Pictures of accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his nephew posing for Red Cross delegates this summer at Guantánamo turned up on the Web Wednesday, offering a rare glimpse into life inside the prison's secret Camp 7 just days ahead of the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

The photo of Mohammed, on his knees as if preparing for prayer but staring straight into the camera, is the first public picture of the alleged arch-terrorist since his widely circulated capture photo -- showing him pulled from his bed in a T-shirt, with messy hair and in need of a shave. Security forces in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, took that image at his March 2003 arrest before he was handed over to the CIA for interrogations that reportedly included 183 episodes of waterboarding to get him to spill al Qaeda secrets.

In the latest photo, Mohammed, 44, looks fit, with a massive, bushy, gray-speckled beard covering the chest of his white detention center uniform. He is kneeling on a typical Guantánamo-issue prayer mat, clutching prayer beads in his right hand. His head is covered with a red-checked turban and he has fashioned a bed sheet into a prayer cloak.

Pentagon officials at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba have flatly forbidden media access to the camp for former CIA captives and have likewise only permitted an court-approved sketch artist to draw Mohammed and his four fellow accused 9/11 plotters during military commissions proceedings at their complex conspiracy, death-penalty case.

The pictures were taken in July, said International Committee of the Red Cross spokesman Bernard Barrett, under an agreement with prison camp staff that lets Red Cross delegates photograph detainees and send photos to family members.

In all, 107 Guantánamo detainees have agreed to be photographed at the prison camps, which today houses about 225 foreign men as war on terror captives.

The latest photos first showed up on Arabic language websites seen as sympathetic to al Qaeda last week, according to counter-terror expert Jarret Brachman, who posted them late Tuesday on the "Jihadi personalities'' portion of his blog, http://jarretbrachman.net. He credited a fellow counter-terror cyber sleuth in Australia with the discovery.

The photos also appear while the Obama administration is deciding whether to try the men in federal court -- or go forward with the death penalty trial of Mohammed and his four fellow accused in the new military commissions created in response to the Sept. 11 attack.

Federal prosecutors in both New York and Virginia are reportedly studying the trial evidence to see whether the men could be tried before a civilian judge and jury.

The five men could face execution if they are convicted of conspiracy in the mass murder of 2,973 people on Sept. 11, 2001. They allegedly plotted, financed and helped the 19 hijackers reach U.S. soil -- and have collectively submitted a written admission to the military court that says they welcome martyrdom.

The sudden appearances of the images took prison staff at Guantánamo by surprise. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brook DeWalt, a prison camps spokesman, said early Wednesday they "appeared to be photos that originated from an ICRC visit'' but that he was initially unsure of the timing.

Pakistani-born Ammar al Baluchi, Mohammed's 32-year-old nephew, likewise appears on a prayer rug, cross-legged and clutching prayer beads -- but with a typical Afghan tribesman cap on his head. He is also well groomed, seated on a prayer rug and wearing typical Guantánamo-issue slide-on blue rubber sneakers on his feet.

Red Cross photos of the detainees first began circulating in public in May, after ICRC delegates began sending them to the captives' family members. Digital copies of others have appeared on the Web, occasionally blurry photos of the photos taken with handheld phones.

But these are the first known images from among the 15-man detainee population in the custody of Task Force Platinum, a special military unit at Guantánamo that runs Camp 7 as a segregated site so they cannot describe their CIA treatment and where they were held to other prisoners or guards in the general population.

In Washington, the ICRC's Barrett said the agency has been photographing Guantánamo captives who agree to pose for photos since February, by agreement with the prison camp commanders.

"We take a number of pictures of each one of them and they are allowed to chose the two they like the best,'' Barrett told The Miami Herald Wednesday. "We make five color prints of each of the two shots and they can send them to their families. They're prints, they're not electronically transmitted. They are sent with Red Cross messages.''

Prison camp staff review the contents of all Red Cross mail as part of the Pentagon's security procedures.

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