Posted on 03/01/2003 12:49:51 PM PST by kattracks
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Khalid Shaikh Mohammed turned Osama bin Laden's wish to kill Americans into a reality like no one else in al-Qaida, U.S. counterterrorism officials say.
Mohammed, one of the most hunted men in the world and the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, was captured early Saturday in Pakistan in a raid conducted jointly by Pakistani authorities and American intelligence operatives.
"This is major. This is a dramatic capture of someone who is directly responsible for the Sept. 11 disaster," said Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief. "He should be aware of impending operations both in the United States and in other places."
American officials say Mohammed worked under bin Laden's guidance to plan and coordinate key aspects of the Sept. 11 operation.
Mohammed has been connected financially to the al-Qaida operative who funded many of the hijackers' movements and training. His former aide, Ramzi Binalshibh, was a part of the Hamburg, Germany, based terror cell that included chief hijacker Mohammed Atta.
Binalshibh was captured in Karachi, Pakistan, in September.
Mohammed also visited Germany several times in the late 1990s, where officials suspect he contacted members of the Hamburg cell to coordinate the Sept. 11 attacks.
Officials have said Mohammed spent some time in the United States. Investigators believe Mohammed attended Chowan College in northeastern North Carolina in the early 1980s before transferring to another American university, where he obtained an engineering degree.
Since the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Mohammed has emerged as al-Qaida's top operations official, counterterrorism officials have said. Only bin Laden and perhaps his chief deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, ranked higher on CIA target lists.
With Mohammed's capture, al-Qaida's stable of operational planners grows ever smaller. Other key figures include Saif al-Adil, bin Laden's security and intelligence chief; Shaikh Saiid al-Masri, his financial chief; and operations chiefs Tawfiq Attash Khallad and Abu Musab Zarqawi.
Mohammed has been linked to the April 11, 2002, suicide truck bombing of the Djerba synagogue in Tunisia. The bombing, al-Qaida's first successful strike outside of South Asia since the Sept. 11 attacks, killed 19.
The suspected bomber, Nizar Naouar, spoke by phone with Mohammed about three hours before the attack, German officials said. Bin Laden's son Saad, seen as a rising leader in al-Qaida, is also suspected of ties to the plot.
Mohammed is on the FBI's most-wanted terrorists list. Last year, a senior American counterterrorism official called him "the most significant operational player out there right now."
American officials say Mohammed worked with Ramzi Yousef, now in prison for plotting the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and two others in the Philippines on a number of operations. Mohammed is Yousef's uncle, U.S. and Kuwaiti officials have said.
One plan called for blowing up a dozen trans-Pacific airliners in flight. A second involved crashing an airplane into CIA headquarters outside of Washington.
The four plotters were linked to al-Qaida through a financial operative named Khalifa, who is bin Laden's brother-in-law, officials have said. Khalifa is believed to remain at large.
Mohammed is Yousef's uncle, a senior Kuwaiti official told reporters last week.
Those were broken up in 1995 by the arrests of his associates, and in 1996 the U.S. government indicted Mohammed for his role. It has offered a reward of up to $25 million for information leading to his capture -- the same reward offered for bin Laden.
In January 1996, the U.S. government tried to have Mohammed detained in Qatar and turned over to U.S. authorities, but was unsuccessful, U.S. officials have said. By the middle of the year, the Qatari government reported it had lost track of him, sparking concerns that someone in the government had tipped him off.
Mohammed has not been charged in the Sept. 11 attacks.
He was believed to be in Afghanistan or Pakistan when the attacks took place. Last year, Mohammed and Binalshibh gave an interview to al-Jazeera in which they discussed the Sept. 11 attacks.
He has been known by many other names: Ashraf Refaat Nabith Henin, Khalid Adbul Wadood, Salem Ali, Fahd Bin Adballah Bin Khalid, Abdulrahman A.A. Alghamdi, and Mukhtar, according to various law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
Abu Zubaydah -- another senior operative now in U.S. custody -- first identified Mohammed as the organizer of the Sept. 11 attacks.
U.S. counterterrorism officials believe Mohammed went to Afghanistan to join the mujahedeen fighters opposing the Soviet occupation in the late 1980s.
Mohammed, who was born in Kuwait, is of Pakistani ancestry and citizenship. He is in his late 30s. Interpol describes him as 5-foot-5, weighing 160 pounds, sometimes wearing beard and glasses.
Now other Al Qaeda leaders must be wondering, "is my enemy my friend or is my friend my enemy?"
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