Mastermind

by Richard Miniter

■ March 19: Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh’s lawyers cite KSM’s confession in defense of their client.

  ■ July: Mariane Pearl files suit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York against terrorists, including KSM, and a bank that may have financed them for their roles in the beheading of her husband, Daniel Pearl. The suit would be dropped on October 24, 2007.

  ■ August 9: Department of Defense announces that all fourteen of the high-value detainees at Guantánamo, including KSM, have been officially classified as “enemy combatants.”

  2008

  ■ February 11: The Department of Defense charges KSM, bin al-Shibh, Hawsawi, al-Baluchi, and bin Attash for the September 11 attacks.

  ■ April 4: The American Civil Liberties Union announces it has raised $8.5 million to “coordinate and defray the expenses” of lawyers working to defend terrorists.

  ■ June 5: Trial at Guantánamo begins.

  ■ June 14: Eric Holder addresses the American Constitution Society to say there is no tension between effectively fighting terrorists and respect for civil liberties.

  ■ September 23: KSM questions Judge Ralph Kohlmann on his potential “bias” at trial.

  ■ October 12: Judge Ralph Kohlmann orders that KSM and his four co-defendants be provided with laptops to prepare their defense.

  ■ November 4: KSM writes a letter to military judge Colonel Stephen Henley expressing his desire to confess and plead guilty.

  ■ December 8: Judge Henley reads KSM’s November 4 letter aloud and announces that he will not accept guilty pleas from bin al-Shibh and Hawsawi until are afforded mental-competency hearings. KSM withdraws his guilty plea until all defendants can plead together.

  2009

  ■ January 22: President Obama issues Executive Order 13491, closing the CIA interrogation program and directing that all interrogations by U.S. personnel follow the techniques contained in the Army Field Manuals; he also announces plans to close Guantánamo in one year. As of 2011, Guantánamo remains open, well past the president’s deadline.

  ■ February 2: Eric Holder confirmed as attorney general. He immediately initiates an investigation into alleged torture of terror suspects by Bush-era officials.

  ■ Mid-March: The Obama administration begins shopping Guantánamo detainees (although not KSM) to other countries in an effort to reduce the prison’s population in advance of planned closure.

  ■ April 16: President Obama orders release of four Justice Department memos (one dated August 1, 2002, two dated May 10, 2005, and a fourth dated May 30, 2005), which describe in detail the techniques used to interrogate KSM.

  ■ May: A feud simmers between Eric Holder and Rahm Emanuel over how to handle potential CIA prosecutions, the closure of Guantánamo, and how to deal with KSM, according to a New Yorker article.

  ■ June 9: Suspected terrorist Ahmed Ghailani, with an alleged role in the Tanzania and Kenya embassy bombings, is sent to New York City for a civilian trial. Holder cites the history of the criminal justice system’s success in handling terror cases.

  ■ July: International Red Cross photographs KSM and Ammar al-Baluchi; photos are then distributed to the families of the individuals, who give them to jihadi Web sites—a propaganda boon.

  ■ Mid-July: President Obama acknowledges Eric Holder’s torture investigations, but rules out prosecution of CIA agents accused of conducting torture.

  ■ July 16: Competency hearings for bin al-Shibh and Hawsawi take place. They are found sane enough to stand trial.

  ■ July 24: Eric Holder testifies before the House Armed Services Committee, recommending changes to the Military Commissions Act of 2006 and asserting the effectiveness of civilian courts.

  ■ August: CIA inspector general’s report is released, revealing that CIA interrogators told KSM they would kill his children if another attack took place.

  ■ Late Summer through Fall: The Eric Holder–Rahm Emanuel feud continues. Emanuel emphasizes the political ramifications and the need to bring in key opinion leaders in the Senate.

  ■ August 24: Justice Department releases top-secret 2004 CIA inspector general’s report on secret prisons and CIA top-secret reports for 2004 and 2005, revealing the plots thwarted due to the controversial CIA interrogation program.

  ■ September 2: Photos of KSM and al-Baluchi uploaded to English-language Ansar al-Jihad Network.

  ■ September 3: Photos of KSM posted to Samir Khan’s English-language jihadi blog, Ignored Puzzle Pieces of Knowledge.

  ■ September 9: Photo of KSM from Guantánamo posted by The New York Times’ blog The Lede.

