Posted by Tina
Mastermind of 9/11 gives Texans a chill, by Stewart M. Powell Houson Chronicle, Washington Bureau
** WASHINGTON Rep. Michael McCaul called the moment chilling and eerie. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said she froze in place. And Rep. Pete Olson stared through the one-way glass, thinking, My God, thats the man who planned the attacks. *** Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, 44, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 al-Qaida attacks on the United States, appeared thinner than in the photos taken the 2003 night of his capture in Pakistan. **
** But from what three members of Houstons congressional delegation observed and were told during a one-day tour of the Guantanamo Bay facility, Mohammed appeared every bit as bent on Americas destruction as the day he orchestrated the synchronized suicide attacks against the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. *** They were given a wide-ranging tour of the prison on Monday, including a rare look at its most restrictive corners. *** The visit, cleared by Attorney General Eric Holder, was part of the Obama administrations new public relations campaign to show human rights advocates that all 241 prisoners are being treated humanely. Holder toured the prison separately on Monday. The visits also appeared designed to help the White House buy time until President Barack Obama decides what to do with the prisoners after the facility is closed early next year. *** I was riveted, said Jackson Lee, a Democrat. It became very, very real and sobering to me that our task dealing with terrorism is still ongoing. **