Photos released of terrorist mastermind at Gitmo

The photographs, taken in July by the Red Cross at the detention center on a U.S. naval base in Cuba, show Mohammed sitting serenely wearing a white robe, a red-patterned headdress and a long salt-and-pepper beard.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which photographs Guantanamo prisoners as part of its mission to monitor their treatment, confirmed on Wednesday that it took the images in July and sent them to his family. Spokesman Bernard Barrett did not identify the location of the family or specify their relationship.

Mohammed's photos began appearing in recent days on Internet sites that have previously been used by al-Qaida and sympathizers to communicate with each other, said Jarret Brachman, the former research director at the Combating Terrorism Center of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brook DeWalt, a spokesman for the prison where the U.S. holds about 225 men, said the military is not concerned with distribution of the images and takes no position on how families of prisoners handle their photos.

Mohammed faces the death penalty if convicted by the military tribunal at Guantanamo. But his trial has been suspended as President Barack Obama, who said he wants to close Guantanamo in January, decides how to proceed with the war crimes prosecutions begun under his predecessor