Bold Tracks of Terrorism's Mastermind (Long Read)

Washington Post ^ | March 9, 2003 | Peter Finn and Kamran Khan

[twntaipan]

KARACHI, Pakistan -- On the eve of his capture last weekend, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, al Qaeda's deadliest operator, took a commercial flight from the Pakistani city of Quetta to Islamabad, the capital, according to Pakistani investigators. Even with the breath of his enemy on his neck, Mohammed couldn't tolerate an arduous trek by car. With signature audacity, he hopped a plane.

The self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks was apparently convinced that the groomed man with a receding hairline pictured on FBI wanted posters bore no resemblance to the overweight, tangle-haired man he had become. But Mohammed had been under 24-hour surveillance for several days, according to Pakistani intelligence sources, and as he made the 430-mile flight to Islamabad, four agents of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency sat elsewhere on the plane.

A circle was closing.

[FairOpinion]

Long, but it was interesting.

Sounds like Mohammed was more driven by power and ambition, than by religious conviction.

[twntaipan]

Those are not always mutually exclusive.

[The Great Satan]

"To be honest, it wasn't until recently that any of us even realized he was part of al Qaeda," a U.S. intelligence official said in an interview last year.

That's because he isn't a part of Al-Qaeda, any more than Ramzi Yousef was ever a part of Al-Qaeda.

[The Great Satan]

The known shards of Mohammed's life never quite seemed to fit together.

That's because they are a tissue of lies.

[The Great Satan]

The family's Pakistani roots meant they were shut out of Kuwaiti citizenship. There wasn't much of a future in Kuwait for an ambitious foreign boy.

That's funny, because Khalid's "nephew," Ramzi Yousef/Abdul Basit, found a job working for the Kuwaiti government as a computer programmer on his return from the UK in 1989.

[The Great Satan]

Mohammed, characteristically, left a faint impression during the three years he spent pursuing an engineering degree at two North Carolina campuses in the mid-1980s; even the FBI's "Most Wanted" photographs barely stirred recollections among his former professors.

Gee, I wonder why.

[The Great Satan]

"Though he womanized and spent time at dive resorts, there is no evidence that he drank alcohol," said Zachary Abuza, an expert on terrorism in Southeast Asia who teaches at Simmons College in Boston. "I think we have to look at some of his 'playboy' lifestyle as part of his cover."

Next time the wife catches you banging cocktail waitresses or trying to impress some Philippina dental assistant by buzzing her in a rented helicopter, just tell her it's part of your "cover." Works every time.

[twntaipan]

You know, this is the one guy that, to me, seems to be a professionally trained agent. So little seems known about him, he knew weapons, he seemed to master disguises well--is this the link to Iraq? His field craft seems much better than the rest. Is he professionally trained?

[The Great Satan]

You know, this is the one guy that, to me, seems to be a professionally trained agent. So little seems known about him, he knew weapons, he seemed to master disguises well--is this the link to Iraq? His field craft seems much better than the rest. Is he professionally trained?

Correct. After the Gulf War, Saddam set up a terror front based out of the Philippines, headed by Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. This wasn't a new idea: Saddam did the same thing in the run up to Desert Storm, again using agents with forged identities based out of South East Asia. The only difference is that he did a better job of it the second time out. You know what they say: practice makes perfect. This front has coordinated every major attack against the US since the end of the Gulf War, including the first and second attacks on the WTC. As to the real identities of Yousef and Mohammed, that is hard to say. Are they government agents, or are they hired guns, like the Palistinian-born Abu Nidal, Saddam's prime contractor for international terrorist activities in the early eighties? Are they Iraqis, or Baluchis? In the end, that's all rather academic, isn't it? What matters is who their boss is. In the economy of terror, Al Qaeda is strictly second-tier, a recruiting outfit and little more. Their native capacity to carry out terror attacks is extremely limited, as we have seen in the 18 months since 9/11. Bin Laden was just a sub-contractor to Mohammed. Why did we play up Bin Laden even though we always knew Mohammed was the big fish? Because too much scrutiny on Mohammed (and hence Yousef) would make it too easy to connect the dots to Saddam, something we cannot afford to happen so long as he is capable of deterring our military response with that anthrax.

[twntaipan]

Because too much scrutiny on Mohammed (and hence Yousef) would make it too easy to connect the dots to Saddam, something we cannot afford to happen so long as he is capable of deterring our military response with that anthrax.

Why, then, did they snatch him now? What changed in the equation?

[birdwoman]

Because the oppotunity presented itself. And you don't just pass up a golden opportunity.

At least that would be my guess. But perhaps there is even more to it than that.

[twntaipan]

Hmm...I'm feeling the need for some Reynold's Wrap.

[birdwoman]

ROTFLMAO...better get the Heavy Duty, No Stick kind!