| Mustafa al-Hawsawi | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 5, 1968 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia |
| Detained at | CIA black site Guantanamo Bay |
| ISN | 10011 |
| Charge(s) | Faces charges before a military commission, no trial yet. |
Mustafa al-Hawsawi (Arabic: مصطفى الهوساوي, Muṣṭafā al-Ḥawsāwī; born August 5, 1968[1]) is a member of the militant Islamic organization al-Qaeda and allegedly an organizer and financer of the September 11 attacks.
Hawsawi was captured on March 1, 2003 in Pakistan and was transferred from the Salt Pit to Guantanamo on September 23, 2003. The CIA moved him back to one of their black sites on March 27, 2004 as they feared he could gain access to a lawyer in Guantanamo.[2]
Hawsawi was transferred from custody in an American black site to Guantanamo, on September 6, 2006. He is currently represented by lawyer Jon Jackson.[3][4]
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His alternate names and aliases include "Mustafa Ahmed", "Mustafa Muhammad Ahmad", "Ahmad Mustafa", "Isam Mansour", "Mustafa Ahmed Al-Hisawi", "Mr. Ali", and "Hani (Fawaz Trading)".
Before the 9/11 attacks, Hawsawi had allegedly worked in al-Qaeda's media committee in Kandahar. Then, along with al-Qaeda financer Ammar al-Baluchi, Hawsawi allegedly assisted the hijackers from the United Arab Emirates. He helped coordinate with Mohamed Atta, the ringleader of the operation, to bring the "muscle hijackers" into the United States in 2001. He allegedly attempted to help bring the so-called "20th hijacker", Mohammed al Qahtani, into the United States, but al Qahtani was unable to enter the country.
Allegedly sharing a credit card account with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,[5] Hawsawi also allegedly sent funds to the hijackers. In the Summer of 2000, he appears to have sent a total of $109,910 to some of the 9/11 hijackers in a series of wire transfers under a variety of names. The New York Times has suggested that "Mustafa Ahmed" sent a total of $325,000 to the hijackers, but the 9/11 Commission was only able to verify $15,000 of this.
Just before the attacks, Hawsawi travelled to Pakistan. He was captured by authorities there on March 1, 2003, reported taken to U.S. Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, unconfirmed by U.S. officials. [1]
In the indictment of Zacarias Moussaoui he is said to have been born in Jeddah on August 5, 1968.
Alongside Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Hawsawi is one of three named and requested by Zacarias Moussaoui's defence team for questioning. However, although the U.S. Federal Government claims to be holding both men, it refused Moussaoui's request citing national security concerns.
On 23 April 2008 attorneys working on behalf of Salim Ahmed Hamdan requested permission to meet with Abdulmalik Mohammed and Mustafa al-Hawsawi.[6] Hamdan's attorneys had previously requested permission to get the "high-value detainees" to answer written questions, which would confirm that if Hamdan played a role in al Qaeda it had been a peripheral one. Abdul Malik and Mustafa al-Hawsawi declined to answer the questions, because they said they had no way to know that the questions purporting to be from Hamdan's attorneys was not a ruse. Andrea J. Prasow requested permission for Lieutenant Commander Brian Mizer to meet in person with the two men to try to assure them that the questions were not a ruse, and would not be shared with their interrogators.
In June 2008, Hawsawi and four other "high-value detainees" (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Ammar al-Baluchi and Walid Bin Attash) were charged in a military commission trial. The charges included 2,973 individual counts of murder, one for each person killed in the September 11 attacks, as well as conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, terrorism and providing material support for terrorism.[7][8] The judge ordered Hawsawi and bin al-Shibh to undergo mental competency hearings. On December 8, 2008, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told the judge that he and the other four indictees wished to confess and plead guilty; however, the plea would be delayed until after the competency hearings for Hawsawi and bin al-Shibh so that all five men could make their plea together.[8]
In May 2009 Al Arabiya reported that Montasser al-Zayyat had been invited to defend Hawsawi.[9] Al Zayat described suspecting, at first, that he was the target of a hoax.
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