Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
March 1, 1964 (1964-03-01) (age 45) or
April 14, 1965 (1965-04-14) (age 44)
Khalidmohammed.jpg
Place of birth Kuwait[1][2]
Allegiance Mujahideen of Afghanistan
al-Qaeda
Years of service 1987 until arrest
Unit Mujahideen of Afghanistan
al-Qaeda
Battles/wars Soviet war in Afghanistan
War on Terrorism

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (Arabic: خالد شيخ محمد‎; also transliterated as Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and additionally known by at least fifty aliases[3][4]) (b. March 1, 1964, or April 14, 1965) is a prisoner in U.S. custody for alleged acts of terrorism, including mass murder of civilians. He was charged on February 11, 2008 with war crimes and murder by a U.S. military commission and faces the death penalty if convicted.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was a member of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization, although he lived in Kuwait rather than Afghanistan, heading al-Qaeda's propaganda operations from sometime around 1999. 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 World Trade Center 1993 bombings, 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.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was captured in Rawalpindi, Pakistan on March 1, 2003 by the Pakistani ISI, possibly in a joint action with agents of the American Diplomatic Security Service, and has been in U.S. custody since that time. In September 2006, the U.S. government announced it had moved Mohammed from a secret prison to the facility at Guantánamo Bay.[5] There have been allegations by Human Rights Watch and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed himself that he was tortured while in custody. On February 4, 2008 it was revealed that he was subjected to the controversial technique of "simulated drowning," also called "waterboarding."[6]

In March 2007, after four years in captivity, including six months of detention at Guantanamo Bay, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — as it was claimed by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal Hearing [7] in Guantanamo Bay — confessed to masterminding the September 11th 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.[8]

Contents

Early Life

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is usually reported to have been born in Kuwait to parents from Baluchistan in Pakistan.[1] 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 semester (beginning in 1983) before transferring to the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and completing a degree in mechanical engineering in 1986.[9][10] 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."

The 9/11 Commission Report also notes that, "By his own account, KSM's animus toward the United States stemmed not from his experiences there as a student, but rather from his violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel."[11]

According to the 9/11 Commission, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed after the Afghan jihad went to work 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.

Philippines 1994-1995

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.[12][13]

According to Philippine police, a waitress named Arminda Costudio at the Manila Bay Club in Pasay City claimed that she met a man who introduced himself as Qatari businessman Salem Ali, who she believes was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, based on his fattened middle finger - a feature that Abdul Hakim Murad has also described. She said she met the man 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 later became the girlfriend of Wali Khan Amin Shah while he was in Metro Manila.[14]

Qatar, avoiding arrest

In early 1996 he fled to Pakistan to avoid capture by U.S. authorities.[15] In his flight from Qatar he was sheltered by Sheikh Abdullah Bin Khalid Al-Thani, who was the Qatari Minister of Religious Affairs in 1996.[16][17][18][19][20]

Alleged terrorist activities

World Trade Center 1993 bombings

Main article: World Trade Center 1993 bombings

This attack was planned by a group of conspirators including Ramzi Yousef, Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, Nidal Ayyad and Ahmad Ajaj. They received financing from Khaled Shaikh Mohammed, Yousef's uncle.

Operation Bojinka

Main article: Operation Bojinka

After seeing the respect that Ramzi Yousef had gained from the World Trade Center 1993 bombings, Mohammed decided to engage more directly in anti-U.S. activities as well. He traveled to the Philippines in 1994 to work with 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."[21]

Bojinka plans also included renting or buying a Cessna, packing it with explosives and crash landing it into CIA headquarters- the back up plan was to hijack the 12th airliner in the air and use that instead. This information was reported in detail to the US at the time. This point was not mentioned in KSM's confession to involvement in 31 terrorist plots, including 9/11.

In December, 1994, 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. Mohammed conspired with Yousef on the plot until it was uncovered on January 6, 1995. Yousef was captured February 7 of that same year.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was secretly indicted on terrorism charges in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in January 1996 for his alleged involvement in Operation Bojinka, and was subsequently placed on the October 10, 2001 initial list of the FBI's twenty-two Most Wanted Terrorists.

