Mastermind

by Richard Miniter

  The Obama administration was quickly learning that, far from believing that a great injustice had been done to their own citizens by holding them indefinitely at Guantánamo, virtually all foreign nations considered detention to be a benefit of sorts—it spared them the cost of guarding these dangerous men.51

  No foreign officials believed the liberal talking point that the detainees were largely innocents swept up in a dragnet by overzealous CIA officials. Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, soon went to war with Eric Holder over his plans to prosecute CIA officers and to hold civilian trials for detainees, like KSM, in New York. Holder still wanted to prosecute CIA officials who had interrogated Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other high-value detainees, while Emanuel feared the political ramifications of antagonizing the CIA. “Didn’t he get the memo that we are not re-litigating the past?”52

  While playing hardball with the CIA interrogators, whose work had saved hundreds of lives, Holder sought to extend every legal courtesy to KSM and other high-value detainees, who had repeatedly confessed to joyfully mass-murdering thousands of civilians. Holder was still pushing ahead on civilian trials for Guantánamo detainees, the foremost of which was KSM.

  But the Obama Justice Department was already having trouble in the civilian courts. Lawyers for the detainees, some backed by the ACLU, were winning the right to habeas corpus hearings, and other liberal groups were making legal challenges on torture and detainee mistreatment. Some detainee lawyers were demanding the right to documents regarding detainee interrogation and treatment that had been drafted during the Bush years. These legal challenges, which had produced a lot of partisan glee while Bush was president, were now devouring thousands of man-hours at the Obama Justice Department. One Justice Department insider described the situation to The New Yorker this way: “We were buried in an avalanche of shit.”53

  At the same time, the feud between Eric Holder and Rahm Emanuel intensified. In April 2009, they were arguing about the release of four secret Bush-era memos that outlined interrogation procedures.

  Holder wanted the memos released, because he was sure the public would be outraged and demand that the CIA officers responsible for interrogating KSM be prosecuted. It was his ace in the hole. Emanuel opposed releasing the memos, but was politically savvy enough to know that the memos wouldn’t drive public opinion one way or the other.

  Eventually President Obama agreed to release the memos and had Rahm Emanuel, of all people, appear on the ABC Sunday program This Week With George Stephanopoulos to declare that there would be no prosecutions of CIA officers who had acted in good faith.

  In his statement announcing the release of the memos, President Obama carefully explained that it had been Holder’s decision. Yet the president agreed with Rahm Emanuel substantively: “This is a time for reflection, not retribution.”

  While critics soon dubbed these the “torture memos,” they produced little public outcry outside of liberal precincts. Interestingly, the memos outline an interrogation process that exactly matches what Al Qaeda training manuals taught captured operatives to expect, including the key fact that Americans would be afraid to harm them.

  Attorney General Holder continued to barrel ahead in his quest for civilian trials for KSM and other detainees. When the Justice Department announced that it would put Ahmed Ghailani on trail for his role in bombing two U.S. embassies and killing 224 people, Holder boldly told the press: “The Justice Department has a long history of securely detaining and successfully prosecuting terror suspects through the criminal justice system, and we will bring that experience to bear in seeking justice in this case.”54

  The prosecution of Ghailani would ultimately backfire and raise new questions about the possibility of prosecuting terrorists in civilian courts. In October 2010, a New York jury would find him guilty of only a single count.

  Privately, prosecutors would complain that a key witness had been excluded and, if he had not been, Ghaliani would have been found guilty on more than two hundred counts. Perhaps. But the exclusion of key testimony is always a risk in civilian trials—and one of the central reasons that they rarely work in terror cases.

  In the summer of 2009, KSM continued his propaganda war against the United States. This time he cleverly used the International Red Cross. KSM spent hours posing for photos taken by a Red Cross photographer. The snapshots were supposed to reassure his family that he was in good health. After the photos were distributed to KSM’s family, it took only days for them to appear on jihadi Web sites worldwide. A real propaganda coup.

  Meanwhile, Holder had not given up on his plans to prosecute CIA officials for interrogating KSM or his aim of trying KSM in a civilian court, preferably in Manhattan.

  Holder had been agitating for months to release the CIA’s Inspector General Report. In its phonebook-size tome was a hidden bombshell: CIA interrogators had told KSM they would kill his children if another attack took place. Holder was certain that this would finally propel public outrage against the CIA. Again, he was wrong. The public shrugged. Mass murderers sometimes get threatened, the public concluded.

  Holder continued to misjudge public opinion and the views of key politicians. He met with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York Senator Chuck Schumer on November 11, 2009, to brief them on his plans to try KSM and other Al Qaeda terrorists in a Lower Manhattan federal courthouse. He believed he had their support.

  Two days later, Holder held a press conference announcing plans to try KSM in New York.

  At first, there was little public reaction. Yet opposition was slowly building; 9/11 family members staged demonstrations in December 2009.

  At the end of January 2010, Mayor Bloomberg and Senator Schumer came out publicly against trying any Al Qaeda leaders in New York City. The mayor cited New York Police Department cost estimates showing that the city would have to pay almost $1 billion in overtime for police and the concern about blocking Lower Manhattan’s narrow streets for more than a year. But everyone knows the real reason: public opinion has shifted overwhelmingly against civilian trials of terrorists in their midst.

