Khalid Sheikh Mohammed rejects violence in jailhouse manifesto

The alleged mastermind of the September 11 terrorist attacks has written a rambling, deeply religious manifesto that suggests Muslims should not use violence to spread Islam - a sharp departure from his earlier boasts of waging jihad against the US and other non-Muslim nations.

The unclassified comments by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who will soon turn 50 and has spent the last decade in US custody, come a year-and-a-half into the pre-trial phase of his military commission trial.

The writings suggest he either believes he can convert his US audience or, as he often has done, is trying to attract publicity, feign mental illness or spare himself the death penalty if convicted of playing a role the 2001 attacks.

The 36-page document, titled "The Road to Real Happiness", includes not only references to the Koran, but quotes by former US presidents Richard Nixon and George W.Bush and Pope Benedict XVI. Mohammed rails against same-sex marriage, abortion and the moral decay of the West.

He mocks US soldiers for playing with their PlayStations in Iraq and Afghanistan while Muslim families struggle for food and shelter.

"But at the end the American soldiers go back home and commit suicide but the poor man still with his dry bread and black tea lives with his poor wife in their humble muddy house but with happy hearts and souls," he wrote.