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Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (born 14 April 1965; Urdu: خالد شیخ محمد; sometimes also spelled Shaykh; and known by at least 50 pseudonyms including his initials KSM), is a Kuwaiti-born Pakistani militant, and the former head of propaganda for al-Qaeda. As of 2026[update], he is held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp under terrorism-related charges. He was named as "the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks" in the 2004 9/11 Commission Report.
Mohammed was a member of Osama bin Laden's militant organization al-Qaeda, leading al-Qaeda's propaganda operations from around 1999 until late 2001. Mohammed was captured on 1 March 2003, in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi by a combined operation of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Immediately after his capture, Mohammed was kidnapped and taken to secret CIA prison sites in Afghanistan, then Poland, where he was interrogated and tortured by U.S. operatives. By December 2006, he had been transferred to military custody at Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
Mohammed is widely regarded as the chief planner of the September 11 attacks. He also participated in planning Richard Reid’s shoe bombing attempt to blow up an airliner; the 2002 Bali bombings in Indonesia; the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; the murder of Daniel Pearl and various foiled attacks as well as numerous other crimes. He was charged in February 2008 with war crimes and murder by a U.S. military commission at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, which could carry the death penalty if convicted. In 2012, a former military prosecutor criticized the proceedings as insupportable due to confessions gained under torture. A 2008 decision by the United States Supreme Court had also drawn into question the legality of the methods used to gain such admissions and the admissibility of such admissions as evidence in a criminal proceeding.
On 30 August 2019, a military judge set a date of 11 January 2021 for Mohammed's death penalty trial. His trial was further postponed on 18 December 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mohammed's trial restarted on 7 September 2021 but was postponed again for years of plea deal negotiations. On 31 July 2024, Mohammed agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence rather than a death-penalty trial. His plea deal was revoked by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin two days later. In July 2025, the plea deal was voided by a D.C. appeals court in a 2–1 ruling.
Mohammed was born on 14 April 1965, to Baloch parents, in Kuwait. His father, Shaikh Muhammad Ali Dustin al-Baluchi, was a Deobandi imam in Al Ahmadi, who moved with his family from Balochistan, Pakistan; to Kuwait in the 1950s. His mother was Halema Mohammed. Mohammed was raised in Badawiya, a neighborhood of the Fahaheel suburb of Kuwait City. Mohammed is the uncle of Ramzi Yousef, who was convicted on terrorism charges for his part in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Ammar Al Baluchi, who is accused of involvement in multiple terror plots. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is one of at least five siblings -- four boys and a girl. His brothers' names are Zahed (pious); Abed (worshiper), and Aref (knowledgeable). Mohammed is fluent in Balochi, Urdu, Arabic, and English.
According to U.S. federal documents, in 1982 he had heard Abdulrab Rasul Sayyaf's speech in which a call for jihad against the Soviets was declared. At age 16, he joined the Muslim Brotherhood. After graduating from high school in 1983, Mohammed travelled to the United States and enrolled at Chowan University in Murfreesboro, North Carolina. He later transferred to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and received a Bachelor of Science (BS) in mechanical engineering in 1986.
The following year, he went to Peshawar, Pakistan, where he and his brothers, including Zahed, joined the mujahideen forces engaged in the Soviet–Afghan War. He attended the Sada training camp run by Abdallah Azzam, and after that he worked for the magazine al-Bunyan al-Marsous, produced by Sayyaf's rebel group, the Islamic Union for the Liberation of Afghanistan. In 1992, he received a master's degree in Islamic Culture and History through correspondence classes from Punjab University in Pakistan. By 1993, Mohammed had married and moved his family to Qatar, where he took a position as project engineer with the Qatari Ministry of Electricity and Water. He began to travel to different countries from that time onward.
The U.S.' 9/11 Commission Report notes that, "By his own account, KSM's animosity toward the United States stemmed not from his experiences there as a student, but rather from his violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel."