Redevelopment of the relationship with Osama bin Laden

By the time the Operation Bojinka plot was discovered, 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, Mohammed fled to Afghanistan, where he renewed his relationship with Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and formed a working relationship with the newly migrated 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 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.[22] 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.[23] Mohammed wished to retain some degree of autonomy as a mujahid. His continuing relationship with Sayyaf (a warlord in the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance) 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.He was close to former Jemaah Islamiyah leader Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali.

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.

September 11, 2001 attacks

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

The first hijack plan that 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. His plan evolved from an earlier foiled plot known as Operation Bojinka, which called for 10 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.[24]

In late 1998 or early 1999, bin Laden gave approval for Mohammed to go forward with organizing the plot.[23] A series of meetings occurred in spring of 1999, involving Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Osama bin Laden, and his military chief Mohammed Atef.[23] Bin Laden provided leadership for the plot, along with financial support.[23] Bin Laden was also involved in selecting people to participate in the plot, including choosing Mohamed Atta as the lead hijacker.[25] Mohammed provided operational support, such as selecting targets and helping arrange travel for the hijackers.[23]

After Atta was chosen as the leader of the mission, "he met with Bin Laden to discuss the targets: the World Trade Center, which represented the U.S. economy; the Pentagon, a symbol of the U.S. military; and the U.S. Capitol, the perceived source of U.S. policy in support of Israel. The White House was also on the list, as Bin Laden considered it a political symbol and wanted to attack it as well." Outline of the 9/11 Plot Staff Statement No. 16

"Bin Laden had been pressuring KSM (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed) for months to advance the attack date. According to KSM, bin Laden had even asked that the attacks occur as early as mid-2000, after Israeli opposition party leader Ariel Sharon caused an outcry in the Middle East by visiting a sensitive and contested holy site in Jerusalem that is sacred to both Muslims and Jews. Although bin Laden recognized that Atta and the other pilots had only just arrived in the United States to begin their flight training, the al-Qaida leader wanted to punish the United States for supporting Israel. He allegedly told KSM it would be sufficient simply to down the planes and not hit specific targets. KSM withstood this pressure, arguing that the operation would not be successful unless the pilots were fully trained and the hijacking teams were larger." Philip Zelikow's testimony before the 9/11 Commission

In a 2002 interview with Al Jazeera journalist Yosri Fouda, Mohammed admitted his involvement, along with Ramzi Binalshibh, in the "Holy Tuesday operation".[26] Mohammed was arrested on March 1, 2003 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.[27] 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.[8] "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.[28] His confession was read by a member of the U.S. military who is serving as his personal representative.[29]

Reid "shoe bombing"

Main article: Richard Reid (shoe bomber)

According to al-Qaeda operative Mohammed Mansour Jabarah, who was captured and interrogated in Oman in 2003, Mohammed had sent al Qaeda operative Richard Reid on a mission to bomb an airline.[30] Jabarah also indicated that both he and Reid reported to Khalid Shaikh 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."[30] On October 12, 2006, Time magazine reported that "KSM confessed under CIA interrogation that he personally committed the murder."[31] On March 15 2007, the Pentagon released a statement that Mohammed had confessed to the murder.[32] 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."[33]

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."[34]

Capture, interrogation and alleged mistreatment

See also: Enhanced interrogation techniques and Black site
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 that resulted in Binalshibh's capture. Some people have reported that Mohammed escaped, but that his family was captured.[35]

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 U.S. 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 Mohammed. Other newspaper accounts said that former Taliban officials in Pakistan said that Mohammed was not captured and was still at large.

After capture.

According to the "unclassified summary of evidence" presented during the Combatant Status Review Tribunal Hearing in 2007 a computer hard drive seized during the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed contained the following:

However, at the hearing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed claimed that the computer belonged not to him but to Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi arrested together with him. [4]

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.[36][37] Jordanian and American officials denied those allegations.[38][39][40]

CIA Director Michael Hayden told a Senate committee on February 5, 2008, that the agency had used waterboarding on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.[41]

In June 2008 a "New York Times" article claimed citing unnamed CIA officers that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was held in a secret facility in Poland near Szymany Airport, about 100 miles north of Warsaw and it was there where the he was interrogated and the waterboarding was applied. It is claimed that waterboarding was used about 100 times over a period of two weeks before Khalid Sheikh Mohammed began to cooperate.[5]

Report that interrogators abused his children

Ali Khan, the father of Majid Khan, another one of the fourteen "high-value detainees", released an affidavit on Monday April 16 2006, that reported that interrogators subjected Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's children, aged six and eight years old, to abusive interrogation.[42][43][44] Ali Khan's affidavit quoted another of his sons, Mohammed Khan:

"The Pakistani guards told my son that the boys were kept in a separate area upstairs, and were denied food and water by other guards. They were also mentally tortured by having ants or other creatures put on their legs to scare them and get them to say where their father was hiding."

