Agent: Detainee admits 9/11 aid

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - A Saudi Arabian – one of five detainees facing a war crimes tribunal here for allegedly aiding the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. told interrogators in 2004 that he had bought airline tickets and facilitated money transfers for seven of the 19 hijackers, a retired FBI agent testified Dec. 6. Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi spoke to interrogators over four days in January 2004 as they showed him financial and travel records collected in the investigation, admitting without remorse he helped carry out the al-Qaida plot, retired agent Abigail Perkins, told the court. Al-Hawsawi, who was living in the United Arab Emirates in the months before the attack on Sept. 11, 2001, admitted assisting the hijackers who flew airplanes into the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and a field near Shanksville, Pa., she said. "He indicated that he was very happy to have been able to support the brothers who carried out the attack," she said. Her testimony came during the 26th pretrial hearing at the base in the case of five men held at “Gitmo” for their alleged roles in the attack. The five face charges that could result in the death penalty if convicted. The case has been bogged down in pretrial litigation since their May 2012 arraignment. Defense attorneys were expected to cross-examine Perkins and another agent on Dec. 7. (Source: The Associated Press 12/06/17)