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Ammar al-Baluchi
Ammar al-Baluchi (born Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, 29 August 1977; Urdu: عمار البلوچی), or Amar Baloch, is a Kuwaiti-born Pakistani citizen who has been in American custody at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp since 2006. He was arrested in the Pakistani former capital city of Karachi in 2003 before being transferred; the series of criminal charges against him include: "facilitating the 9/11 attackers, acting as a courier for Osama bin Laden and plotting to crash a plane packed with explosives into the U.S. consulate in Karachi." He is a nephew of the Pakistani terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who served as a senior official of al-Qaeda between the late 1980s and early 2000s; and a cousin of the Pakistani terrorist Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, who played a key role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Philippine Airlines Flight 434 bombing, and the high-profile Bojinka plot.
American authorities have stated that al-Baluchi was a "key lieutenant" of his uncle Khalid Sheikh Mohammed during al-Qaeda's preparation for the 9/11 attacks, and that he had told investigators that he had sought help in al-Qaeda's efforts to develop biological weapons to use against enemy forces and other targets. al-Baluchi's ex-wife Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani cognitive neuroscientist, was arrested by Afghan police in Ghazni Province in 2008 and subsequently transferred to American custody at FMC Carswell, where she remains incarcerated on terrorism charges. Siddiqui's family has denied that she was ever married to al-Baluchi, but the marriage has been attested by Pakistani and American intelligence personnel, Mohammed, and Siddiqui herself.
After being arrested in Karachi, al-Baluchi was transferred to Afghanistan and detained at the Salt Pit, a now-defunct CIA black site near Bagram Airfield. It has been reported that he was tortured extensively, being used as a "training prop" to teach enhanced interrogation techniques to new agents; trainees took turns shoving his head into a wall in sessions that lasted for hours, inflicting considerable brain damage. He was also doused with icy water and kept in stress positions, though these techniques ultimately failed to contribute to the acquisition of any useful intelligence. In 2018, the United Nations released a public announcement stating that al-Baluchi's ongoing captivity "breaches human rights law" and called on American authorities to immediately end his arbitrary detention.
Ammar al-Baluchi was born on 29 August 1977, in Al Ahmadi, Kuwait. His family was of ethnic Baloch, originally from Balochistan, Pakistan. And his name "al-Baluchi" also comes from his ethnic identity. He is the nephew on his mother's side of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (the organizer of the September 11 attacks) and the cousin of Ramzi Yousef, the organizer of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The extended family of al-Baluchi is ethnically Baluch and originally from Balochistan. The family patriarch and his brother were lay Deobandi preachers. They moved the family to Kuwait in the 1960s.
Baluchi grew up in Kuwait but spent most of his teenage years in Iranian Baluchistan. He is a citizen of Pakistan. Trained as a computer technician, he dressed in Western clothes and "introduced himself as a businessman", but had been "groomed ... since boyhood" by his cousins and uncles "to join their clandestine war," according to journalist Deborah Scroggins. According to a U.S. government biography, his "chief mentor" was his cousin and 1993 World Trade Center bombing orchestrator Ramzi Yousef, "who taught him in the early 1990s in Iran about the importance of war against the West."
He is fluent in English and worked at Mohammed's honey-processing company in Karachi for a while before being hired in 1998 as a computer technician for Modern Electronics Corporation in Dubai. According to some evidence given at the Combatant Status Review Tribunal, he was "very open-minded and western-oriented", while his ex-wife told investigators he was "a very strict Muslim" who opposed his wife's leaving the home.
According to a U.S. government biography, al-Baluchi "volunteered his services" to his uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, in 1997.
According to U.S. officials, the majority of money that came to the Saudi hijackers for the September 11 attacks was transferred through al-Baluchi and Mustafa al-Hawsawi. The 9/11 Commission reported that he "helped them with plane tickets, traveler's checks, and hotel reservations", and "taught them about everyday aspects of life in the West, such as purchasing clothes and ordering food". In his defence, al-Baluchi claims that he often helped people in Dubai with such things to supplement his income, and he had no way of knowing whether any of them were criminals.