  ■ November 11: Eric Holder briefs local New York politicians from Senator Chuck Schumer to Mayor Michael Bloomberg about his plans for KSM and gets what he believes to be their support of the decision.

  ■ November 13: U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announces he will hold criminal trials in New York City for five detainees, including KSM.

  ■ November 18: Attorney General Eric Holder testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C.

  ■ November 24: District Court Judge Gladys Kessler orders Guantánamo detainee Farhi Saeed bin Mohammed released because his prior torture in a Moroccan prison tainted later statements given to a U.S. “clean team.”

  2010

  ■ January 26: Mayor Bloomberg and Senator Schumer come out publicly against a New York City terror trial.

  ■ January 28: President Obama orders Justice Department to find a different venue to try the terrorists outside of Manhattan.

  ■ February 12: The Washington Post reports that President Obama is “planning to insert himself into the debate” about where to try KSM and says a decision will be made “soon.”

  ■ February 24: Human Rights Watch executive and vocal Guantánamo opponent Jennifer Daskal is nominated for and confirmed to a high-ranking position at the Department of Justice.

  ■ February 24: Fox News reports that the Pentagon is preventing lawyers of terror suspects at Guantánamo from seeing or in any way communicating with their clients.

  ■ February 26: The Pentagon drops charges against KSM and his alleged coconspirators “without prejudice” to clear the way for their civilian trial.

  ■ March 10: The story breaks of the “Guantánamo 9”—lawyers who until recently worked on the behalf of terror suspects and are now working for the Department of Justice.

  ■ March 17: At a Justice Department budget request hearing, Eric Holder testifies that terrorists have the same rights as Charles Manson.

  ■ March 19: On Al Jazeera, Osama bin Laden threatens to kill Americans if KSM is executed.

  ■ July 11: On CBS’s Face the Nation, Eric Holder says the administration will make a decision on where and how to try KSM “as soon as we can” and decries “the politicization” of the issue.

  ■ October 7: A federal judge bars critical testimony of a key witness in the Ahmed Ghailani trial because the witness had been subjected to coercive CIA interrogations.

  ■ November 10: Eric Holder holds a press conference saying that he is “close to a decision” on where and how to try KSM.

  ■ November 17: A New York City jury acquits Ahmed Ghailani of 284 of 285 major terrorism charges in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in the first civilian trial of a former Guantánamo Bay prisoner.

  ■ December 6: USA Today reports that Eric Holder “still believes his decision to try Mohammed and his alleged accomplices in a New York federal court was the correct one.” Holder opposes Congress blocking funding for future civilian trials of terror detainees, claiming it “would set a dangerous precedent.”

  ■ December 8: Congress passes H.RES 1755, which contains language blocking funding of future civilian terroristdetainee trials.

  ■ December 22: The New York Times reports that the Obama administration is preparing a draft executive order to formalize indefinite detention of Guantánamo detainees without trial, a major reversal of Obama’s stated policy. />
  ■ December 31: President Obama bypasses Senate opposition to the nomination of James Cole to the number-two post at the Justice Department with a recess appointment. James Cole had written a controversial op-ed on the one-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks comparing the terrorists to common criminals. Cole will reportedly be in charge of setting up processes for military tribunals of terror suspects.

  2011

  ■ January: Almost a decade after the September 11 attacks, which killed nearly three thousand people, KSM is yet to be held accountable for his admitted offenses.

  ■ January 7: President Obama issues a statement objecting to congressional limitations on his ability to transfer detainees. Republicans in Congress plan additional restrictions in upcoming bills.

  Notes

  INTRODUCTION

  1 “Profile: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,” The Times (U.K.), March 15, 2007.

  2 “Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s Isolated U.S. College Days,” by Dina Temple-Raston, NPR, November 18, 2009.

  3 “September 11 ‘Mastermind’ Was Class Cutup in Carolina College,” by Chad Roberts and James Gordon Meek, Daily News (N.Y.), August 3, 2004.

  4 Author interview, May 2010.

  5 “Suspected 9/11 Mastermind Graduation from U.S. University,” by Susan Candiotti, Maria Ressa, Justine Redman, and Henry Schuster, CNN.com.

  6 “Author Questions Trustworthiness of KSM’s ‘Confessions,’” by Rahimullah Yusufzai, The (Islamabad) News, March 23, 2007.

