middle East. Another equally effective show is that of the brave Coptic priest, Father Zakareya Botros, who was imprisoned in Egypt for proselytizing to Muslims. Father Botros’s show is a huge success in exposing tyranny, contradictions and weaknesses in Islam. Muslims who call in are often shocked by what they hear for the first time about their own religion, yet another proof that the Muslim establishment intentionally spreads misinformation and ignorance about basic Muslim doctrines to Muslims. Many Muslims, even from Saudi Arabia, call in to renounce Islam.

Unprecedented defiance is happening in the heart of the Muslim world. Recently a prominent Egyptian female attorney and human rights advocate, Nagla Al Imam, announced she left Islam and became a Christian and insists that she will remain in Egypt, in defiance of Islamic law condemning her to death. She is now under intense 24-hour security. Islam is in trouble from within.

Both King Abdullah, custodian of the two Holy Mosques of Islam in Mecca and Medina, and the Islamic establishment everywhere, are extremely alarmed by the status of Islam today. Their power to control Muslims, trained for centuries to blind submission, is slipping away. Huge sums of oil money dedicated to rescue Islam’s image, is not enough to do the job.

That is where Obama’s services come to the rescue of King Abdulla. Obama’s bow to the king was no small matter, but of great significance in Muslim culture. It is a Muslim symbol of subjugation and inferiority. >>> Nonie Darwish | Monday, January 11, 2010

New York Trial for Alleged 9/11 Mastermind
TIMES ONLINE: Five Guantanamo Bay detainees alleged to have masterminded the September 11 attacks are to be taken to the United States to stand trial in a civilian court in New York, an Obama Administration official said today.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged accomplices will be brought on to US soil for trial as part of President Obama’s pledge to close down the detention centre in Cuba.

The Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to officially announce the decision today.

Mr Obama initially planned to close Guantanamo by January 22 next year but the Administration is no longer expected to meet that deadline.

The high profile trial will be an enormous legal and political test for Mr Obama’s approach to terrorism. If the case suffers legal setbacks the administration will face criticism from those who believe that it should have been held in a military court The case is also likely to force the federal court system to confront a host of controversial legal issues surrounding the President Bush-era counter terrorism programmes that started after the 2001 attacks. >>> Nico Hines | Friday, November 13, 2009

Bin Laden-style Photos of 9/11 Mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 'Go Viral' on Web
TIMES ONLINE: Newly-released pictures of the alleged mastermind of 9/11 are being used by terrorist groups to inspire attacks against the United States, American experts say.

The photographs of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, taken in July by Red Cross visitors to the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba, show Mohammed sitting wearing a white robe, a red-patterned headdress and a long salt-and-pepper beard.

They are the first known images of Mohammed since a widely-distributed shot taken upon his capture in Pakistan in March 2003 showing him in a stretched white T-shirt, with dishevelled hair and a moustache. Since then, only courtroom sketches from his war crimes trial have been available.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which photographs Guantanamo prisoners as part of its mission to monitor their treatment, confirmed that it took the images and sent them to Mohammed's family.

Bernard Barrett, an ICRC spokesman, said that the photos were given only to the family and were not intended for public release, but the organisation does not impose conditions on detainee families.

The military began to allow the Red Cross to photograph Guantanamo detainees in February and the group has taken pictures of 107 inmates. Detainees are allowed to select two shots and the ICRC sends five prints to their families, along with personal messages.

Mohammed’s photos began appearing in recent days on internet sites that have previously been used by al-Qaeda and its sympathisers to communicate with each other, said Jarret Brachman, the former research director at the Combating Terrorism Centre of the US Military Academy at West Point.

Mr Brachman, now an independent terrorism researcher based in Fargo, North Dakota, said he fears the photos could breed sympathy for a man who has proudly proclaimed his role in the September 11 attacks, as well as other incidents of terrorism, while also alleging he has been tortured by the US.

“What’s problematic for me is it really humanises the guy,” Mr Brachman said. “I understand the value of these photos for family members, but at the same time this is the guy who planned 9-11.” >>> Times Online | Thursday, September 10, 2009

Top 9/11 Suspects to Plead Guilty
BBC: Alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants have told a military judge at Guantanamo Bay they want to confess and plead guilty.

The judge at the pre-trial hearing, Col Stephen Henley, said he would question the men to ensure that was their wish.

Mr Mohammed had earlier said he wished to be executed and achieve martyrdom, but had still mounted a defence.

The five accused face the death penalty if convicted of a role in killing 2,973 people in the suicide plane attacks. >>> | December 8, 2008

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