Guantanamo Detainee Denies Deliberately Aiding Bombing Of U.S. Embassy

Friday, March 23rd 2007, 11:33 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, indicted for his role in the attack on the American embassy in Tanzania, says he unknowingly delivered the explosives used in the bombing, according to a Pentagon transcript of his hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Ghailani said he did not know about the assault and was sorry for the role he played, according to the transcript.

``It was without my knowledge what they were doing, but I helped them,'' he said. ``So I apologize to the United States government for what I did. And I'm sorry for what happened to those families who lost, who lost their friends and their beloved ones.''

Ghailani, speaking through a military representative, said he was first told the TNT he carried was soap for washing horses, then later _ after he delivered it _ was told it was explosives ``for mining for diamonds in Somalia'' and also for a Somali training camp.

Ghailani is one of 14 high-profile detainees that were moved to Guantanamo in September from a secret CIA prison network. Secret hearings for five of them have been conducted so far to determine whether they should be declared ``enemy combatants'' who can be held indefinitely and prosecuted by military tribunals.

If they are declared enemy combatants, they could then be charged and tried under the new military commissions law signed by President Bush in October.