9/11 Architect Says Bin Laden's Son

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described architect of the Sept. 11 attacks, says that a former top associate of Osama bin Laden who is now on trial in Manhattan had no role in military operations for Al Qaeda and, he suggests, was enlisted to make fiery speeches because he was 'an eloquent, spellbinding speaker.'

Mr. Mohammed's assertions are contained in a newly filed statement in Federal District Court in Manhattan, where the former associate, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, is being tried on charges that he conspired to kill Americans and provided support to Al Qaeda.

Lawyers for Mr. Abu Ghaith have long sought to obtain testimony from Mr. Mohammed, who is detained at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. They have indicated that Mr. Mohammed's knowledge of Qaeda operations is unsurpassed and that his testimony 'may very well exculpate' Mr. Abu Ghaith.

On Sunday, Mr. Abu Ghaith's lawyers filed Mr. Mohammed's statement, in which he responded to 451 questions they had posed to him through a complicated process that involved reviews of the questions and answers by the United States Defense and Justice Departments.

'I want to help my brother, Sheikh Sulaiman Abu Ghaith (Allah preserve him),' Mr. Mohammed said in his statement, adding that the 34 pages of questions 'reminded me of the interrogations at the Black Sites and the questions from the dirty team at Guantánamo,' references to the secret overseas jails run by the Central Intelligence Agency and his interrogators at the naval base.

Indeed, Mr. Mohammad added that he suspected that 'the U.S. government has a hand in these questions because they correspond precisely with the way the C.I.A. and F.B.I. posed questions.'

'I may be right or wrong in this assumption,' Mr. Mohammed added.

Mr. Abu Ghaith's lead lawyer, Stanley L. Cohen, long a sharp critic of the government's tactics in terrorism cases, said by phone that the government had no role in the formation of his questions, nor had it censored any of Mr. Mohammed's answers.

'If anyone from any intelligence agency bothered to pick up the phone to call me, I'd hang up,' Mr. Cohen said on Sunday.

In a motion filed with the statement, Mr. Cohen asked Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to allow him to use Mr. Mohammed's testimony at trial. The government rested its case on Friday, and the defense is to begin its presentation before the jury on Monday.

Prosecutors had no comment on Sunday on Mr. Cohen's filing.

Just how effective a witness Mr. Mohammed might be for Mr. Abu Ghaith, 48, who married one of Bin Laden's daughters, is unclear.

David Raskin, a former top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, said recently, 'It's hard to see how someone responsible for the murder of 2,976 innocent people could ever be an effective witness for anybody, under any circumstance.'

Mr. Mohammed has taken credit not only for organizing the Sept. 11 attacks - 'from A to Z,' as he once said at a hearing at Guantánamo - but has also said that he was responsible for a host of other plots, including one to have terrorists blow up airplanes by detonating explosives hidden in their shoes, a government transcript shows.

In his statement filed on Sunday, Mr. Mohammed made harsh, sweeping pronouncements about the United States' role in Afghanistan, and discussed Al Qaeda's relationship with Afghanistan. He also praised the Taliban and their leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar.

But he focused on Mr. Abu Ghaith, whom prosecutors have portrayed as a spokesman for Bin Laden after Sept. 11. The government has said, for example, that Mr. Abu Ghaith's speeches showed that he knew of the so-called shoe-bomb plot, which included the failed attempt by Richard C. Reid to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight in December 2001.

Mr. Mohammed said he had never spoken with Mr. Abu Ghaith about the 'shoe bomb operation,' and did not recall ever seeing him with Mr. Reid.

He said, 'Those tasked with giving statements to the media do not necessarily know all the details of an operation and are sometimes even unaware of the very existence of the operation.'

Mr. Mohammed said he was asked in one question whether he ever saw Mr. Abu Ghaith urge others to swear 'bayat,' or an oath of allegiance, to Bin Laden. 'The answer is no,' he continued.

'Swearing bayat does not mean that a person is placed on a list to carry out an operation; even the cook has sworn bayat,' he added.

Mr. Mohammed's comments have once before been used in a federal trial: In 2006, a summary of statements he had made was introduced at the death penalty hearing of Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 plot, who ultimately received a life sentence.

If the judge agrees to allow Mr. Mohammed's testimony, some details would have to be worked out, as Mr. Mohammed said that he would not agree to provide 'any video or audio recorded testimony' and that 'these answers should suffice.'

Mr. Cohen said by phone on Sunday that he has since talked to Mr. Mohammed's lawyer, and understands that Mr. Mohammed, after being reassured that the government had no role in the questions and that Mr. Abu Ghaith was indeed seeking his testimony, was 'likely to be available for examination.'

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