WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The five detainees at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison camp charged with plotting the September 11 attacks have filed a document expressing pride at their accomplishment and accepting responsibility for the deaths of nearly 3,000 people, The New York Times reported on Monday.

The document, which the newspaper said may be released publicly on Tuesday, describes the five men as the "9/11 Shura Council," and says their actions were an offering to God, according to excerpts of the document read to a reporter by an unidentified government official, the report said.

"'To us,' the official read, 'they are not accusations. To us they are a badge of honor, which we carry with honor,'" the paper said.

The document is titled "The Islamic Response to the Government's Nine Accusations," the military judge at the U.S. Naval base said in a separate filing, obtained by the Times, that described the detainees' document.

The document was filed on behalf of the five men, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who has called himself the mastermind of the attacks.

Some of the men had said earlier that they planned the 2001 attacks and that they wanted to be martyrs. The reason for the new filing, which the report said reached the military court on March 5, was not clear. The brief court order describing the filing said the men sought no legal action.

(Writing by Patricia Zengerle; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Source URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090310/ts_nm/us_guantanamo_document_2

Excerpts from the statement of five Sept. 11 defendants filed with the Guantanamo war-crimes court.

By The Associated Press

March 10, 2009

With regards to these nine accusations that you are putting us on trial for; to us, they are not accusations. To us they are badges of honor, which we carry with pride.

• Your intelligence apparatus, with all its abilities, human and logistical, had failed to discover our military attack plans before the blessed 11 September operation. They were unable to foil our attack. We ask, why then should you blame us, holding us accountable and putting us on trial? Blame yourselves and your failed intelligence apparatus and hold them accountable, not us.
• In fact, it was you who had wiped out two entire cities off the face of the earth and killed roughly half a million people in a few minutes and caused grave bodily harm by nuclear radiation? Did you forget about your nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
• Also, you have violated all laws of war, and in particular, your treatment of Prisoners of War, in Afghanistan and Iraq. We are the best example of such violations and your "Black Sites" for torturing prisoners. This, and with your "Abu-Ghurayb" prison in Iraq. Guantanamo camps are witness to all of that.
• Remember, that you are the ones who attacked the Iranian civilian aircraft, flight 655, in 1988 with your Cruise missiles over the Hermuz straights, killing all of its 290 passengers, among them 66 children. They are still shedding tears today over your victims. Does your blood have a value and the blood of Muslims not?
• So, our religion is a religion of fear and terror to the enemies of God: the Jews, Christians, and pagans. With God's wiling, we are terrorists to the bone. So, many thanks to God.
• We have news for you, the news is: You will be greatly defeated in Afghanistan and Iraq and that America will fall, politically, militarily, and economically. Your end is very near and your fall will be just as the fall of the towers on the blessed 9/11 day. We will raise from the ruins, God willing. We will leave this imprisonment with our noses raised high in dignity, as the lion emerges from his den. We shall pass over the blades of the sword into the gates of heaven.
Source URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090310/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_guantanamo_excerpts_1