In his statement, Mohammed said pictures of Pearl's killing were proof of his involvement. But Rita Katz, a terrorism expert at the SITE Institute, which tracks extremist websites, said none of the videos or photos distributed on the Internet showed the faces of the men who participated in Pearl's decapitation.
In a statement Thursday, Pearl's parents said they did not know if they believed Mohammed's admission.
"It is impossible to know at this point whether Khalid Shaikh Mohammed's boast about killing our son has any bearing in truth," they said. "We prefer to focus our energy on continuing Danny's lifework through the programs of the Daniel Pearl Foundation, which aims to eradicate the hatred that took his life."
During his military hearing, Mohammed delivered a long speech in partially broken English in which he said he thought Pearl was working for Israeli intelligence and was trying to determine if Reid had traveled to Israel to scout for potential targets.
"His mission was in Pakistan to track about Richard Reid trip to Israel," Mohammed said. "His mission in Pakistan [was] from Israeli intelligence, Mossad, to make interview to ask about when he was there."
peter.spiegel@latimes.com