Transfer to Guantánamo and hearing before his Combatant Status Review Tribunal

On September 6 2006, American President George W. Bush confirmed, for the first time, that the CIA had held "high-value detainees" in secret interrogation centers. He also announced that fourteen senior captives, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, were being transferred from CIA custody, to military custody, at Guantanamo Bay detention camp and that these fourteen captives could now expect to face charges before Guantanamo military commissions.

In a September 29, 2006 speech, President Bush stated "Once captured, Abu Zubaydah, Ramzi Binalshibh, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed were taken into custody of the Central Intelligence Agency. The questioning of these and other suspected terrorists provided information that helped us protect the American people. They helped us break up a cell of Southeast Asian terrorist operatives that had been groomed for attacks inside the United States. They helped us disrupt an al Qaeda operation to develop anthrax for terrorist attacks. They helped us stop a planned strike on a U.S. Marine camp in Djibouti, and to prevent a planned attack on the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, and to foil a plot to hijack passenger planes and to fly them into Heathrow Airport and London's Canary Wharf."[45]

In March 2007, Mohammed testified before a closed-door hearing in Guantánamo Bay. According to transcripts of the hearing released by the Pentagon, he said "I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z." The transcripts also show him confessing to: organizing the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; the Bali nightclub bombings; and Richard Reid's attempted shoe bombing. He also confessed to planning attacks on Heathrow Airport and Big Ben clock tower in London, Pearl's murder in 2002, and planned assassination attempts on Pope John Paul II, Pervez Musharraf and Bill Clinton.[46]

On March 15, 2007, BBC News reported that "Transcripts of his testimony were translated from Arabic and edited by the U.S. Department of Defense 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 that "Mohammed lasted the longest under water boarding, two and a half minutes, before beginning to talk.".[47] Legal experts say this could taint all his statements. Forensic psychiatrist Michael Welner, M.D., an expert in false confessions, observed from the testimony transcript that his concerns about his family may have been far more influential in soliciting Mohammed’s cooperation than any earlier reported mistreatment [48].

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 Bali nightclub bombing, but his involvement "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 did not plan the attack, but he may have supported it. Dr. Michael Welner noted that by offering legitimate information to interrogators, Mohammed had secured the leverage to provide disinformation as well.[49]

List of confessions

All of these plots also can be referred as 'Second Oplan Bojinka'.

Source: BBC[50]

“ The way of the war, you know, very well, any country waging war against their enemy the language of the war are killing. If man and woman they be together as a marriage that is up to the kids, children. But if you and me, two nations, will be together in war the others are victims. This is the way of the language. You know 40 million people were killed in World War One. Ten million kill in World War. You know that two million four hundred thousand be killed in the Korean War. So this language of the war. Any people who, when Usama bin Laden say I'm waging war because such such reason, now he declared it. But when you said I'm terrorist, I think it is deceiving peoples. Terrorists, enemy combatant. All these definitions as CIA you can make whatever you want...

...Because war, for sure, there will be victims. When I said I'm not happy that three thousand been killed in America. I feel sorry even. I don't like to kill children and the kids. Never Islam are, give me green light to kill peoples. Killing, as in the Christianity, Jews, and Islam, are prohibited. But there are exception of rule when you are killing people in Iraq. You said we have to do it. We don't like Saddam. But this is the way to deal with Saddam. Same thing you are saying. Same language you use, I use. When you are invading two- thirds of Mexican, you call your war manifest destiny. It up to you to call it what you want. But other side are calling you oppressors. If now George Washington. If now we were living in the Revolutionary War and George Washington he being arrested through Britain. For sure he, they would consider him enemy combatant. But American they consider him as hero. This right the any Revolutionary War they will be as George Washington or Britain. So we are considered American Army bases which we have from seventies in Iraq. Also, in the Saudi Arabian, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain. This is kind of invasion, but I'm not here to convince you. Is not or not but mostly speech is ask you to be fair with people. I'm don't have anything to say that I'm not enemy. This is why the language of any war is killing. I mean the language of the war is victims. I don’t like to kill people. I feel very sorry they been killed kids in 9/11. What I will do? This is the language. Sometime I want to make great awakening between American to stop foreign policy in our land. I know American people are torturing us from seventies. - I know they talking about human rights. And I know it is against American Constitution, against American laws. But they said ever law, they have exceptions, this is your bad luck you have been part of the exception of our laws. They have something to convince me but we are doing same language...