  At Rahm Emanuel’s urging, President Obama publicly ordered the Justice Department to find a different venue to try KSM and other terrorists.

  As the warm tropical breezes waft through the egg-crate-shaped bars of his Guantánamo prison cell, KSM is having the time of his life. For more than two years, he has humiliated U.S. military officers and other government officials, reducing every legal opportunity to a stand-up comedy routine. To those who know him well, it is reminiscent of his campus comedy skits, where he would imitate everyone from John Belushi to Hosni Mubarak. Mocking American justice certainly has its propaganda value for Al Qaeda operatives worldwide, but for KSM it is also fun. He is a performer who revels in his brief hours upon the stage, strutting and fretting for the world’s attention, but, as the Bard tells us, KSM’s act “is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”55

  While he claims that he has been tortured and uses this bogus claim to poke an accusing finger at the United States, he has no objections to torturing prisoners. He freely admits to torturing Daniel Pearl and, by implication, many others.

  He objects to the lack of due “process of law,” but has spent nearly every waking moment of his adult life plotting murder and mayhem against a world that has done him no wrong.

  He dismisses the legal advisers supplied by the U.S. military on the grounds that they have indirectly been responsible for the deaths of innocent Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan, while he has been directly and joyfully involved in the killings of hundreds of Muslims—from East Africa to the East River.

  Citing the Geneva Conventions, he demanded the right to approve sketches of himself by the courtroom artist, but he thought nothing of releasing the video of Daniel Pearl’s horrifying beheading without so much as a moment’s warning to Pearl’s family.

  While denouncing the “evil laws” of the United States and its legal protectio
ns for minorities (such as homosexuals), he sought protection under those very same laws as an embattled and unpopular minority.

  While the credulous may be taken in by his act and the cynical may pretend to be similarly bewitched, in the end his claims will not move any judge or juror toward leniency. They are empty and only meant to provide more time for KSM to perform.

  Someday KSM may get his wish and be put to death, adding the exclamation point of martyrdom to his terrorist career.

  But for now the Americans are giving him everything that he wants. Still, nearly ten years after the September 11 attacks took almost three thousand lives, no one has held the mastermind accountable.

  Two years into his presidency, Obama has failed to close Guantánamo or bring KSM into a civilian court. Nor has the great orator managed to shift public opinion into believing that either one of these two goals is desirable. While KSM may be getting what he wants, President Obama decidedly is not.

  Yet Obama hasn’t given up hope. Eric Holder continues as his attorney general, and he continues to insist that civilian trials of terrorists will begin shortly. Holder has said he is “close to a decision” on where to try KSM as recently as a November 10, 2010, press conference.56 Holder told USA Today that he “still believes his decision to try Mohammed and his alleged accomplices in a New York federal court was the correct one.”57 Holder also continues to believe that KSM and other terrorists are no worse than common criminals and deserve at least the same level of legal protection. In congressional testimony on March 17, 2010, Holder said: “These defendants, many of whom are charged with murder, would be treated just like any other murder defendants. The question is: Are they being treated the way any other murderer would be? They have the same rights Charles Manson would have.”58

  Holder succeeded in persuading the Pentagon to drop all charges against KSM and others in the hopes of clearing the decks for a civilian trial. The charges were dropped “without prejudice” in order to preserve the possibility of returning to military tribunals if Holder’s crusade for civilian trials is ultimately defeated.

  Still, in a nod to political reality, the Obama administration has admitted to drafting an executive order formalizing indefinite detention without trial for KSM and other Al Qaeda leaders at Guantánamo.

  At the same time, Obama continues to recruit critics of his current detention policy for high-ranking posts. When the U.S. Senate objected to the nomination of James Cole as deputy attorney general, Obama put him in place anyway, on New Year’s Eve 2010, using a maneuver known as a “recess appointment.” Recess appointments, a creature of nineteenth-century legislative practice, allow presidents to appoint officials for up to one year while the Senate is out of session. The Senate’s concerns about Cole were well-founded. On the one-year anniversary of the September 11 attacks, he’d written an op-ed contending that terrorists were no more than common criminals, and therefore entitled to the same legal protections. Now Cole will be in charge of writing the rules for the military tribunals that may try KSM and other terrorists.

  President Obama continues to complain about congressional restrictions that bar the transfer of Guantánamo terrorists to the United States, such as House Resolution 1755, which was enthusiastically passed by large majorities of both parties in both houses of Congress. And, when asked, the president still worries more about the due-process rights of confessed terrorists than the aching need for closure felt by thousands of American families who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001.

  KSM couldn’t be happier.

  13

  Aftermath

  Adel, Saif al—May also be known as Mohammed Ibrahim Makkawi, a former Egyptian military officer who revealed the identity of one of KSM’s accomplices in the Manila Air plot. Thought to be hiding in Iran.

  Attash, Tawfiq bin (Khallad)—Now being held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

  bin Laden, Osama—The archterrorist is still at large.

