Just what did al-Qaida planner plan?

Mohammed’s claims help answer some questions. Some intelligence officials have long believed that would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid was part of a larger plan to take down airliners after 9/11, in part, because of e-mails he wrote that were discovered on a computer in a Paris Internet cafe.

Another British citizen has been convicted in the plot. In his statement Saturday, Mohammed said he was responsible for the shoe bomber operation “to down two American airplanes.”

Current and former government officials say the CIA spent hundreds — if not thousands — of hours interrogating Mohammed and would have heard him describe in great detail precisely what he claims to have done in each plot. The transcript provided a snippet of his claims, officials said.

A CIA official declined to analyze Mohammed’s statements.

One official cautioned that many of Mohammed’s claims during interrogation were “white noise” — designed to send the U.S. on wild goose chases or to get him through the day’s interrogation session.

In the Defense Department transcript, Mohammed said his statement was not made under duress. But Mohammed and human rights advocates have alleged that he was tortured, and legal experts say that could taint all his statements.

“In light of the rambling nature of his statements, and the views of some that he is prone to exaggerate his importance, we cannot feel confident we know exactly the level of his involvement in various prior attacks,” said Joshua Dressler, a criminal law expert at Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University.

The CIA has denied it uses torture. “The agency’s terrorist interrogation program has been conducted lawfully, with great care and close review, producing vital information that has helped disrupt plots and save lives,” spokesman Paul Gimigliano said.

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