Khalid Sheikh Mohammed | |
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Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
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Born |
Balochistan, Pakistan |
March 1, 1964
Arrested | March 1, 2003 Rawalpindi, Pakistan Joint team of CIA and ISI |
Citizenship | Pakistani |
Detained at | Guantanamo Bay detention camp |
ISN | 10024 |
Charge(s) | Terrorism, conspiracy |
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (sometimes also spelled Khalid Shaikh Mohammed; Mohammed has used at least fifty pseudonyms; born March 1, 1964) is an Islamist militant held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp under terrorism-related charges. He was named as "the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks" in the 9/11 Commission Report.
Sheikh Mohammed was a member of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization, leading al-Qaeda's propaganda operations from around 1999 until late 2001. He confessed to FBI and CIA agents to a role in many of the most significant terrorist plots over the last twenty years, but the use of torture on him has caused some to question certain aspects of his confessions.
Mohammed was captured on March 1, 2003, in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi by a combined operation of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and immediately extradited to the United States. By December 2006 he had been transferred to military custody at Guantanamo Bay detention camp. In March 2007, after significant interrogations, Mohammed confessed to masterminding the September 11 attacks, the Richard Reid shoe bombing attempt to blow up an airliner, the Bali nightclub bombing in Indonesia, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the murder of Daniel Pearl, and various foiled attacks, as well as numerous other crimes. He was charged in February 2008 with war crimes and murder by a U.S. military commission at Guantanamo Bay detention camp which could carry the death penalty if convicted.