GUANTANAMO, March 16: The claim of suspected 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that he had personally beheaded American journalist Daniel Pearl has been dismissed by experts and his journalism colleagues as baseless.

“It's ludicrous and preposterous,” said Paul Steiger, the Journal's managing editor, of the claim made at a military hearing at Guantanamo Bay. The journalist’s parents said it was impossible to know whether the claim “has any bearing in truth.”—AP