  7 At a December 2008 hearing at America’s naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

  8 “Capture Seen As a Windfall for Terror Fight; Suspected Sept. 11 Planner Attended 2 Colleges in N.C.,” by John J. Lumpkin, Associated Press, March 2, 2003.

  9 “A Brush with Evil in Murfreesboro,” by Vernon Fueston, Bertie Ledger-Advance, December 2, 2009.

  10 “The Plots and Designs of Al Qaeda’s Engineer,” by Terry McDermott, Josh Meyer, and Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, December 22, 2002.

  11 According to a 1998 Rewards for Justice (formerly known as “Heroes”) poster, KSM is 165 centimeters, or five feet four inches.

  12 Author interview, January 2010.

  13 Terry McDermott, “The Mastermind,” The New Yorker, September 13, 2010, page 38.

  14 Ibid.

  15 “Badder than Bin Laden; Inside the Twisted Mind of the World’s Most Dangerous Terrorist,” by Grant Rollings, The Sun (U.K.), March 16, 2007.

  16 Author interview, May 2010.

  17 “Badder than Bin Laden,” Rollings.

  18 “Al Qaeda’s Master Killer: The Man Who Plotted the Sept 11 Attacks, Khalid Posed the Single Biggest Threat to Global Security,” by Shefali Rekhi, The Straits Times (Singapore), March 10, 2003.

  19 Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006), page 308.

  20 “Natural Born Killer,” by Nick Fielding and Christina Lamb, Sunday Times (U.K.), March 9, 2003.

  21 Mary Anne Weaver, “Children of the Jihad,” The New Yorker, June 12, 1995, page 46. Interestingly, Weaver says Pakistani police had an arrest warrant for “Zahid Sheikh,” Yousef’s uncle.

  22 Author interview with Ammar al-Baluchi’s former civilian attorney, Scott Fenstermaker, June 28, 2010.

  23 Ibid.

  24 “Judge Allows Gang Leader to Talk with Other Infamous Prisoners,” by Benjamin Weiser, New York Times, March 11, 1999.

  25 “CIA Bio Says 9/11 Mastermind’s Days in N.C. ‘Helped Propel Him to Terrorism,’ ” by Cam Simpson, Wall Street Journal, August 24, 2009.

  26 Ibid.

  27 “Pardon him, Theodotus: he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.” George Bernard Shaw, Julius Caesar.

  28 E-mail from Mariane Pearl to author, May 12, 2010.

  CHAPTER 1: THE OUTSIDER

  1 “Al Qaeda’s Master Killer: The Man Who Plotted the Sept 11 Attacks, Khalid Posed the Single Biggest Threat to Global Security,” by Shefali Rekhi, The Straits Times (Singapore), March 10, 2003.

  2 “Interview with Ramzi Yousef,” by Raghida Dergham, Al Hayat (Jordan), April 12, 1995.

  3 “Threats and Responses: Suspect’s Hometown; A Boyhood on the Mean Streets of a Wealthy Emirate,” by Marc Santora, New York Times, March 2, 2003.

  4 “Biography of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,” Fox News, March 14, 2007.

  5 Terry McDermott, “The Mastermind,” The New Yorker, September 13, 2010, page 40.

  6 While some analysts dispute the date of his birth, the author relied on the 1982 passport issued by the Pakistani Embassy (488555) that gives his birth date as April 24, 1965.

  7 Terry McDermott, Perfect Soldiers: The 9/11 Hijackers, Who They Were, Why They Did It (New York: HarperCollins, 2005), page 108.

  8 “Natural Born Killer,” by Nick Fielding and Christina Lamb, Sunday Times (U.K.), March 9, 2003.

  9 U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Khalid Shaykh Muhammad: Preeminent Source on Al Qa’ida, July 13, 2004.

  10 “Badder than Bin Laden; Inside the Twisted Mind of the World’s Most Dangerous Terrorist,” by Grant Rollings, The Sun (U.K.), March 16, 2007.

  11 “Natural Born Killer,” Fielding and Lamb.

  12 Ibid.

  13 Mary Anne Weaver, “Children of Jihad,” The New Yorker, June 12, 1995, page 43.

  14 U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Khalid Shaykh Muhammad.

  15 Author interview with an intelligence official, April 2010.

  16 Yosri Fouda and Nick Fielding, Masterminds of Terror (New York: Arcade Publishing, 2003), page 98.

  17 Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton, Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006).

