Ramzi bin al-Shibh
Ramzi bin al-Shibh | |
---|---|
Ghayl Bawazir, South Yemen | |
Detained at | CIA black sites, Guantanamo |
ISN | 10013 |
Charge(s) | Charged before a military commission in 2008; trial started in October 2012 |
Ramzi bin al-Shibh | |
---|---|
Nationality | Terrorist |
Military career | |
Allegiance | Al-Qaeda |
Service/ | Al-Qaeda central (1990s–present) |
Years of service | 1990s–2002 |
Rank | AQ officer and communicator
War in North-West Pakistan
Afghan civil war |
Ramzi Mohammed Abdullah bin al-Shibh (
In the mid-1990s, bin al-Shibh moved as a student to Hamburg, Germany, where he allegedly became close friends with Mohamed Atta, Ziad Jarrah and Marwan al-Shehhi. Together, they are suspected of forming the Hamburg cell and becoming central perpetrators of the September 11 attacks. He was the only one of the four who failed to obtain a U.S. visa; he is accused of acting as an intermediary for the hijackers in the United States, by wiring money and passing on information from key al-Qaeda figures. After the attacks, bin al-Shibh was the first to be publicly identified by the U.S. as the "20th hijacker", for whom there have been several more possible candidates.
Bin al-Shibh has been in United States custody since he was captured on 11 September 2002, in
Early life
Ramzi bin al-Shibh was born 1 May 1972 in
In 1987, while still in high school, bin al-Shibh began working part-time as a clerk for the International Bank of Yemen.[9] He continued working there until 1995.[1]
Bin al-Shibh applied for a U.S.
Bin al-Shibh returned to the
Connections to 9/11 attacks
In late 1999, bin al-Shibh traveled to Kandahar in Afghanistan, where he received training at al-Qaeda camps and met others involved in planning the September 11 attacks.[10]
Original plans for the 9/11 attacks called for bin al-Shibh to be one of the hijacker pilots, along with three other members of the Hamburg cell, including Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, and Ziad Jarrah.[11] From Hamburg, bin al-Shibh applied to take flight training in the United States. At that time, he also applied to Aviation Language Services, which provides language training for student pilots.[12] Bin al-Shibh applied four times for an entry visa to the United States and was refused each time. He made visa applications in Germany on May 17, 2000, and again in June, on September 16, and October 25, 2000.[3][12]
According to the
Al-Shibh interacted extensively with the hijackers. In August 2000, Ziad Jarrah tried to enroll bin al-Shibh in a Florida flight school.[3] Bin al-Shibh sent money via wire transfer on September 25, 2000, to Marwan al-Shehhi in Florida.[3] In August 2001, bin al-Shibh sent approximately $14,000 to Zacarias Moussaoui, using the alias Ahad Sabet,[15] a few days after receiving transfer of $15,000 from Hashim Abdulrahman in the United Arab Emirates.[3]
According to the Al Jazeera reporter Yosri Fouda's documentary, Top Secret: The Road to September 11, three weeks prior to the attacks, Saeed al-Ghamdi is believed to have used the name "Abdul Rahman" to message bin al-Shibh online (who was posing as a girlfriend), writing a reference to two military/governmental targets and two civilian targets, 19 hijackers and 4 hijacked planes:[16]:
The first semester commences in three weeks. Two high schools and two universities. ... This summer will surely be hot ...19 certificates for private education and four exams. Regards to the professor. Goodbye.
Bin al-Shibh later said that Mohamed Atta had phoned him on the morning of August 29 to give a similar coded message revealing the date of the attacks.[17]
Other terrorism activities
After 14 January 2002, bin al-Shibh was featured among five suspected al-Qaeda members on videos delivering what
Ashcroft said the five videotapes, shown by the FBI without sound, had been recovered from the rubble of the home of
The fifth was identified a week later as Abderraouf Jdey, alias Al-Rauf bin al-Habib bin Yousef al-Jiddi.On 8 September 2006, al-Qaeda released a video that shows Osama bin Laden and some of the 9/11 hijackers. The tape identifies bin al-Shibh as the "coordinator of the 9/11 attacks" in its
On 17 January 2002, the
Ramzi bin al-Shibh is suspected of having been involved in the 2000 USS Cole bombing, and the 2002 Ghriba synagogue bombing in Tunisia.[10]
Capture and detention
Bin al-Shibh was captured in Pakistan on September 11, 2002, after a gun battle in
His profile was removed from the FBI Seeking Information wanted list by October 17, 2002.