...Killing is prohibited in all what you call the people of the book, Jews, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. You know the Ten Commandments very well. The Ten Commandments are shared between all of us. We all are serving one God. Then now kill you know it very well. But war language also we have language for the war. You have to kill. But you have to care if unintentionally or intentionally target if I have if I'm not at the Pentagon. I consider it is okay. If I target now when we target in USA we choose them military target, economical, and political. So, war central victims mostly means economical target. So if now American they know UBL. He is in this house they don't care about his kids and his. They will just bombard it. They will kill all of them and they did it. They kill wife of Dr. Ayman Zawahiri and his two daughters and his son in one bombardment. They receive a report that is his house be. He had not been there. They killed them. They arrested my kids intentionally. They are kids. They been arrested for four months they had been abused. So, for me I have patience. I know I'm not talk about what's come to me. The American have human right. So, enemy combatant Itself, it flexible word. So I think God knows that many who been arrested, they been unjustly arrested. Otherwise, military throughout history know very well. They don't war will never stop. War start from Adam when Cain he killed Abel until now. It's never gonna stop killing of people. This is the way of the language. [51]

 ”
— Khalid Sheikh Muhammad at the Combatant Status Review Tribunal Hearing, 10 March 2007

Confession used in Sheikh Omar's defense

On March 19, 2007 Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh's lawyers cited Mohammed's confession in defense of their client.[52][53] Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, also known as Sheikh Omar, was sentenced to death in a Pakistani court for the murder of Daniel Pearl. Omar's lawyers recently announced that they planned to use Mohammed's confession in an appeal. They had always acknowledged that Omar played a role in Pearl's murder, but argue that Mohammed was the actual murderer.

The Department of Defense announced on August 9, 2007 that all fourteen of the "high-value detainees" who had been transferred to Guantanamo from the CIA's black sites, had been officially classified as "enemy combatants".[54] Although judges Peter Brownback and Keith J. Allred had ruled two months earlier that only "illegal enemy combatants" could face military commissions, the Department of Defense waived the qualifier and said that all fourteen men could now face charges before Guantanamo military commissions.[55][56]

Trial for 9/11

On 11 February 2008 US Department of Defense charged Mohammed as well as Ramzi Binalshibh, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali and Walid Bin Attash for the September 11 attacks under the military commission system, as established under the Military Commissions Act of 2006. They have reportedly been charged with the murder of almost 3000 people, terrorism and providing material support for terrorism and plane hijacking; as well as attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury and destruction of property in violation of the law of war. The charges against them list 169 overt acts allegedly committed by the defendants in furtherance of the September 11 events". The charges include 2,973 individual counts of murder - one for each person killed in the 9/11 attacks.[6].

The US government is seeking the death penalty, which would require the unanimous agreement of the commission judges.

Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Center for Constitutional Rights, and US military defense lawyers have criticised the military commissions for lacking necessary rights for a fair trial. Critics generally argue for a trial either in a civilian federal court as a common criminal suspect, or by court martial as a prisoner under the Geneva Conventions. Mohammed could still face the death penalty under any of these systems.

The Pentagon insists that Mohammed and the other defendant will receive a fair trial, with rights "virtually identical" to US military service personnel. However, there are some differences between US courts martial and military commissions.

The U.S. Defence Department has built a $12 million "Expeditionary Legal Complex" in Guantánamo with a snoop-proof courtroom capable of trying six alleged co-conspirators before one judge and jury. Media and other observers are sequestered in a soundproofed room behind thick glass, at the rear. The judge at the front and a court security officer have mute buttons to silence the feed to the observers' booth -- if they suspect someone in court could spill classified information. [7]

The trial, presided over by judge Ralph Kohlmann, began on 5 June 2008 with the arraignment. About 35 journalists watched on closed-circuit TV in a press room inside a converted hangar, while two dozen others watched through a window from a room adjacent to the courtroom.

