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Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

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File:AQ00107.jpg
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: Prosecution Exhibit from the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (Arabic: خالد شيخ محمد; also transliterated as Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, inter alia, and additionally known by as many as twenty-seven aliases[1]) (b. March 1, 1964, or April 14, 1965) is a prisoner in U.S. custody for acts of terrorism, including mass murder.

In March 2007, after four years in captivity, including six months at Guantanamo Bay, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - as it was claimed by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal Hearing [2] in Guantanamo Bay - confessed to masterminding the September 11th terrorist attacks, the Richard Reid shoe bombing attempt to blow up an airliner over the Atlantic Ocean, the Bali nightclub bombing in Indonesia, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and various foiled attacks.[2]

Formerly a member of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization in Kuwait, according to the 9/11 Commission Report he was "the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks." He is also thought to have had, or has confessed to, a role in many of the most significant terrorist plots over the last twenty years, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Operation Bojinka plot, an aborted 2002 attack on Los Angeles' U.S. Bank Tower, the Bali nightclub bombings, the failed bombing of American Airlines Flight 63, the Millennium Plot, and the murder of Daniel Pearl. He was captured in Rawalpindi, Pakistan on March 1, 2003 by the Pakistani ISI, possibly in a joint action with agents of the American Federal Bureau of Investigation, and has been in U.S. custody since that time. There have been allegations by Human Rights Watch and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed himself that he was tortured while in custody.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is thought to have been born in the Baluchistan region of Pakistan, and spent some of his formative years in Kuwait. He joined the Muslim Brotherhood at age 16 and returned to Pakistan soon after, studied in the United States for several years, and left for Afghanistan in the 1980s where he and his brothers fought against the Soviet Union during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. He is thought to have commenced anti-American terrorist operations in the early 1990s.

Until his capture in Pakistan in 2003, he was an important figure in Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization, where he came to head the group's propaganda operations sometime around 1999. He was indicted on terrorism charges in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in January 1996 and was subsequently placed on the October 10, 2001 initial list of the FBI's twenty-two Most Wanted Terrorists. In September 2006, the U.S. government announced it had moved Mohammed from a secret prison to the facility at Guantánamo Bay.[3]

Early life

Khalid is usually reported to have been born in the Baluchistan region of Pakistan. He spent some of his formative years in Kuwait, just like his nephew, Ramzi Yousef (three years his junior). He joined the Muslim Brotherhood at age 16. He returned to Pakistan soon after, and after spending some time there, went to the United States for further study.

He attended Chowan College, a small Baptist school in Murfreesboro, North Carolina, for a few years (beginning in 1983) before transferring to the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and completing a degree in mechanical engineering in 1986.[4][5] The following year he went to Afghanistan where he and his brothers, Zahed, Abed, and Aref, fought against the Soviet Union during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. (Some sources believe Khalid was fighting in Afghanistan before he moved to the United States.) There, he was introduced to Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, head of the Islamic Union Party. The 9/11 Commission Report notes on page 149 that "Sayyaf was close to Ahmed Shah Massoud, the leader of the Afghan Northern Alliance."

Professional career

According to the 9/11 Commission, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed after the Afghan jihad went to worked for an electronics company, working on communications equipment. In 1988, he helped to head a non-governmental organization paid for by Abu Sayyaf, which sponsored and aided Afghan fighters against the Soviets. He continued this work until 1992, when he fought with Muslim fighters in Bosnia and Herzegovina and supported this effort financially.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed moved to Qatar to work in a government office as a project engineer for the Qatari Ministry of Electricity and Water. He stayed at this job until 1996, all the while supporting terrorism covertly. In, 1996 he fled to Pakistan to avoid capture by U.S. authorities.[3]

Private life

While he was in the Philippines in late 1994 and early 1995, he said that he was a Saudi or a Qatari plywood exporter and used the aliases, Abdul Majid and Salem Ali.[6] .[7]

According to Philippine police, a waitress at the Manila Bay Club on Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City named Arminda Costudio was introduced to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was using the name Salem Ali and claiming that he was a Qatari businessman. Costudio said that he was always with Ramzi Yousef, and her description was identical to Abdul Hakim Murad's description. Both people described that he had "excess meat" on his middle finger. Neither knew him under his true name. Costudio met him again twice at the Shangri-La Hotel in Makati City in mid-1994. Each time, he wore a white tuxedo and paid for dinner with a wad of cash. He gave out candies to group members. Costudio became the girlfriend of Wali Khan Amin Shah while he was in Metro Manila. [citation needed]

Operation Bojinka

Main article: Operation Bojinka

After seeing the respect that Ramzi Yousef had gained from the attack, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed decided to engage more directly in anti-U.S. activities as well. He travelled to the Philippines in 1994 to work with Ramzi Yousef on Operation Bojinka, a Manila-based plot to destroy twelve commercial airliners flying routes between the United States, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. The 9/11 Commission Report says in Chapter 5 that "this marked the first time KSM took part in the actual planning of a terrorist operation."