Bin al-Shibh is also wanted by German courts; he had shared a Hamburg apartment with Mohamed Atta, the suspected ringleader of the September 11 hijackers. In 2005, the USA denied a German request for bin al-Shibh's extradition. In an earlier extradition and trial, Abdelghani Mzoudi, a 9/11 suspect, was acquitted of German charges.[citation needed]
On 12 June 2008, the
Guantanamo military commission
Bin al-Shibh and four other captives classified as
The other four men eventually agreed to attend their commissions. Bin al-Shibh, however, has continued to refuse to attend. His appointed attorneys had expressed concern about him and his state of mental health. The top-secret location of
Suzanne Lachelier, one of the attorneys and a reserve officer in the
The judge presiding over the commission's pre-trial motions ordered bin al-Shibh and Mustafa al-Hawsawi to undergo mental competency hearings. On December 8, 2008, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told the judge that he, along with the other four men who had been indicted, wished to confess and plead guilty; however, they wished to delay their plea until after the competency hearings of bin al-Shibh and Hawsawi, because all five men wanted to make their pleas together.[33]
On 17 May 2010, Saba News reported that Ramzi Al-Shaibah, and four other Yemenis would face charges in the summer of 2010.
In 2011, the lawyers of Bin al-Shibh argued that he may be unfit to stand trial and participate in his own defense. They have asked that the proceedings against him and his four co-accused be stayed until his mental state is determined. They say he has been prescribed
In October 2012, the U.S. began the trials of al-Shibh and the other four 9/11 defendants. On 31 January 2014, Carol Rosenberg, reporting in the Miami Herald, wrote that Pohl had to delay al-Shibh's trial again, because the panel of three military psychiatrists who tried to determine whether he was mentally competent to stand trial had not been able to reach a conclusion.[36] Al-Shibh had not been prepared to answer the doctor's questions. On 24 August 2023 Al-Shibh was declared unfit to stand trial by a U.S. tribunal due to his mental state, after lawyers argued 'CIA torture made him delusional and psychotic'.[6]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e "9/11 Commission Report, Chapter 5". National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. 2004.
- ^ JTF GTMO Detainee Profile Department of Defense
- ^ a b c d e Indictment of Zacarias Moussaoui, with supporting conspirators, Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Mustafa al-Hawsawi. Filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
- ^ Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Archived from the original(PDF) on September 1, 2009. Retrieved March 4, 2017.
- ^ He was captured after a gun battle in Karachi with the Pakistani ISI and the CIA's Special Activities Division a year after the attacks.
- ^ a b Rosenberg, Carol (August 25, 2023). "Man Accused in 9/11 Plot Is Not Fit to Face Trial, Board Says". The New York Times. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
- ^ McDermott, Terry (2005). Perfect Soldiers. Harper. p. 39.
- ^ a b McDermott, Terry (2005). Perfect Soldiers. Harper. p. 41.
- ^ McDermott, Terry (2005). Perfect Soldiers. Harper. p. 42.
- ^ a b c d "Ramzi Binalshibh: al-Qaeda suspect". BBC. September 14, 2002.
- ISBN 9780060584702.
- ^ a b Zacarias Moussauoi v. the United States, trial testimony on March 7, 2006.
- ^ "Al-Jazeera reporter speaks on terrorist plans". Lateline / ABC (Australia). September 30, 2002. Archived from the original on November 12, 2007. Retrieved March 25, 2007.
- ^ "The Mastermind". CBS News. March 5, 2003. Archived from the original on October 20, 2002. Retrieved March 25, 2007.
- ^ "Motion: 9/11 conspiracy suspect may have used ID of Arizona doctor". CNN. August 7, 2002. Archived from the original on November 11, 2007.
- ^ http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/09/12/alqaeda.911.claim/index.html Archived February 20, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, CNN
- ^ "CNN.com - Transcripts". transcripts.cnn.com.