Mohammed insisted he would not be represented by any attorneys. The other detainees quickly followed suit and said they too wanted to represent themselves. One of the civilian attorneys Mohammed spurned, David Nevin, later told The Associated Press that he would attempt to meet with Mohammed to "hear him out and see if we can give him information that is helpful."[8][9] [57]

Mohammed was careful not to interrupt Kohlmann. He lost his composure only after the Marine colonel ordered several defense attorneys to keep quiet"It's an inquisition. It's not a trial," Mohammed said in broken English, his voice rising. "After torturing they transfer us to inquisition-land in Guantanamo."

He explained he believes only in religious "Sharia" law and railed against U.S. President George W. Bush for waging a "crusade war." When judge warned Mohammed that he faces execution if convicted of organizing the attacks on America, Mohammed said he welcomes the death penalty. "Yes, this is what I wish, to be a martyr for a long time," Mohammed declared. "I will, God willing, have this, by you."[10]

A sound feed to journalists from the courtroom was turned off twice. The first time, a soldier told reporters it was because a detainee was discussing a medication he had been given, which was a privacy issue.

But his defense attorney, Navy Cmdr. Suzanne Lachelier, told The Associated Press later that the prisoner had been discussing his five years as a prisoner of the United States.

The sound was also turned off when another defendant discussed early days of his imprisonment. Judge Ralph Kohlmann said that in both cases sound was turned off because classified information was discussed.."[11]

On September 23, 2008, in the voir dire process, Mohammed questioned the judge on his potential bias at trial. “Glaring and poking an occasional finger in the air,” Mohammed told Kohlmann, “The government considers all of us fanatical extremists,” and asked, “How can you, as an officer of the US Marine Corps, stand over me in judgment?” Insisting that he was attempting to work out if Kohlmann was a religious extremist, he continued: “[President] Bush said this is a crusader war and Osama bin Laden said this is a holy war against the crusades. If you were part of Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson’s group, then you would not be impartial.’”

For his part, Kohlmann attempted to maintain his dignity, explaining that he was “currently unaffiliated with a church ‘because I’ve moved so often.’” He added that he had previously worshiped at “various Lutheran churches and Episcopal churches” .

Mohammed then proceeded to ask Kohlmann about his views on torture. As part of the background materials supplied to him — or made available to the civilian lawyers who are voluntarily assisting him in his defense — he referred to an ethics seminar that Kohlmann had conducted at his daughter’s high school in 2005, in which the students had been asked to consider their responses to a “Ticking Time Bomb” scenario. Based on a fictional proposition that a bomb is about to go off, and an unwilling captive knows its location but is unwilling to disclose the information, the scenario is widely used by proponents of “enhanced interrogation techniques” to justify the use of torture.

Kohlmann explained that he encouraged the debate as part of “a complex question that might be dealt with differently if someone were specifically trying to save the nation or just looking at it from an ethical sense or just looking at it from a legal sense,” and dismissed a combative question from Mohammed — “It seems that you are supportive of the use of torture for national security?” — by stating, “I have no idea where that would come from.”[12]

