WASHINGTON - United States investigators have identified top al Qaeda leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed as the probable mastermind behind the September 11 attacks.
In doing so they have made what could be the first direct link between the September 11 hijacking and a foiled plot to blow up US airliners.
"He's the primary brains of the plot. He's also a major player in the al Qaeda organisation," said one of two US officials. "He planned this whole operation. There's lots of links that tie him to September 11. He's the most significant operational player out there right now."
According to the counter-terrorism official, within three months of September 11, the FBI learned that Mohammed had moved money that was used to pay for the attacks and since then the US has gathered other significant evidence pointing to him as the key planner.
A second US official said the Kuwaiti-born Mohammed is believed to be in either Afghanistan or Pakistan. The official described Mohammed as a top lieutenant to Osama bin Laden.
"In terms of al Qaeda bad guys, he's in the top half dozen or so," the official said of Mohammed, who is already on the FBI's list of 22 most wanted terrorists.
The lieutenants are said to pick targets and attack dates, provide money and training to the foot soldiers and overseas cells chosen to carry them out and maintain operational secrecy.
Mohammed was a close associate of Abu Zubaydah, who was captured in Pakistan in March.
Mohammed, 37 or 38, is known to wear either a full beard or a trimmed beard and has been known to wear glasses.
He was indicted in the US in 1996 for his alleged role in a plot to blow up US civilian airliners over the Pacific. The US Government is offering a reward of up to US$25 million ($51.69 million) for information leading to his capture and conviction.
Mohammed is a relative of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, believed to have been the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing in which six people were killed. Yousef has been jailed for life in Colorado.
Yousef was also convicted for his role in a conspiracy plot, hatched in Manila, to bomb 11 commercial US airliners flying from Southeast Asia in January 1995.
The plot, by Islamic fundamentalists linked to bin Laden, was foiled when Philippine authorities arrested one of Yousef's associates in Manila.
According to investigators, the September 11 attacks were largely paid for by Shaikh Saiid al-Sharif, also known as Mustafa Ahmed al-Hisawi, who is bin Laden's financial chief. Officials traced a number of financial transactions between him and several of hijackers, but Shaikh Saiid was not believed to have the wherewithal to plan an operation of September 11's magnitude. He is at large.
A fourth bin Laden lieutenant, Tawfiq Attash Khallad, is also suspected of playing a planning role. He met with future hijackers Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in January 2000, just before Almihdhar and Alhazmi entered the US. Khallad paid for some of the pair's travel before September 11, the counter-terrorism official said.
Khallad, also believed to be a chief planner of the October 2000 USS Cole bombing, remains at large.
Bin Laden and his top two deputies, Ayman al-Zawahri and Mohammed Atef, were believed to have known about the attacks in advance.
US lawmakers yesterday began a joint probe into the failure of US intelligence to thwart the September 11 attacks. The hearing was conducted behind closed doors and in a soundproof room.
Members of the intelligence committees of the Senate and House of Representatives adopted an "initial scope of inquiry" which states the questions Congress wants answers to: What did the FBI, CIA and other agencies know and when did they know it? What did they do about it? What have they learned since September 11?
The hearings are set to open to the public the week of June 24 when FBI Director Robert Mueller and CIA Director George Tenet may appear.
- REUTERS
Story archives:
Links: Terror in America - the Sept 11 attacks
Timeline: Major events since the Sept 11 attacks
US uncovers 'brains' behind September 11 plot
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