Age, Biography, and Wiki
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is a Pakistani national born on April 14, 1965. He is known as the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks and has been involved in numerous other terrorist plots. Mohammed holds a degree in mechanical engineering and served as a key operational planner for al-Qaeda.
Occupation | Engineers |
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Date of Birth | April 14, 1965 |
Age | 60 Years |
Birth Place | Balochistan, Pakistan or Kuwait |
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Country | Pakistan |
Height, Weight & Measurements
There is limited publicly available information regarding Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's physical measurements such as height and weight. Given his detention status, such details are not commonly reported.
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Dating & Relationship Status
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's personal relationships are not well-documented. His involvement in terrorist activities has overshadowed any personal life he may have had.
His father, Shaikh Muhammad Ali Dustin al-Baluchi, was a Deobandi imam in Al Ahmadi, who moved with his family from Balochistan to Kuwait in the 1950s. His mother was Halema Mohammed. Mohammed was raised in Badawiya, a neighborhood of the Fahaheel suburb of Kuwait City. Mohammed is the uncle of Ramzi Yousef, who was convicted on terrorism charges for his part in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Ammar Al Baluchi, who is accused of involvement in multiple terror plots.
By the time the Bojinka plot was discovered, Mohammed had returned to Qatar and his job as a project engineer at the country's Ministry of Electricity and Water. He traveled in 1995 to Sudan, Yemen, Malaysia, and Brazil to visit elements of the worldwide jihadist community, although no evidence connects him to specific terrorist actions in any of those locations. On his trip to Sudan, he attempted to meet with Osama bin Laden, who was at the time living there, aided by Sudanese political leader Hassan al-Turabi. After the U.S. asked the Qatari government to arrest Mohammed in January 1996, he fled to Afghanistan, where he renewed his alliance with Abdul Rasul Sayyaf. Later that year, he formed a working relationship with Bin Laden, who had settled there.
Ali Khan, the father of Majid Khan, another one of the 14 "high-value detainees," released an unsubstantiated affidavit on 16 April 2006, that reported that interrogators subjected Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's children, aged 6 and 8 years old, to abusive interrogation.
"The Pakistani guards told my son that the boys were kept in a separate area upstairs, and were denied food and water by other guards. They were also mentally tortured by having ants or other creatures put on their legs to scare them and get them to say where their father was hiding."
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Net Worth and Salary
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's net worth is not publicly disclosed. As a high-profile terrorist figure, he does not have a legal income or salary. His primary focus has been on orchestrating terrorist operations rather than accumulating wealth through legitimate means.
Career, Business, and Investments
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's career has been centered around his activities as a terrorist leader. He masterminded the 9/11 attacks, the Bali nightclub bombing, and attempted the Richard Reid shoe bombing. His involvement in al-Qaeda led to his capture in 2003, after which he was held in secret CIA detention and later transferred to Guantanamo Bay.
The following year, he went to Peshawar, Pakistan, where he and his brothers, including Zahed, joined the mujahideen forces engaged in the Soviet–Afghan War. He attended the Sada training camp run by Sheikh Abdallah Azzam, and after that he worked for the magazine al-Bunyan al-Marsous, produced by Sayyaf's rebel group, the Islamic Union for the Liberation of Afghanistan. In 1992, he received a master's degree in Islamic Culture and History through correspondence classes from Punjab University in Pakistan. By 1993, Mohammed had married and moved his family to Qatar, where he took a position as project engineer with the Qatari Ministry of Electricity and Water. He began to travel to different countries from that time onward.
* information about the four airplanes hijacked on 11 September 2001, including code names, airline company, flight number, target, pilot name and background information, and names of the hijackers
After Mohammed arrived at Guantanamo, a team of FBI and military interrogators tried to elicit from him the same confessions that the CIA had obtained about the 9/11 plot, but by using only legal means of interrogation. By 2008, the Bush administration believed that this so-called "Clean Team" had compiled sufficient evidence to charge Mohammed and the others with capital murder.
"In 2006, his interrogation summaries were read aloud in the capital murder trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker, and Moussaoui was spared the death penalty. Two years later, different Mohammed statements were read in a military commission trial, or tribunal, that led to the release from Guantanamo Bay of Osama bin Laden's chauffeur, Salim Hamdan."
Social Network
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed does not have a public social media presence. His activities are not aligned with conventional social networking platforms due to his involvement in terrorism.
The United States 9/11 Commission Report notes that, "By his own account, KSM's animus toward the United States stemmed not from his experiences there as a student, but rather from his violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel." However, on August 29, 2009, The Washington Post reported from U.S. intelligence sources that Mohammed's time in the U.S. contributed to his radicalization.
According to a CNN interview with intelligence expert Rohan Gunaratna, "Daniel Pearl was going in search of the al-Qaeda network that was operational in Karachi, and it was at the instruction of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that Daniel Pearl was killed." On 12 October 2006, Time magazine reported that "KSM confessed under CIA interrogation that he personally committed the murder." On 15 March 2007, the Pentagon stated that Mohammed had confessed to the murder. The statement quoted Mohammed as saying, "I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan. For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head." This confession was gained under torture, and Mohammed listed many other crimes at the same time.
Education
Mohammed holds a degree in mechanical engineering, which he obtained from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in the United States. This education likely contributed to his ability to plan complex terrorist operations.
In summary, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's significance stems from his role in global terrorism rather than any financial or business success. His net worth remains undefined, as his focus has been on violent extremism rather than accumulating wealth.
According to U.S. federal documents, in 1982 he had heard Abdul Rasul Sayyaf's speech in which a call for jihad against the Soviets was declared. At age 16, he joined the Muslim Brotherhood. After graduating from high school in 1983, Mohammed travelled to the United States and enrolled in Chowan University in Murfreesboro, North Carolina. He later transferred to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and received a Bachelor of Science (BS) in mechanical engineering in 1986.
In December 1994, Yousef had engaged in a test of a bomb on Philippine Airlines Flight 434 using only about ten percent of the explosives that were to be used in each of the bombs to be planted on U.S. airliners. The test resulted in the death of a Japanese national on board a flight from the Philippines to Japan. Mohammed conspired with Yousef in the plot until it was uncovered on 6 January 1995. Yousef was captured 7 February of that same year.
According to an investigative report published in January 2011 by Georgetown University, the Federal Bureau of Investigation used vein matching to determine that the perpetrator in the video of the killing of Pearl was most likely Mohammed, notably through identifying a "bulging vein" running across his hand. Concerned that the confession obtained through waterboarding would not hold up in court, federal officials used this forensic evidence to bolster their case.