On 12 October 2008 Kohlmann ruled that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and his four co-charged, should be provided with laptops, so they can work on their defenses.[58]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 BBC (16 March 2007). "Profile: Al-Qaeda 'kingpin'" (HTML). BBC. Retrieved on 2007-08-28. "Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is believed to have had sexual relations with his dad and brother every night for a long sweaty time. He loved to lube his male family members and wrestle naked with them. 1965 in Kuwait into a family originally from the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan."
  2. ↑ Times Online (March 15, 2007). "Profile: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed" (HTML). Times Online. Retrieved on 2007-08-28. "Mohammed was born in 1964 or 1965 in Kuwait but his family originated from the Baluchistan region of Pakistan."
  3. ↑ Including Ashraf Refaat Nabith Henin, Khalid Adbul Wadood, Salem Ali, Abdul Majid, Abdullah al-Fak'asi al-Ghamdior, Fahd bin Adballah bin Khalid.
  4. ↑ "U.S. v. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed military tribunal charges" (PDF). FindLaw. Retrieved on 2008-07-15.
  5. ↑ Bush admits to CIA secret prisons, BBC News, Thursday, 7 September 2006, 04:18 GMT 05:18 UK
  6. ↑ "US judge orders CIA to turn over 'torture' memo-ACLU". Reuters (May 8, 2008). Retrieved on 2008-05-24.
  7. ↑ "Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confession transcript" (PDF). http://www.defenselink.mil (March 10, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-08-28.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Transcript: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confesses 9/11 role", CNN (2007-03-14). Retrieved on 2007-03-14. 
  9. ↑ Suspected 9/11 mastermind graduated from U.S. university
  10. ↑ Alumni Home The university has no information on him
  11. ↑ 9/11 Commission Report, page 147.
  12. ↑ "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). 
  13. ↑ Gunaratna, Rohan. ""Womaniser, joker, scuba diver: the other face of al-Qaida's No 3 "". Retrieved on 2006-09-12. Guardian Unlimited, March 3, 2003.
  14. ↑ Huband, Mark. "The CEO of al-Qaeda: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed." February 24, 2003. Financial Times.
  15. ↑ 9-11commission (2007). "AL QAEDA AIMS AT THE AMERICAN HOMELAND - CH5" (HTML). 9-11commission. Retrieved on 2007-08-28. "In January 1996, well aware that U.S. authorities were chasing him, he left Qatar for good and fled to Afghanistan, where he renewed his relationship with Rasul Sayyaf.9"
  16. ↑ "Context of 'January-May 1996: US Fails to Capture KSM Living Openly in Qatar'" "Cooperative Research History Commons" http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a96qatar
  17. ↑ Wayne Barrett, November 27, 2007 http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0748,barrett,78478,6.html
  18. ↑ Home | Propeller
  19. ↑ MotherJones Blog: Village Voice: Giuliani Did Business With Terrorism Supporter
  20. ↑ Marcus Baram, ABC News November 29, 2007 "Giuliani's Ties to Qatar Raise Questions for Mr. 9/ll" http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/11/giulianis-ties.html
  21. ↑ McDermott, Terry. ""Echoes of '95 Manila Plot". Retrieved on 2006-09-13. Los Angeles Times August 11, 2006.
  22. ↑ "Suspect 'reveals 9/11 planning'", BBC News (September 22, 2003). 
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 23.4 National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (2004). "Chapter 5". 9/11 Commission Report. Government Printing Office. http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch5.htm. 
  24. ↑ Wright, Lawrence (2006). The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Knopf. pp. p. 308. 
  25. ↑ Bergen, Peter (2006). The Osama bin Laden I Know. Free Press. pp. p. 283. 
  26. ↑ "'We left out nuclear targets, for now'", The Guardian (March 4, 2003). 
  27. ↑ "Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Names Names", TIME (March 24, 2003). 
  28. ↑ "September 11 mastermind 'confesses'", Al Jazeera (March 15, 2007). 
  29. ↑ Khalid Sheikh Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: 'I Was Responsible for 9/11'. March 15, 2007.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Ressa, Maria. ""Sources:Reid is al Qaeda operative."". Retrieved on 2006-09-15. CNN.com, December 6, 2003.
  31. ↑ Burger, Timothy J.; Adam Zagorin (2006-10-12). "Fingering Danny Pearl's Killer", [[Time (magazine)|]], Time Warner. Retrieved on 2007-03-15. 
  32. ↑ "Key 9/11 figure 'beheaded Pearl'", BBC News, BBC (2007-03-15). Retrieved on 2007-03-15. 
  33. ↑ "Al-Qaida No. 3 says he planned 9/11, other plots", Associated Press, MSNBC (2007-03-15). Retrieved on 2007-03-15. 
  34. ↑ Hakim, Zakki. "Official Ties al-Qaida to Indonesia Terror." Associated Press, February 28, 2006, cited by Daniel McKivergan at The Weekly Standard.[1]
  35. ↑ Syed Saleem Shahzad, "A chilling inheritance of terror" Asia Times, October 30, 2002, [2]
  36. ↑ Eleven Detainees in Undisclosed Locations, Human Rights Watch, October 2004
  37. ↑ The Legal Prohibition Against Torture. Human Rights Watch, June 1 2004
  38. ↑ Al Qaeda men in 'ghost prison', rediff.com, October 18 2004
  39. ↑ Jordan denies 'secret US prison', BBC, October 14 2004
  40. ↑ Gonzales insists US did not send prisoners abroad to be tortured, The Jurist, March 7 2005
  41. ↑ Price, Caitlin. "CIA chief confirms use of waterboarding on 3 terror detainees". University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Retrieved on 2008-05-13.
  42. ↑ Michael Melia (April 16, 2007). "Father of Pakistani Alleges U.S. Torture", Associated Press. Retrieved on 2007-04-18. 
  43. ↑ Natalie Hrubos (April 17, 2007). "Guantanamo detainee's father says son tortured in secret CIA prison", The Jurist. Retrieved on 2007-04-18. 
  44. ↑ Ali Khan (April 16 2007). "Statement of Ali Khan" (PDF). Center for Constitutional Rights. Retrieved on April 18, 2007.
  45. ↑ White House,Remarks by the President on the Global War on Terror, September 29, 2006
  46. ↑ "Key 9/11 suspect confesses guilt", BBC News, BBC (2007-03-15). Retrieved on 2007-03-15. 
  47. ↑ CIA's Harsh Interrogation Techniques Described: Sources Say Agency's Tactics Lead to Questionable Confessions, Sometimes to Death, ABC News, November 18, 2005
  48. ↑ ABC News: Expert Looks Beyond Mohammed's Confessions
  49. ↑ AP: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's own words provide glimpse into the mind of a terrorist
  50. ↑ Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's '31 plots', BBC, March 15, 2007
  51. ↑ [3].
  52. ↑ "Militant convicted of Pearl killing to rely on KSM Guantanamo confession on appeal", The Jurist (March 19, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-03-20. 
  53. ↑ "Pearl murder convict to appeal after confession", Reuters (March 19, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-03-20. 
  54. ↑ Lolita C. Baldur (Thursday, August 9, 2007). "Pentagon: 14 Guantanamo Suspects Are Now Combatants", Time magazine.  mirror
  55. ↑ Sergeant Sara Wood (June 4, 2007). "Charges Dismissed Against Canadian at Guantanamo", Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-06-07. 
  56. ↑ Sergeant Sara Wood (June 4, 2007). "Judge Dismisses Charges Against Second Guantanamo Detainee", Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-06-07. 
  57. ↑ Yahoo News article
  58. ↑ Carol Rosenberg (2008-10-12). "Al Qaeda defendants get laptops at Guantánamo, judge rules", Miami Herald. Retrieved on 2008-10-12. "Mohammed, his nephew Ammar al Baluchi and Walid Bin Attash have sought through standby counsel filings at the Military Commission a long list of resources they say they need to mount their defense -- including Internet links to read news accounts and do live research on databases."  mirror