  18 Weaver, “Children of Jihad,” page 43.

  19 “Baloch Nationalism and the Geopolitics of Energy Resources: the Changing Context of Separatism in Pakistan,” by Robert G. Wirsing, published by the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute, April 2008, page 25.

  20 Ibid., page 21.

  21 Ibid., page 22.

  22 Owen Bennet Jones, Pakistan: Eye of the Storm (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2002), page 133.

  23 Ibid.

  24 “Pakistan: The Worsening Conflict in Balochistan,” International Crisis Group, Asia Report No. 119, September 14, 2006, page 4.

  25 James Wynbrandt, A Brief History of Pakistan (New York: Facts on File, 2008).

  26 Ibid.

  27 U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Khalid Shaykh Muhammad.

  28 Rida lived from 1865 to 1935. He was a disciple of the Egyptian scholar Mohammed Abduh (1849–1905), who also taught Hassan al-Banna’s father.

  29 This is drawn from a Muslim Brotherhood Web site: www.ikanweb.com. See “Hassan Al Banna and His Political Thought of Islamic Brotherhood.”

  30 Gilles, Kepel, translated by Jon Rothschild, The Prophet and the Pharaoh: Muslim Extremism in Egypt (Al Saqi Books, 1985), page 227.

  31 Ibid.

  32 Barry Rubin, ed., The Muslim Brotherhood: The Organization and Policies of a Global Islamist Movement (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), page 29.

  33 Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006), page 25.

  34 As quoted in: Rubin, ed., The Muslim Brotherhood, page 39. Ana Belen Solage’s work, in general, as well as the work in this book, is invaluable.

  35 Rubin, ed., The Muslim Brotherhood, page 39.

  36 Ibid.

  37 Ibid., page 40.

  38 The judge’s name was Ahmad al-Khazandar. His assassination is an important milestone in the history of the Brotherhood.

  39 Rubin, ed., The Muslim Brotherhood, page 41.

  40 Wright, The Looming Tower, page 25.

  41 Ibid.

  42 Rubin, ed., The Muslim Brotherhood, page 41.

  43 Ibid., page 42.

  44 Ibid., page 1.

  45 Wright, The Looming Tower, page 92.

  46 Weaver, “Ch
ildren of Jihad,” page 43.

  47 Ibid.

  48 McDermott, Perfect Soldiers, page 109.

  49 Peter L. Bergen, The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda’s Leader (New York: Free Press, 2006), page 148.

  50 Associated Press, February 14, 1979.

  51 Robert B. Cullen, Associated Press, February 1979. Nexis dates this dispatch as February 2, 1979, but that is obviously an error in that the text refers to his February 14, 1979, death as “last week.”

  52 “Ambassador Dubs: Eager, ‘Knew Post Was Tough,’ ” by Stephen J. Lynton, Washington Post, February 15, 1979, page A21.

  53 Associated Press, February 14, 1979. An eyewitness account by Mayer Stiebel, an American businessman from Highland Park, Illinois.

  54 Ibid.

  55 Ibid.

  56 Ibid.

  57 “Protecting Americans Abroad,” editorial, Washington Post, February 15, 1979, page A18.

  58 Ibid.

  59 Alexander G. Higgins, Associated Press, December 4, 1979.

  60 “Vote Big for Khomeini,” by Alex Efty, Associated Press, December 3, 1979.

  61 Wright, The Looming Tower, page 88.

  62 Ibid.

  63 Ibid., page 92.

  64 Ibid., page 94.

  65 National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, The 9/11 Commission Report, August 2004, page 145.

  66 “The Plots and Designs of Al Qaeda’s Engineer,” by Terry McDermott, Josh Meyer, and Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, December 22, 2002.

  67 McDermott, Perfect Soldiers, pages 111–12.

  CHAPTER 2: CAMPUS RADICAL

  1 According to U.S. Census Bureau data from the year 2000.

  2 Murfreesboro now has several pizza shops.

  3 It is now called Chowan University.

  4 Author interview with Clayton Lewis, former dean of students, Chowan University, August 2010.

  5 “Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s Isolated U.S. College Days,” by Dina Temple-Raston, NPR, November 18, 2009.

  6 Author interview with Clayton Lewis, August 2010.

  7 “Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s Isolated U.S. College Days,” Temple-Raston, November 18, 2009.