Pakistani to testify against September 11 mastermind

US NAVAL BASE AT GUANTANAMO BAY: Majid Khan, a protege of September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, on Wednesday pleaded guilty at a Guantanamo military tribunal under a deal with US authorities that will require him to testify against his mentor and other terror suspects.

Khan, a Pakistani national, admitted conspiracy, murder and attempted murder in violation of the laws of war, and material support for terrorism and espionage, in a landmark case that analysts said could speed trials against those linked to the 2001 attacks, which prompted the US-led "war on terror".

Khan, 32, who lived legally in America and graduated from a US high school, denied ever meeting or speaking with slain Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, but admitted to taking part in a "conspiracy" in Pakistan, Thailand and Indonesia.

"This agreement doesn't guarantee me that I'll go free. Basically I'm making a leap of faith, that's all I can do," Khan, wearing a dark suit and pink tie and who spoke in fluent English, told military judge Colonel James Pohl, noting that he understood the deal.

Khan, who has spent the last nine years behind bars and faced possible life in prison, will be sentenced to no more than 19 years under the plea agreement which requires him to cooperate with US authorities.

In exchange for the lighter sentence, Khan will testify against other "high value" detainees, including Mohammed and four others implicated in the 9/11 plot to crash airliners into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and which saw a fourth hijacked plane plunge into a field in Pennsylvania.

To insure that Khan fulfills his side of the bargain, the sentence will not be handed down for four years, until February 29, 2016.

It is the first plea bargain among 14 Guantanamo Bay detainees the US military classifies as "high value."

"It's part of a strategy of building more solid cases against the handful of defendants that the government plans to try before the commissions," said Jonathan Hafetz, a lawyer who has represented other Guantanamo detainees.

More than 10 years after the 9/11 attacks, Mohammed and four co-defendants accused of plotting the strikes are still awaiting trial at the prison, part of a US naval base in Cuba.

At Wednesday's hearing, Pohl rejected a defense request that the terms of the plea agreement be kept secret for security reasons, saying "the nature of plea and the nature of information are already in the public domain."

Khan was convicted of working under Mohammed's direction to plan explosions of fuel tanks at US gasoline stations and of plotting to assassinate former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf.

He also pleaded guilty to delivering funds for a bomb attack at a Marriott hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, that killed 11 people in August 2003.

Round-faced with a small goatee and glasses, Khan lived in the United States for seven years before his arrest in Pakistan in 2003.

US President Barack Obama -- criticized for failing to live up to his promise to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention facility by 2010 -- could benefit from the plea deal as he seeks a new term in November elections.

"If Khan provides information on KSM and others, as has been suggested was part of the deal, it will no doubt speed up the prosecutions," said Karen Greenberg, a terrorism expert at Fordham Law School, referring to Mohammed, who had been scheduled to be arraigned earlier this month.

Such testimony, she said, "will break through the barriers presented by evidence obtained through torture, as this information will be presented in the present time and in a legal proceeding."

But Brigadier General Mark Martins, chief military commissions prosecutor, said he did not believe there was anything political about the plea deal.

"This system is fair and not politically driven," Martins said.

Over the years, 779 inmates have been detained at Guantanamo, most without charge or trial. Most have been transferred to their home countries or third countries in recent years and released.

Today, 171 people are still there in limbo, including 89 detainees who have been cleared for release but are still in custody, due to a law passed by the US Congress.

For the other detainees who remain, pleading guilty may be the only way to guarantee that they one day leave the facility.

"The irony is that if you're charged with a crime and make a plea deal, you know you'll be released someday and have some idea when," said David Remes, who has represented several detainees.

"But if you're not accused of a crime, you don't know whether you'll ever be released, much less when. The system is upside-down."

Khan was imprisoned in a secret CIA jail for three years before being transferred to Guantanamo in 2006.

He could also be asked to testify in the trial of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged Saudi mastermind of the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen's port of Aden, which killed 17 sailors and wounded another 40. (AFP)