Moussaoui Linked to 9/11 Mastermind
Nov 20, 12:08 PM (ET)
By JOHN J. LUMPKIN
( WASHINGTON (AP) - Accused Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui met with the suspected mastermind of the attacks in late 2000 or early 2001 in Afghanistan, a top al-Qaida operative has told his interrogators, U.S. officials said.
Ramzi Binalshibh, a former aide to top al-Qaida operative Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, said Mohammed provided Moussaoui with contacts in the United States, said officials speaking on the condition of anonymity.
But Binalshibh and Mohammed were not confident in Moussaoui's ability to keep a secret, and decided to use him as a backup for the hijacking plot, Binalshibh told the officials, who have never detailed what they believe Moussaoui's precise role was to be in the attacks.
Binalshibh was an associate of Mohammed, Moussaoui, chief hijacker Mohamed Atta and others in the Hamburg, Germany-based cell that led the attacks. He was captured by U.S. and Pakistani authorities during a raid in Karachi on Sept. 11, 2002, and has since been held in U.S. custody at a secret location.
The Moussaoui-Mohammed contacts were first reported Wednesday by the Washington Post.
Moussaoui was arrested in August 2001 after acting suspiciously at a Minnesota flight school. He has acknowledged in court that he is an al-Qaida member but said he had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 plot. He has attempted to call Binalshibh as a defense witness in his conspiracy trial.
Moussaoui traveled from Europe to an al-Qaida training camp Afghanistan in 1998, according to prosecutors. He also went from London to Pakistan in December 2000 and returned in February 2001. It was during this time that U.S. officials believe he met with Mohammed in Afghanistan.
Binalshibh, a Yemeni, lived with Atta and two other hijackers in Germany in the years before the attacks. In 2000, he tried four times to obtain a visa to enter the United States. Authorities claim he wanted to be one of the hijackers.
After his efforts to enter the country failed, he began sending money and other logistical support to the hijackers. He boasted of his role in the attacks during an interview he and Mohammed gave the Arabic television network al-Jazeera earlier in 2002.
Counterterrorism officials say several al-Qaida captives have told them that Mohammed, a Kuwaiti who holds Pakistani citizenship, was the operational mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Terrorists' Sept. 11 plot a many-tentacled creature
By DANIEL RUBIN and MICHAEL DORGAN Knight Ridder Newspapers
Abu Zubaydah, the highest-ranking al-Qaida leader now in custody, has told American officials that Mohammed was the brains behind the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, as well as the first Trade Center bombing in 1993 and the failed 1995 "Bojinka" plot in Manila.
At least one scrap of evidence suggests that Zubaydah may be telling the truth about Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Intelligence officials said Mohamed Atta, the commander of the suicide hijackers, called Mohammed on Sept. 10.
The conversation was monitored by the National Security Agency but translated from Arabic only after the attacks that killed more than 3,000 persons. Intelligence officials believe that Mohammed, using coded language, gave Atta final approval for the four teams of hijackers to proceed.
A $25 million bounty has been offered for Mohammed's capture. U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials call him the Forrest Gump of al-Qaida, the face that always turns up when investigators review the group's terrorist operations.
"He gets more interesting every day," a senior U.S. intelligence official said, adding that if he had to decide between catching Osama bin Laden and catching Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, he might prefer the latter.
"Bin Laden is unquestionably the leader, the symbol and the recruiting poster," the official said. "But it's looking more and more like Khalid actually makes things happen."
Said French terrorism expert and U.N. Security Council consultant Roland Jacquard: "He is probably the only man who knows all the pieces of the puzzle."
Where Atta and the other Sept 11 hijackers were stealthy, Mohammed is flamboyant. Atta, his main foot soldier, was thin and disciplined; Mohammed is neither. The hijackers slipped in and out of Econo Lodges; Mohammed preferred five-star hotels. He entertained in karaoke bars and mirrored go-go clubs. In Manila, to impress a dentist he was dating, he once chartered a helicopter and buzzed overhead while waving and chatting by cell phone.
Colonel Mendoza knew Khalid Shaikh Mohammed as Abdul Majid, a flamboyant Saudi businessman who lived in the top floor of Manila's Josefa Apartments with Ramzi Yousef, was later convicted in the first World Trade Center blast, which killed six and injured around 1,000. Some officials say Yousef is Mohammed's nephew; others aren't sure.
Mohammed used other names: Salim Ali, Ashrai Refaat, Nabith Renin, Khalid Abdul Waddod and Fahd Bin Abdullah Bin Khalid, maybe a dozen pseudonyms in all. He isn't a Saudi or Qatari businessman, as he claimed in Manila,but a Kuwaiti- born and U.S.-educated Pakistani with a vast network of contacts and covers.