Kuwait dismisses reports Sept 11 suspect is Kuwaiti citizen
KUWAIT CITY - Kuwait reiterated on Thursday that a man identified by US investigators as the possible mastermind of the September 11 attacks was not a Kuwaiti, dismissing reports that the suspect or his father had Kuwaiti citizenship. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed "is not Kuwaiti," Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Khalid al-Jarallah told AFP. "Maybe he was in Kuwait for a while, but even so, this would not give him the right to be a Kuwaiti," Jarallah said. Information Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah last December denied that Mohammed, named at the time on a terrorist list issued by the European Union, was Kuwaiti, describing him as a Pakistani born in the emirate.
Local newspapers Thursday variously described Mohammed as a Kuwaiti or Pakistani passport-holder. Al-Anba, quoting security sources, said Mohammed had Kuwaiti citizenship but was of either Pakistani, Yemeni or Iranian origin and had left Kuwait a long time ago. Al-Qabas said Mohammed began studying mechanical engineering in the autumn of 1984 in Chowan College, North Carolina. He left the college after one semester, moving to a North Carolina university from where he graduated, it added, identifying him by his full name, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed al-Balushi.
Mohammed's father, the first imam (preacher) of the emirate's al-Ahmadi mosque, had Kuwaiti nationality but was stripped of his citizenship after a dispute with a leading Kuwaiti family, the daily said. "I don't think this information is correct," Jarallah said, referring to the report on Mohammed's father being a Kuwaiti. According to Al-Qabas, Mohammed never returned to Kuwait after graduating from university, but traveled to Afghanistan and worked as a secretary for a professor identified as Abdul Rab Rasool Sayyaf.
The newspaper also said Mohammed is sharp, jolly and likes acting. It described him as being relatively short. Al-Rai al-Aam, meanwhile, said Mohammed was a Pakistani passport-holder and that he was born in Kuwait on April 24, 1965 and spent part of his life in Fahaheel, south of the city. It also said his passport was issued at the Pakistani embassy in Kuwait on December 6, 1982. Mohammed is the link between the Al Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden and the September 11 attacks in the United States, law enforcement and government officials told US newspapers.
"It looks like he's the man, quite honestly," a Bush administration official told Wednesday's Los Angeles Times. The Federal Bureau of Investigation told AFP it had no comment on the reports on Mohammed, who gives his age either as 37 or 38. Mohammed was indicted for his participation in a plot to bomb a dozen airliners in 1995. The mastermind of the so-called "Manila plot" was Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, who is apparently a relative of Mohammed, officials told the New York Times.
Mohammed is on the FBI's list of 22 people suspected of having connections to the "Manila plot," according to the newspapers. A fire in the plotters' hotel room led Filipino police to explosives, chemicals and timers used in making bombs, foiling the plot. Officials said much of the information had been obtained from Al Qaeda members under arrest, including the man said to be closest to bin Laden currently in custody. The man, Abu Zubaydah, helped confirm Mohammed's key role in the September 11 attacks, according to the New York Times.
Investigations into Al Qaeda finances also showed Mohammed had a pivotal role and the US reward for his capture rose to 25 million dollars in December, the paper reported. - AFP
Suspect Said Went to School in U.S.
By JOHN J. LUMPKIN
Associated Press Writer
June 7, 2002, 2:19 AM EDT
WASHINGTON –
The man suspected of masterminding the Sept. 11 terror attacks was well-traveled: Born in Kuwait, he went to college in North Carolina, fought Soviets in Afghanistan, plotted attacks against Americans from the Philippines.
He also repeatedly visited the German city where chief hijacker Mohammed Atta lived, U.S. officials said Thursday.
Officials suspect Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a top lieutenant of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, met with Atta or members of his cell in Hamburg, Germany, but they have not received direct evidence of any contacts between them, one U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Since Sept. 11, evidence has mounted that Mohammed was chief among the bin Laden lieutenants organizing the attacks, counterterrorism officials said. Abu Zubaydah -- another of the alleged organizers and now in U.S. custody -- has identified Mohammed as the organizer, and investigators have learned he transferred money used in the attacks.
Investigators also have uncovered more of his history. They believe Mohammed attended Chowan College in northeastern North Carolina before transferring to another American university, where he obtained an engineering degree, a second U.S. official said Thursday, declining to provide further details.
A spokeswoman at Chowan said a Khaled Al-Shaikh Mohammad attended the school in the spring of 1984, when it was a two-year institution.
Mohammed, who is 37, according to Interpol, would have been of college age in the mid-1980s.
Chowan spokeswoman Melanie Edwards declined to provide further information about the student, including whether he transferred to another school in the state.
Chowan College, which became a four-year college in 1992, is in Murfreesboro, N.C., near the Virginia border and about 100 miles northeast of Raleigh.
Officials at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro and UNC-Charlotte said they had no records of a student by that name -- or any of the aliases listed for Mohammed on the FBI's Web site -- attending in the 1980s.
Officials at North Carolina State University in Raleigh were unable to say immediately Thursday whether they had had a student by any of those names.
U.S. counterterrorism officials believe Mohammed went to Afghanistan to join the mujahedeen fighters opposing the Soviet occupation in the late 1980s. He now has Pakistani citizenship, according to Kuwaiti officials and Interpol.
The independent Al-Qabas newspaper in Kuwait reported that Mohammed worked for Abdul-Rab Rasool Sayyaf, an anti-American Afghan warlord who goes by the name "Professor." During the war against the Soviets and the Najibullah government, Sayyaf was chief of the Ittehad-e-Islami group, which had the largest number of Arab fighters in its ranks.
Interpol describes Mohammed as 5-foot-5, weighing 160 pounds, sometimes wearing beard and glasses.
Mohammed surfaced again the mid-1990s, as an associate -- and possibly a relative -- of Ramzi Yousef, working with him on the 1993 World Trade Center bombing plot and a 1995 plan to bomb or hijack trans-Pacific airliners heading for the United States, according to U.S. officials.
Mohammed has been charged for his role in the 1995 airline plot, and remains one of the FBI's most-wanted terrorists. The U.S. government is offering a reward of up to $25 million for information leading to his capture -- the same reward offered for bin Laden.
He has not been charged in the Sept. 11 attacks.
He is believed to be in Afghanistan or nearby. Officials say he remains in bin Laden's inner circle and continues to plot terrorist attacks.
Bin Laden lieutenants Tawfiq Attash Khallad and finance chief Shaikh Saiid al-Sharif also have been linked to the hijackers.
Associated Press writer William L. Holmes in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this story.
FBI most wanted:
http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/terrorists/terkmohammed.htm
Interpol most wanted:
http://www.interpol.int/public/wanted/notices/data/1999/80/1999_380.asp
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Officials at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro and UNC-Charlotte said they had no records of a student by that name -- or any of the aliases listed for Mohammed on the FBI's Web site -- attending in the 1980s.
I guess there is some more digging to do here, but at least we have narrowed down the years of attendance.
A spokeswoman at Chowan said a Khaled Al-Shaikh Mohammad attended the school in the spring of 1984, when it was a two-year institution.
Why is Chowan evasive about the University he transfered to? We are talking about the mastermind of 9-11.Any leads would be helpful.
Maybe someone could appeal to the patriotism of the folks in Murfreesboro. I just don't see it as a hotbed for terrorist sympathizers.
According to the article he received an engineering degree. If so that narrows down the dates of attendance and limits the options to Universities with engineering programs.
John, thanks for these leads, how's that acceptance speech coming? It appears the AP struck out on identifying the University Khalid received his engineering degree from.