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Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (born 14 April 1965; Urdu: خالد شیخ محمد; sometimes also spelled Shaykh; and known by at least 50 pseudonyms including his initials KSM), is a Kuwaiti-born Pakistani militant, and the former head of propaganda for al-Qaeda. As of 2026[update], he is held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp under terrorism-related charges. He was named as "the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks" in the 2004 9/11 Commission Report.
Mohammed was a member of Osama bin Laden's militant organization al-Qaeda, leading al-Qaeda's propaganda operations from around 1999 until late 2001. Mohammed was captured on 1 March 2003, in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi by a combined operation of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Immediately after his capture, Mohammed was kidnapped and taken to secret CIA prison sites in Afghanistan, then Poland, where he was interrogated and tortured by U.S. operatives. By December 2006, he had been transferred to military custody at Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
Mohammed is widely regarded as the chief planner of the September 11 attacks. He also participated in planning Richard Reid’s shoe bombing attempt to blow up an airliner; the 2002 Bali bombings in Indonesia; the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; the murder of Daniel Pearl and various foiled attacks as well as numerous other crimes. He was charged in February 2008 with war crimes and murder by a U.S. military commission at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, which could carry the death penalty if convicted. In 2012, a former military prosecutor criticized the proceedings as insupportable due to confessions gained under torture. A 2008 decision by the United States Supreme Court had also drawn into question the legality of the methods used to gain such admissions and the admissibility of such admissions as evidence in a criminal proceeding.
On 30 August 2019, a military judge set a date of 11 January 2021 for Mohammed's death penalty trial. His trial was further postponed on 18 December 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mohammed's trial restarted on 7 September 2021 but was postponed again for years of plea deal negotiations. On 31 July 2024, Mohammed agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence rather than a death-penalty trial. His plea deal was revoked by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin two days later. In July 2025, the plea deal was voided by a D.C. appeals court in a 2–1 ruling.
Mohammed was born on 14 April 1965, to Baloch parents, in Kuwait. His father, Shaikh Muhammad Ali Dustin al-Baluchi, was a Deobandi imam in Al Ahmadi, who moved with his family from Balochistan, Pakistan; to Kuwait in the 1950s. His mother was Halema Mohammed. Mohammed was raised in Badawiya, a neighborhood of the Fahaheel suburb of Kuwait City. Mohammed is the uncle of Ramzi Yousef, who was convicted on terrorism charges for his part in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Ammar Al Baluchi, who is accused of involvement in multiple terror plots. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is one of at least five siblings -- four boys and a girl. His brothers' names are Zahed (pious); Abed (worshiper), and Aref (knowledgeable). Mohammed is fluent in Balochi, Urdu, Arabic, and English.
According to U.S. federal documents, in 1982 he had heard Abdulrab Rasul Sayyaf's speech in which a call for jihad against the Soviets was declared. At age 16, he joined the Muslim Brotherhood. After graduating from high school in 1983, Mohammed travelled to the United States and enrolled at Chowan University in Murfreesboro, North Carolina. He later transferred to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and received a Bachelor of Science (BS) in mechanical engineering in 1986.
The following year, he went to Peshawar, Pakistan, where he and his brothers, including Zahed, joined the mujahideen forces engaged in the Soviet–Afghan War. He attended the Sada training camp run by Abdallah Azzam, and after that he worked for the magazine al-Bunyan al-Marsous, produced by Sayyaf's rebel group, the Islamic Union for the Liberation of Afghanistan. In 1992, he received a master's degree in Islamic Culture and History through correspondence classes from Punjab University in Pakistan. By 1993, Mohammed had married and moved his family to Qatar, where he took a position as project engineer with the Qatari Ministry of Electricity and Water. He began to travel to different countries from that time onward.
The U.S.' 9/11 Commission Report notes that, "By his own account, KSM's animosity toward the United States stemmed not from his experiences there as a student, but rather from his violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel."