Reason why man who claimed he 'planned 9/11 from A-to-Z' isn't going to trial until 2028
A man who claimed to be the mastermind behind the 9/11 terror attacks will face trial in 2028.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was arrested in 2003, and since September 2006 he has been held at Guantanamo Bay.
In the past, he alleged that he planned the ‘9/11 operation from A-to-Z’.
Mohammed is accused of thinking of the idea of training pilots to fly commercial planes into buildings and taking those plans to the leader of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, who was eventually killed in May 2011.
Advert
Mohammed was an engineer who was educated in the US. He was captured along with his alleged accomplice Mustafa al-Hawsawi in Pakistan in March 2003.
His other alleged accomplices include Walid bin Attash and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, who were all named in court documents.
Mohammed previously reached a plea deal under which he would admit guilt in exchange for avoiding the death penalty.
Last summer, a federal appeals court overturned the agreement.
A military judge then ruled that the trial would begin in 2028, determining that the January 2027 date sought by prosecutors did not allow enough time to resolve outstanding pretrial issues.
The trial is now set to start on June 5, 2028. The date will allow for further time to sort through matters of the court, including resolving any disputes about the evidence that will be put forward.
September this year marks 25 years since hijackers flew passenger planes into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Virginia. Another flight was hijacked but crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
Almost 3,000 people died in the attacks, and victims are still being identified using DNA technology.
Mohammed was identified by US authorities as a major al-Qaeda suspect in the aftermath of 9/11. He was captured in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on March 1, 2003, in a joint Pakistani-US intelligence operation, and subsequently transferred to US custody.
Mohammed was born in Kuwait in 1965 and joined Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda in 1999.
According to The Washington Post, Mohammed later told CIA interrogators that he was in an internet café in Karachi, Pakistan, monitoring the September 11 attacks as they unfolded. After the attacks, he returned to a hideaway apartment.
He previously studied in North Carolina during the 1980s and attended Chowan College before transferring to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, where he earned a degree in mechanical engineering in December 1986.
According to an autobiographical account he provided to the CIA, Mohammed joined the Muslim Brotherhood as a teenager. The 9/11 Commission Report also records his account of joining the organization at the age of 16.
In 1996, Mohammed allegedly approached Osama bin Laden with proposals for attacks against the United States. He allegedly developed a more specific plan involving the use of hijacked aircraft as weapons.
According to the 9/11 Commission, bin Laden eventually approved the operation in 1998 or 1999, after Mohammed had joined al-Qaeda.
Greg Harris