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Waleed bin Attash
Police on April 29, 2003, arrested alleged al-Qaida operational commander Waleed bin Attash, suspected of helping plan the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, and five other alleged al-Qaida operatives in a raid in Karachi. U.S. officials also suspect Attash, a Yemeni also known as Tawfiq Attash or Khallad, coordinated the activities of two hijackers who crashed a plane into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. U.S. law enforcement officials said a plot to crash an explosives-laden small aircraft into the U.S. consulate in Karachi was uncovered with the arrests. Pakistan's Interior Minister, Faisal Saleh Hayyat, declined to comment directly on the plot, but said the arrest helped avert a major terrorist attack.
Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi
Al-Hawsawi, who was named as a “supporting conspirator” in an Dec. 11 indictment of Zacarias Moussaoui, was arrested by U.S. and Pakistani forces in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on March 1, 2003. He was then transferred to the custody of U.S. authorities and whisked out of the country to an undisclosed location for questioning. The indictment alleged that al-Hawsawi, a Saudi native, was “an active participant” in the Sept. 11 plot. He received more than $18,000 from three suspected hijackers in the days before the attack, then cleared out bank accounts he had control over in the United Arab Emirates and fled the country on Sept. 11. U.S. investigators believe that al-Hawsawi, who was originally identified by U.S. authorities as Mustafa Ahmed and also is known as Shayk Saiid, was a key figure in the financial side of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network. In documents sent to banks seeking to freeze terrorist assets, the government used the names Ahmed and Saiid interchangeably.
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
Mohammed, one of the FBI's most-wanted terrorists, was captured in a raid in Rawalpindi, near the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, on March 1, 2003. U.S. intelligence officials describe Mohammed as the third-ranking official of al-Qaida, behind only Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri. They say he became head of military operations following the death of Mohammed Atef, who was killed by a CIA Predator strike in November, 2001. U.S. investigators believe Mohammed, working under bin Laden's leadership, planned many aspects of the Sept. 11 attacks. The uncle of convicted World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef, Mohammed also is believed to be the mastermind of the failed “Operation Bojinka,” which envisioned blowing 12 commercial airliners out of the sky on a single day. A reporter for al-Jazeera television said he interviewed Mohammed and another al-Qaida fugitive, Ramzi Binalshibh – in Karachi, Pakistan shortly before the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Ramzi Binalshibh
Zayd Hassan Abd Al-Latif Masud Al Safarini
Binalshibh, 30, of Yemen, was arrested in Karachi on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks after a gunfight with Pakistani police that left two other suspected al-Qaida members dead and five others in custody. Pakistan turned Binalshibh, accused of being one of the main planners of the Sept. 11 attacks when he was a roommate of suspected ringleader Mohammed Atta in Hamburg, Germany, over to U.S. authorities within days of his arrest and he was flown out of the country to an undisclosed location for questioning. U.S. authorities say he would have been the “20th hijacker” had his requests for a U.S. visa not been denied, an assertion that Binalshibh appeared to confirm in an interview with the Arab TV network al-Jazeera that aired a week before his capture. In the interview, Binalshibh gave details of the Sept. 11 attacks, including code words for the targets and confirmation that United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania, was headed for the U.S. Capitol. He also expressed regret that he was unable to take part in the attacks. The raid that led to Binalshibh’s capture was one of scores conducted by Pakistani police in recent months that officials say have resulted in the arrests of more than 400 suspected terrorists.
U.S. authorities arrested Al Safarini, a suspect in a 15-year-old hijacking, on Sept. 29 after he was released from custody by Pakistani authorities. Al Safarini, a Jordanian, pleaded not guilty to air piracy and murder after being returned to the United States to face charges stemming from the hijacking of Pan Am flight 73 in Karachi on Sept. 5, 1986, in which 22 people - including two Americans - were killed. If convicted of the most serious charges in the 126-count indictment, Al Safarini could face the death penalty.