Garbage In, Garbage Out

An al Qaeda suspect at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. military prison said he was tortured until he confessed to involvement in the USS Cole attack and other plans, according to a hearing transcript released on Friday.

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the suspected mastermind of the 2000 attack on the U.S. warship, also said he told interrogators Osama bin Laden had a nuclear bomb. He said he made up that and other statements because he was being tortured, according to a transcript of a March 14 hearing held at Guantanamo Bay.

"From the time I was arrested five years ago, they have been torturing me," Nashiri, a Saudi Arabian national of Yemeni descent, said through a translator.

"I just said those things to make the people happy," he said. "They were very happy when I told them those things."

U.S. intelligence officials say that in addition to masterminding the Cole attack, Nashiri led the plot to smuggle missiles into Saudi Arabia for use against a U.S. target.

The U.S. military, during the unclassified portion of the hearing, made more narrow accusations against Nashiri.

The military accused him of financing the 2000 attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 U.S. sailors and wounded 29. Citing statements from another suspected al Qaeda operative, the military said Nashiri bought the boat and explosives used in the attack.

The United States also said Nashiri helped obtain a passport for a man involved in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya. The military said he was holding several forged passports from several countries when he was arrested in the United Arab Emirates in October 2002.

According to the redacted transcript released by the Pentagon, Nashiri denied involvement in the embassy bombing and the Cole attack.