Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: The alleged mastermind behind 9/11 | 60 Minutes Archive
In a Nutshell
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, captured in Pakistan in March 2003, was the operational mastermind of 9/11 who personally conceived, planned, recruited for, and executed the attacks—far more than Osama bin Laden, who served as a figurehead. He also orchestrated earlier plots like the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the foiled 1995 airline bombing scheme, evading capture for years through disguises and narrow escapes, notably in Qatar. In a rare interview with Al Jazeera journalist Yusri Fouda, Mohammed admitted to selecting targets, recruiting pilots like Mohamed Atta, and choosing the final date of September 11, while expressing disappointment that the death toll wasn't higher.
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Osama bin Laden may still be at large, but the man captured in Pakistan last Saturday was even more important than bin Laden in the planning and execution of the September 11 attacks. Khaled Shik Muhammad was apprehended in his pajamas just before dawn in a suburban home near the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. The Americans will have many questions for him because as first reported last fall, Khaled Shik Muhammad was not only the mastermind of 9/11 but America's most lethal enemy for more than a decade. Just how important he was in the campaign to bring America to its knees only started to dawn on US investigators last spring.
It was around that time that a reporter for the Arabic news channel El Jazzer was summoned to Pakistan for a meeting with the men on the inside. The sweltering streets of Karach where last June reporter Yusri Fouda was being driven blindfolded. He'd been invited to Karach by al-Qaeda. That's all he knew. "I didn't have a clue who I was being led to. I didn't have a clue uh where I was being led." There were several changes of cars. Then Fuda was taken up a flight of stairs and into an apartment. "Somebody started taking my blindfolds away. I opened my eyes and I realized I was uh only half a meter away from Khaled Muhammad."
Khaled Sheikh Muhammad, a Kuwaiti of Pakistani descent before he was seized last Saturday. Muhammad shown here moments after his arrest had only been interviewed once in his life. His meeting with Yusri Fuda was his first and almost certainly his last with a reporter. "Immediately Khaled introduces himself as head of the military committee of al-Qaeda." "Did that surprise you?" "It did not surprise me. It stunned me. That committee actually was the um arm of al-Qaeda uh which decided first of all according to Khaled to strike u America inside America and to eventually choose the targets which were actually hit uh on September 11th."
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