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Ammar al-Baluchi
Ammar al-Baluchi (born Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, 29 August 1977; Urdu: عمار البلوچی), or Amar Baloch, is a Kuwaiti-born Pakistani citizen who has been in American custody at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp since 2006. He was arrested in the Pakistani former capital city of Karachi in 2003 before being transferred; the series of criminal charges against him include: "facilitating the 9/11 attackers, acting as a courier for Osama bin Laden and plotting to crash a plane packed with explosives into the U.S. consulate in Karachi." He is a nephew of the Pakistani terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who served as a senior official of al-Qaeda between the late 1980s and early 2000s; and a cousin of the Pakistani terrorist Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, who played a key role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Philippine Airlines Flight 434 bombing, and the high-profile Bojinka plot.
American authorities have stated that al-Baluchi was a "key lieutenant" of his uncle Khalid Sheikh Mohammed during al-Qaeda's preparation for the 9/11 attacks, and that he had told investigators that he had sought help in al-Qaeda's efforts to develop biological weapons to use against enemy forces and other targets. al-Baluchi's ex-wife Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani cognitive neuroscientist, was arrested by Afghan police in Ghazni Province in 2008 and subsequently transferred to American custody at FMC Carswell, where she remains incarcerated on terrorism charges. Siddiqui's family has denied that she was ever married to al-Baluchi, but the marriage has been attested by Pakistani and American intelligence personnel, Mohammed, and Siddiqui herself.
After being arrested in Karachi, al-Baluchi was transferred to Afghanistan and detained at the Salt Pit, a now-defunct CIA black site near Bagram Airfield. It has been reported that he was tortured extensively, being used as a "training prop" to teach enhanced interrogation techniques to new agents; trainees took turns shoving his head into a wall in sessions that lasted for hours, inflicting considerable brain damage. He was also doused with icy water and kept in stress positions, though these techniques ultimately failed to contribute to the acquisition of any useful intelligence. In 2018, the United Nations released a public announcement stating that al-Baluchi's ongoing captivity "breaches human rights law" and called on American authorities to immediately end his arbitrary detention.
Ammar al-Baluchi was born on 29 August 1977, in Al Ahmadi, Kuwait. His family was of ethnic Baloch, originally from Balochistan, Pakistan. And his name "al-Baluchi" also comes from his ethnic identity. He is the nephew on his mother's side of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (the organizer of the September 11 attacks) and the cousin of Ramzi Yousef, the organizer of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The extended family of al-Baluchi is ethnically Baluch and originally from Balochistan. The family patriarch and his brother were lay Deobandi preachers. They moved the family to Kuwait in the 1960s.
Baluchi grew up in Kuwait but spent most of his teenage years in Iranian Baluchistan. He is a citizen of Pakistan. Trained as a computer technician, he dressed in Western clothes and "introduced himself as a businessman", but had been "groomed ... since boyhood" by his cousins and uncles "to join their clandestine war," according to journalist Deborah Scroggins. According to a U.S. government biography, his "chief mentor" was his cousin and 1993 World Trade Center bombing orchestrator Ramzi Yousef, "who taught him in the early 1990s in Iran about the importance of war against the West."
He is fluent in English and worked at Mohammed's honey-processing company in Karachi for a while before being hired in 1998 as a computer technician for Modern Electronics Corporation in Dubai. According to some evidence given at the Combatant Status Review Tribunal, he was "very open-minded and western-oriented", while his ex-wife told investigators he was "a very strict Muslim" who opposed his wife's leaving the home.
According to a U.S. government biography, al-Baluchi "volunteered his services" to his uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, in 1997.
According to U.S. officials, the majority of money that came to the Saudi hijackers for the September 11 attacks was transferred through al-Baluchi and Mustafa al-Hawsawi. The 9/11 Commission reported that he "helped them with plane tickets, traveler's checks, and hotel reservations", and "taught them about everyday aspects of life in the West, such as purchasing clothes and ordering food". In his defence, al-Baluchi claims that he often helped people in Dubai with such things to supplement his income, and he had no way of knowing whether any of them were criminals.