Five men charged in the Sept. 11 attacks mock US authorities and proclaim themselves “terrorists to the bone” in a war crimes court filing released Tuesday. The five Guantanamo prisoners use the six-page document to justify the killing of nearly 3,000 people, portraying the attack as a response to US actions in Israel, Iraq and elsewhere that is supported by their Muslim faith. “We fight you over defending Muslims, their land, their holy sites, and their religion as a whole,” they write in the document, which was submitted to the Guantanamo war crimes court and released by the Pentagon in English over the objections of attorneys for two of the men. The document is titled “The Islamic Response to the Government's Nine Accusations,” the military judge at the US Naval base said. The five had previously said they wanted to plead guilty to the charges against them, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind, had expressed pride in the attacks. But this is their most detailed response yet. All five were charged with murder and other crimes at the Guantanamo war crimes court. The charges, which carry a potential death sentence, “are badges of honor, which we carry with pride,” they write. The labelled the charge of conspiracy against them as “laughable.” “Your intelligence apparatus, with all its abilities ... failed to discover our military attack plans before the blessed 11 September operation. “They were unable to foil our attack. We ask, why then should you blame us, holding us accountable and putting us on trial? Blame yourselves and your failed intelligence apparatus and hold them accountable, not us.” They criticize the US for fighting “from behind roadblocks, trenches and warplanes” rather than face-to-face and describe Islam as “a religion of fear” for Jews, Christians and pagans. “We are terrorists to the bone. So, many thanks to God,” they write. The five mocked the US and its allies that they will be “greatly defeated in Afghanistan and Iraq and that America will fall, politically, militarily, and economically.” “Your end is very near and your fall will be just as the fall of the towers on the blessed 9/11 day. We will raise from the ruins, God willing. We will leave this imprisonment with our noses raised high in dignity, as the lion emerges from his den.” Three of the men are acting as their own lawyers but two of the men, Ramzi Binalshibh and Mustafa Al-Hawsawi, still have Pentagon-appointed military attorneys pending a court ruling on whether they are mentally competent to represent themselves. Their lawyers, Army Maj. Jon Jackson and Navy Cmdr. Suzanne Lachelier, said they had not met with their clients to discuss the document and cannot say what may have motivated the men to sign it - or even vouch for its authenticity. “Based on our review of the unsigned, English and typed document there is no evidence that either Mr. Binalshibh or Mr. Al-Hawsawi knew about, read, or signed this document,” they said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press. Some of the men had said earlier that they planned the 2001 attacks and that they wanted to be martyrs. The reason for the new filing, which the report said reached the military court on March 5, was not clear. The brief court order describing the filing said the men sought no legal action. Pentagon spokesman Jeffrey Gordon called the filing as “another attempt by these detainees to garner publicity.”