"Using airline timetables, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Yousef devised a scheme whereby five men could, in a single day, board 12 flights — two each for three of the men, three each for the other two — assemble and deposit their bombs and exit the planes, leaving timers to ignite the bombs up to several days afterward. By the time the bombs exploded, the men would be far away and far from reasonable suspicion. The math was simple: 12 flights with at least 400 people per flight. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,000 deaths. It would be a day of glory for them, calamity for the Americans they supposed would fill the aircraft."[8]

In December, 1994, Ramzi Yousef had engaged in a test of a bomb on Philippine Airlines Flight 434 using only about 10 percent of the explosives that were to be used in each of the bombs to be planted on United States airliners. The test resulted in the death of a Japanese national on board a flight from the Philippines to Japan. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed conspired with Ramzi Yousef on the plot until it was uncovered on January 6, 1995. Ramzi Yousef was captured February 7 of that same year. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had also developed a plot to assassinate U.S. President Bill Clinton during his presidential visit to Manila in November 1994.[citation needed]

In 1996, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was secretly indicted by the Southern District of the state of New York for his alleged involvement in Operation Bojinka.[citation needed]

Redevelopment of the relationship with Osama bin Laden

By the time the Operation Bojinka plot was discovered, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was already safely in Qatar, back at his job as a project engineer at the country's Ministry of Electricity and Water. He traveled in 1995 to Sudan, Yemen, Malaysia, and Brazil to visit elements of the worldwide jihadist community, although no evidence connects him to specific terrorist actions in any of those locations. On his trip to Sudan he attempted to meet with Osama bin Laden, who was at the time living there with the aid of Sudanese political leader Hassan al Turabi. After a request to arrest Mohammed came to the Qatari government from the United States in January 1996, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed fled to Afghanistan, where he renewed his relationship with Rasul Sayyaf and formed a working relationship with the newly migrated Osama bin Laden later that year. "According to KSM, this was the first time he had seen bin Laden since 1989. Although they had fought together [in Afghanistan] in 1987, bin Laden and KSM did not yet enjoy an especially close working relationship."

Just as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was reestablishing himself in Afghanistan, bin Laden and his colleagues were also transplanting their operations to the same country. Abu Hafs al-Masri/Mohammed Atef, bin Laden's chief of operations, arranged a meeting between bin Laden and Mohammed in Tora Bora sometime in mid-1996, in which Mohammed outlined a plan that would eventually become the quadruple hijackings of 2001.[9] Bin Laden urged Mohammed to become a full-fledged member of Al Qaeda, but he continued to refuse such a commitment until around early 1999, after the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam convinced him that bin Laden was truly committed to attacking the United States.[10] Khalid Sheikh Mohammed wished to retain some degree of autonomy as a mujahid. His continuing relationship with Abu Sayyaf — an opponent of the Taliban — had to be kept hidden from bin Laden and the rest of Al Qaeda, as full disclosure would have been problematic.

The 9/11 Commission Report notes on page 149 that Mohammed moved his family from Iran to Karachi, Pakistan in 1997. That same year, he attempted without success to join mujahideen leader Ibn al Khattab in Chechnya, another area of special interest to Mohammed. He was apparently unable to travel to Chechnya, and so he instead returned to Afghanistan, where he gradually gained stature in Al Qaeda and ultimately accepted bin Laden's invitation to move to Kandahar and join the organization as a full-fledged member (although he claims that he still refused to swear a formal oath of loyalty to bin Laden). Eventually, he became leader of Al Qaeda's media committee. He also worked on various unfulfilled plans for attacks in Israel and Southeast Asia.