  Bybee, Jay—The co-author of the so-called torture memos is now a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

  Clarke, Richard A.—Former counterterrorism coordinator in the National Security Council. Retiring from the government in 2003, he became the bestselling author of Against All Enemies. He is also the founder of Good Harbor Consulting.

  Clinton, Bill—The former U.S. president is currently the head of the William J. Clinton Foundation, a global nonprofit that supports various programs worldwide.

  Faile, Garth—He still teaches chemistry at Chowan, which is now known as Chowan University. He was honored as teacher of the year in 2009.

  Fouda, Yosri—The Al Jazeera correspondent who interviewed KSM in Pakistan now hosts a show on the Cairo-based ONTV network.

  Freeh, Louis—Director of the FBI from 1993 to 2001; now founder and managing partner of Freeh Group International.

  Gilani, Mubarak Ali Shah—The sixth Sultan Ul Faqr, also known as “Imam El-Sheikh Syed Mubarik Ali Shah Jilani El-Hashimi, al-Hasani wal-Husaini,” Gilani is the radical cleric behind the Pakistani group called al-Fuqra, a paramilitary organization of mostly African American Muslims based in Pakistan and the United States. He is linked to “shoe bomber” Richard Reid.

  Holder, Eric—The Justice Department official who wanted to move the Manila Air case to Washington, D.C., continues as attorney general of the United States.

  Ijaz, Mansoor—The New York financier who introduced Daniel Pearl to the jihadis in Pakistan who ultimately kidnapped and killed the reporter. He still runs Crescent Investment. He divides his time between Monaco, Switzerland, and New York.

  Janjalani, Abdurajak—The founder of the Abu Sayyaf terror group in the Philippines, he was killed in a shoot-out with Philippine troops in December 1998.1

  John Paul II, Pope—The pontiff died a natural death on April 2, 2005.

  Khalifa, Jamal—While visiting a gemstone mine in Sakamilko, Madagascar, the onetime “best friend” of Osama bin Laden and mentor to KSM was gunned down by more than a score of armed men on January 31, 2007. He died on the scene.

  Khattab, Ibn al- (Samir Saleh Abdullah Al-Suwailem)—This Saudi-born militant ran an Islamist terror group in Chechnya. A veteran of wars in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Bosnia-Herzegovina (with the backing of Iranian intelligence), Khattab had maimed his right hand while trying to detonate a homemade bomb. He was killed during the night of March 19–20, 2002. Rumored more than once to have been killed, it appears Khattab was finally murdered by a poisoned letter from the Russian Federal Security Service, the successor organization of the KGB. Khattab’s Arab mujahideen fighters earned a fearless and fearsome reputation.

  Khawaja, Khalid—Mansoor Ijaz’s point man, who had ties to Pakistan’s military intelligence agency, Osama bin Laden, and the Taliban. He joined the Pakistani Air Force as a pilot in 1971. He was transferred to the ISI in 1985, where he was tasked to work with radical Muslim groups. He quickly developed relationships with Abdullah Azzam, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, and Osama bin Laden. He cemented these ties by fighting alongside the jihadis against the Soviets in the battle of Jaji, in the White Mountains of Afghanistan, southeast of Tora Bora, in 1987. In an ill-fated venture in 2005, he attempted to negotiate peace with the Taliban. Like Daniel Pearl, Khawaja was kidnapped by terrorists who believed he was a spy. Seized by a Taliban remnant calling itself the Asian Tigers, he was murdered in April 2010 in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province.

  Martinez, Deuce—After being outed by The New York Times, the interrogator has left the CIA and currently works for the spy agency as an independent contractor.

  Masri, Abu Hafs al- (Mohammed Atef)—One of bin Laden’s closest advisers, he helped get the 9/11 attack plan approved by Osama bin Laden. He was killed by an American air strike in November 2001, most likely from a Predator drone plane. Shortly before his death, Atef’s daughter married bin Laden’s son, Mohammed. At the time, Atef was the head of Al Qaeda’s military wing. His death cleared the way for KSM’s promotion.

&n
bsp; Mohammed, Ali—The friend of el Sayyid Nosair who handed him top-secret U.S. Army training manuals while serving as an instructor for the U.S. Army at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, from 1986 to 1989; his involvement with Al Qaeda deepened in the Clinton years. After 1991, he made several trips to Sudan to train members of Osama bin Laden’s entourage in small-arms tactics. He was arrested in 1998 and convicted, and is currently serving time at a U.S. federal correctional facility.

  Mohammed, Khalid Shaikh—The confessed September 11 mastermind is in an American detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, awaiting trial.

  Mukasey, Michael—The former judge who presided over the Manila Air and Blind Sheikh cases went on to become the U.S. attorney general and later a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP.

  Musharraf, Pervez—Coming to power by military coup in 1999, Musharraf served as Pakistan’s president until his departure in 2008. During the war on terror, he walked a perilous line between working with the United States and not antagonizing religious extremists and Taliban supporters in Pakistan. Musharraf survived at least four assassination attempts.