- ^ a b "Attorney General Ashcroft Transcript News Conference with FBI Director Mueller Regarding Terrorist Tapes". www.justice.gov. January 17, 2002. Retrieved January 5, 2020.
They depict, the videotapes depict young men delivering what appear to be martyrdom messages from suicide terrorists.
- ^ Popkin, Jim (October 2, 2006). "Video showing Atta, bin Laden is unearthed". NBC News. Retrieved January 5, 2020.
- ^ FBI Seeking Information - War on Terrorism, Martyrdom Messages/video Seeking Information Alert Archived August 5, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, VIDEO 2 minutes 11 seconds, mpg (29.1 mb)
- ^ FBI Seeking Information - War on Terrorism, Martyrdom Messages/video Seeking Information Alert, VIDEO 2 minutes 11 seconds, rm (229 kb - stream)
- ^ FBI Seeking Information - War on Terrorism, Martyrdom Messages/video Seeking Information Alert Archived August 5, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, VIDEO 2 minutes 11 seconds, asf (371 kb - stream)
- ^ a b "Video shows Osama and killers". New York Daily News. September 8, 2006. [permanent dead link]
- ^ "Al-Qa'ida releases film showing Bin Laden with the hijackers". Belfast Telegraph. September 8, 2006. [permanent dead link]
- ^ Most Wanted Terrorists Seeking Information Archived March 14, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, January 17, 2002,
- ^ Martyrdom Messages/video, Seeking Information Alert Archived August 5, 2009, at the Wayback Machine video clips published by the FBI January 17, 2002, and photos of remaining 5 terrorists, FBI archival after September 2002
- ^ "FBI, CIA Debate Significance of Terror Suspect". The Washington Post.
- ^ "CIA tapes prove Morocco rendition". August 19, 2010.
- ^ Gutteridge, Clara (October 18, 2010). "New CIA Interrogation Tapes Hint at Legal 'Loophole' Allowing the US to Outsource Torture". Huffington Post.
- ^ "Binalshibh to go to third country for questioning". CNN. September 17, 2002.
- ^ FBI Seeking Information archive, Internet Archive Wayback Machine, October 17, 2002
- ^ "Amended and Other Factual Returns Filed -- August 2008" (PDF). United States Department of Justice. August 29, 2008. Retrieved September 11, 2008.
- ^ "Top 9/11 suspects to plead guilty". BBC News. December 8, 2008. Retrieved December 8, 2008.
- ^
"U.S. to try five Yemeni Gitmo detainees". Saba News. May 17, 2010. Archived from the original on May 18, 2010. Retrieved May 17, 2010.
The U.S. will start in this summer trying five Yemeni detainees at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay in Cuba including Ramzi Al-Shaibah, Walid Bin Atash and Abdul Rahim Al-Nasheri, the September 26 website has reported.
- ^ "Ramzi bin al-Shibh", Human Rights Watch, 31 May 2011
- ^ Carol Rosenberg (January 31, 2014). "Alleged 9/11 conspirator stymies mental-health board". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on February 1, 2014.
A military mental health board has told the 9/11 trial judge that it couldn't evaluate the competency of an accused Sept. 11 plotter, two defense lawyers said Friday, casting doubt on resumption of hearings next month at Guantánamo.
External links
- "Pentagon charges 6 in 9-11 attacks: Death penalty will be sought against alleged mastermind, others". NBC News. February 11, 2008. Retrieved February 1, 2014.
Ramzi Binalshibh, said to have been the main intermediary between the hijackers and leaders of al-Qaida
- Josh White; Dan Eggen; Joby Warrick (February 11, 2008). "'Clean team' interrogated 9-11 suspects: Agency tried non-coercive techniques to protect case against six detainees". MSNBC. Archived from the original on February 13, 2008. Retrieved February 1, 2014.
FBI and military interrogators who began work with the suspects in late 2006 called themselves the "Clean Team," and set as their goal collecting of virtually the same information the CIA had obtained from five of the six through duress at secret prisons.
- Shane, Scott (June 22, 2008). "Inside a 9/11 Mastermind's Interrogation". New York Times. Archivedfrom the original on December 20, 2013. Retrieved June 23, 2008.