9-11 :: essays research papers

The likely mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks is a Kuwaiti-born lieutenant of Osama bin fuddled who had previously plotted to attack the military man Trade Center and to neglect several airliners simultaneously, a top U.S. counterterrorism official says.Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, one of the FBIs most-wanted terrorists, is at blown-up in Afghanistan or nearby, the law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Tuesday.U.S. investigators deal Mohammed, working under bin Ladens leadership, planned many aspects of the Sept. 11 attacks.Theres loads of links that tie him to 9-11, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. He was intricately involved.Mohammed is accused of working with Ramzi Yousef in the first bombing of the World Trade Center, which left six dead in 1993. He and Yousef in like manner were accused of plotting in 1995 to bomb several trans-Pacific airliners heading for the United severalises. Yousef, this instant serving a life sentence in the Unit ed States after(prenominal) being convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, overly is believed to move over planned to crash a plane into CIA headquarters.Mohammed was charged by national prosecutors in New York in 1996 in connection with the alleged 1995 plot. The State Department is offering a reward of up to $25 billion for information leading to his capture.Other bin Laden lieutenants are likewise believed to have helped put together the Sept. 11 attacks, the official said. But deduction is mounting that Mohammed was at the center of the operational planning.A second U.S. official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, ack flatledged that Mohammed played a minute role in planning the attacks but said questions remain more or less the extent of his leadership. The official said other bin Laden lieutenants, including Abu Zubaydah, now in U.S. custody, are also believed to have played top organizational roles.Mohammed, 36, is one of the highest-ranking al-Qaida leaders still at large, officials said, and continues to plan attacks against U.S. interests. Although he was born in Kuwait, officials there say he is a Pakistani national and note that people born in Kuwait do not automatically qualify for citizenship.According to the counterterrorism official, within three months of Sept. 11, the FBI learned that Mohammed had performed some financial transactions to fund the attacks since then the United States has gathered other significant evidence pointing to him as the key planner. The official declined to go into detail, citing a need to protect intelligence information.