Wikileaks Reveals Al Qaeda Used Sega Cartridges For Explosives

Newly released documents from Wikileaks related to Guantánamo Bay prisoners have an unusual video game connection. According to the Department of Defense’s assessment records for Guantánamo detainees Hassan Mohammed Ali Bin Attash and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed—who confessed to masterminding the 9/11 terrorist attacks—Al Qaeda once used Sega cartridges as explosives devices.

Mohammed’s detainee assessment record, as seen on the NY Times, points to Al Qaeda hiding firing devices inside “innocuous” looking video game carts. From Khalid Shaikh Mohammed’s newly leaked record:

Detainee discussed remote-controlled firing devices (RCFDS) which were found during raids in Karachi in September 2002. These RCFDS were built inside black Sega videogame cassette cartridges to protect the RCFDS and to make them appear innocuous.

Additionally, Guantánamo prisoner Hassan Mohammed Ali Bin Attash was “shown how to make remote detonators out of the game cartridges in Sega games”.

The detainee stated he traveled from Karachi, Pakistan to Quetta with three to five. Sega cartridges made into remote detonators. The detainee stated he delivered the cartridges to two Afghan males.

And…

The detainee stated he never personally saw how the Sega remote detonators were made and never participated in their manufacture . The detainee stated he did not initially know what the remote detonators would be used for.

Let’s hope those Al Qaeda types had the good taste only to gut the likes of Shaq Fu and Altered Beast, not some of the Genesis’ (or Master System’s) better games.

The Guantánamo Docket [NY Times via Game Set Watch] (Image credit: John Mundy)