9/11 mastermind gets a makeover

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed revamps image with weight loss, but stays all evil

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed revamps image with weight loss, but stays all evil

Cuba: When he was first introduced to the world, the man alleged to have masterminded the New York terrorist attacks appeared untidy and overweight.


Devout: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed appears with a contented look on his
face as he poses with a copy of the Koran

Now Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has presented a new picture of himself in a letter to relatives -- three stone lighter and with a long grey-flecked beard.

New image

The alleged terrorist kingpin who was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 also shows himself as a devout man, as he is pictured holding a copy of the Koran and wearing a traditional headdress.
His new picture could also be interpreted as a homage to the leader of al-Qaeda Osama Bin Laden, to whom he now bears a strong resemblance.

In a letter dated June 2009, the Guantanamo Bay detainee made an attempt to plea for absolution for his alleged crimes.

He wrote in English: "All praise is due to Allah. I praise Him and seek His aid and His forgiveness and I seek refuge in Allah from our evil in ourselves and from our bad deeds."

The extract was from a longer letter sent to his family accompanying the new photograph.

The 45-year-old has so far only appeared at closed hearings and spends 22 hours a day in isolation at Guantanamo Bay.

He arrived at the Cuba detention military camp in 2006 and since then has confessed to his role in the terrorist atrocity, according to US officials.

JD Gordon, a former Pentagon spokesman who attended nearly all of his court appearances, said that Mohammed had behaved bizarrely.

He said, "I think he does that deliberately to draw people in, to charm them in some way, or to influence them. It's all calculated."

Column at WTC

A piece of the heart and soul and, literally, the backbone of the Twin Towers made an emotional return to Ground Zero yesterday. The first of two steel tridents was lowered into place at the 9/11 memorial, where they will stand sentinel as poignant reminders of the missing skyscrapers.