September 11, 2001 attacks

Interrogations of Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (captured in 2002 and 2003 respectively) allegedly revealed that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the instigator and prime organizer of the attacks. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's cousin, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, was one of the major financiers of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The first hijack plan that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed presented to the leadership of al-Qaeda called for several airplanes on both east and west coasts to be hijacked and flown into targets. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's plan evolved from an earlier foiled plot known as Operation Bojinka which called for ten or more airliners to be bombed in mid-air or hijacked for use as missiles. Bin Laden rejected some potential targets suggested by Mohammed, such as the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles.[11]

In late 1998 or early 1999, bin Laden gave approval for Mohammed to go forward with organizing the plot.[10] A series of meetings occurred in spring of 1999, involving Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Osama bin Laden, and his deputy Mohammed Atef.[10] Bin Laden provided leadership for the plot, along with financial support.[10] Bin Laden was also involved in selecting people to participate in the plot, including choosing Mohamed Atta as the lead hijacker.[12] Mohammed provided operational support, such as selecting targets and helping arrange travel for the hijackers.[10]

In a 2002 interview with Al Jazeera journalist Yosri Fouda, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed admitted his involvement, along with Ramzi Binalshibh, in the "Holy Tuesday operation".[13] Mohammed was arrested on March 1, 2003 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.[14] Mohammed ultimately ended up at Guantanamo Bay.

In March 2007, Reuters reported that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confessed to playing a role in the 9/11 terror attacks during a secret hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.[2] "I was responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z," Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said in a statement read Saturday during a Combatant Status Review Tribunal at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.[15] Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's confession was read by a member of the U.S. military who is serving as his personal representative.[16]

Reid "shoe bombing"

Main article: Richard Reid (shoe bomber)

According to an al-Qaeda operative, Mohammed Mansour Jabarah, who was captured and interrogated in Oman in 2003, Reid was also a member of al-Qaeda and had been sent on the bombing mission by Khaled Sheikh Mohammed.[17] The same source indicated Reid and Mohammed Mansour Jabarah both reported to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Daniel Pearl murder

Main article: Daniel Pearl

According to a CNN interview with intelligence expert Rohan Gunaratna, "Daniel Pearl was going in search of the al Qaeda network that was operational in Karachi, and it was at the instruction of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that Daniel Pearl was killed."[17] On October 12, 2006, Time magazine reported that "KSM confessed under CIA interrogation that he personally committed the murder."[18] On March 15 2007, the Pentagon released a statement that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had confessed to the murder.[19] The statement quoted Mohammed as saying, "I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan. For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head."[20]

Bali nightclub bombings

Main article: Bali nightclub bombings

Mohammed was also indirectly implicated in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings. In 2006, the Associated Press reported Col. Petrus Reinhard Golose of Indonesia's counterterrorism task force, in which he asserted "Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was personally involved in setting up the courier system...in which money [to fund suicide bombings] was carried from Thailand to Malaysia and finally to Indonesia's Sumatra island."[21]


Capture, interrogation and possible torture

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed after capture

On September 11, 2002, members of Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) claimed to have killed or captured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed during a raid in Karachi which resulted in the capture of Ramzi Binalshibh. Some people have reported that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed escaped, but that his family was captured.

On March 1, 2003, the ISI reported that they had captured him in a raid in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The raid was variously reported to be all-Pakistani, in the presence of the United States CIA, or a joint raid with the CIA. Following the report of the capture, some Pakistani officials say he was immediately transferred to US custody without extradition proceedings, while others said he remained in Pakistani custody. The raid took place at the home of Ahmed Abdul Qudoos, who was also reportedly arrested as an al-Qaida agent. Qudoos' family told media that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was not in the house, that Qudoos was disabled and had never been associated with al-Qaeda, and that the police conducting the raids did not ask for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Other newspaper accounts said that former Taliban officials in Pakistan said that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was not captured and was still at large.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has also been widely described as living a lavish lifestyle, even while he was on the run from the law. He travelled all over the world using false passports, and was very close to being captured by U.S. authorities on numerous occasions.

He was close to former Jemaah Islamiyah leader Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali.

On October 12, 2004, Human Rights Watch reported that 11 suspects, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, had "disappeared" to a semisecret prison in Jordan, and might have been tortured there under the direction of the CIA.[22][23] Jordanian and American officials denied those allegations.[24][25][26]

In March 2007, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed testified before a closed-door hearing in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. According to transcripts of the hearing released by the Pentagon, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said "I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z." The transcripts also show Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confessing to organizing the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Bali nightclub bombings and the attempted Richard Reid shoe bombing, as well as planned attacks on Heathrow Airport and Big Ben clock tower in London, the beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002, and planned assassination attempts on Pope John Paul II, Pervez Musharraf and Bill Clinton.[27] Some people however, think that his confessions shouldn't be taken too seriously as Guantánamo Bay is notorious for its alleged use of torturing methods.[28]

It was reported on BBC news on the 15th of March 2007, "Transcripts of his testimony were translated from Arabic and edited by the US defence department to remove sensitive intelligence material before release. It appeared, from a judge's question, that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had made allegations of torture in US custody". 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. CIA officials have previously told ABC News "Mohammed lasted the longest under water boarding, two and a half minutes, before beginning to talk.".[29] Legal experts say this could taint all his statements.