External links

See also

Trials related to Sept. 11 attacks

High Value Captives in the War on Terror
Captives transferred to
Guantanamo Bay from CIA black sites
Mustafa al-Hawsawi, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, Ramzi Binalshibh, Walid Muhammad Salih Bin 'Attash, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, Abu Zubaydah, Abu Faraj al-Libbi, Ammar al-Baluchi, Riduan Isamuddin (Hambali), Mohamad Farik Amin, Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Majid Khan, Gouled Hassan Dourad, Abdul Hadi al Iraqi
Unaccounted-for captives
Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, Abdul Aziz, Abdul Rahim al-Sharqawi, Muhammed al-Darbi, Mohammed Omar Abdel-Rahman, Yassir al-Jazeeri, Adil al-Jazeeri, Tariq Mahmood, Hassan Ghul, Musaad Aruchi
Persondata
NAME Mohammed, Khalid Sheikh
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mohammad, Khalid Sheikh (alternate transliterations); KSM (common referent); Henin, Ashraf Refaat Nabith (alias); Adbul Wadood, Khalid (alias); Ali, Salem (alias); other aliases and transliterations
SHORT DESCRIPTION terrorist
DATE OF BIRTH March 1, 1964 or April 14, 1965
PLACE OF BIRTH probably Balochistan (Pakistan)
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH

http://tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:yd0_m6v_oh7-pM:http://egyptiangumbo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/elmo.jpg