One CIA 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." For example according to Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers, a former FBI agent and the top Republican on the terrorism panel of the House Intelligence Committee, he has admitted responsibility for the bombing of a nightclub in Bali, Indonesia but Mohammed's link "could have been as small as arranging a safe house for travel. It could have been arranging finance.” Mohammed also made the admission that he was "responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center Operation," which killed six and injured more than 1,000 when a bomb was detonated in an underground garage, Mohammed didn't plan the attack, but he may have supported it.[30]

References

  1. ^ Including Ashraf Refaat Nabith Henin, Khalid Adbul Wadood, Salem Ali, Abdul Majid, Abdullah al-Fak'asi al-Ghamdior, Fahd bin Adballah bin Khalid.
  2. ^ a b "Transcript: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confesses 9/11 role". CNN. 2007-03-14. Retrieved 2007-03-14. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ Bush admits to CIA secret prisons, BBC News, Thursday, 7 September 2006, 04:18 GMT 05:18 UK
  4. ^ Suspected 9/11 mastermind graduated from U.S. university
  5. ^ Alumni Home The university has no information on him
  6. ^ "Alleged Sept. 11 mastermind's nephew plotted 1993 bombing: FBI's most-wanted terrorist after bin Laden lived in luxury in Philippines with '93 plotter". Ottawa Citizen / Associated Press. June 26, 2002.
  7. ^ Gunaratna, Rohan. ""Womaniser, joker, scuba diver: the other face of al-Qaida's No 3 "". Retrieved 2006-09-12. Guardian Unlimited, March 3, 2003.
  8. ^ McDermott, Terry. ""Echoes of '95 Manila Plot". Retrieved 2006-09-13. Los Angeles Times August 11, 2006.
  9. ^ "Suspect 'reveals 9/11 planning'". BBC News. September 22, 2003.
  10. ^ a b c d e National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (2004). "Chapter 5". 9/11 Commission Report. Government Printing Office.
  11. ^ Wright, Lawrence (2006). The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Knopf. pp. p. 308. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  12. ^ Bergen, Peter (2006). The Osama bin Laden I Know. Free Press. pp. p. 283. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  13. ^ "'We left out nuclear targets, for now'". The Guardian. March 4, 2003.
  14. ^ "Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Names Names". TIME. March 24, 2003.
  15. ^ "September 11 mastermind 'confesses'". Al Jazeera. March 15, 2007.
  16. ^ Khalid Sheikh Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: 'I Was Responsible for 9/11'. March 15, 2007.
  17. ^ a b Ressa, Maria. ""Sources:Reid is al Qaeda operative."". Retrieved 2006-09-15. CNN.com, December 6, 2003.
  18. ^ Burger, Timothy J. (2006-10-12). "Fingering Danny Pearl's Killer". [[Time (magazine)|]]. Time Warner. Retrieved 2007-03-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  19. ^ "Key 9/11 figure 'beheaded Pearl'". BBC News. BBC. 2007-03-15. Retrieved 2007-03-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ "Al-Qaida No. 3 says he planned 9/11, other plots". Associated Press. MSNBC. 2007-03-15. Retrieved 2007-03-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ Hakim, Zakki. "Official Ties al-Qaida to Indonesia Terror." Associated Press, February 28, 2006, cited by Daniel McKivergan at The Weekly Standard.[1]
  22. ^ Eleven Detainees in Undisclosed Locations, Human Rights Watch, October 2004
  23. ^ The Legal Prohibition Against Torture. Human Rights Watch, June 1 2004
  24. ^ Al Qaeda men in 'ghost prison', rediff.com, October 18 2004
  25. ^ Jordan denies 'secret US prison', BBC, October 14 2004
  26. ^ Gonzales insists US did not send prisoners abroad to be tortured, The Jurist, March 7 2005
  27. ^ "Key 9/11 suspect confesses guilt". BBC News. BBC. 2007-03-15. Retrieved 2007-03-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  28. ^ "A "Convenient" Guantanamo confession". The Muslim News. Muslimnews.co.uk. 2007-03-15. Retrieved 2007-03-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); External link in |publisher= (help)
  29. ^ CIA's Harsh Interrogation Techniques Described: Sources Say Agency's Tactics Lead to Questionable Confessions, Sometimes to Death, ABC News, November 18, 2005
  30. ^ Officials: Mohammed exaggerated claims, Yahoo News, November 18, [[2005]

See also

Confessed terrorism targets of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed


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