Inside the Mind of the Mastermind, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed

[Geee]

Front Page Magazine:

The killing of Osama bin Laden, and the ensuing nationwide expressions of joy and relief, stand in stark contrast to the reaction to the 2003 capture of “superterrorist” Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. A simple thought experiment, says Richard Miniter, should correct that imbalance: imagine bin Laden were the one caught in 2003 instead of KSM, as he is known.

“KSM is different than bin Laden in that he can dream up major attacks, and while running the organization he would have access to its resources, its trained personnel—we would have seen many more 9/11-style attacks. I don’t mean the same technique, but the same lethality,” Miniter said in an interview this week. Miniter is the author of the new book Mastermind: The Many Faces of the 9/11 Architect, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

In speaking to analysts, Miniter said, KSM’s capture was always referred to as a war-winning moment—former House intelligence chairman and later CIA chief Porter Goss even compared it to the liberation of Paris in World War II.

“I don’t think the public really sees the value in capturing KSM, that’s one of the reasons why I wrote this book,” he said.

Indeed, in the book Miniter recounts the first meeting between KSM and bin Laden. “After the small talk, KSM presented a battery of outrageous ideas to bin Laden: another plan to kill the pope, this time in Africa; a plan to hijack planes and fly them into buildings on America’s two most populous coasts; plans for London, Paris, Singapore, Hong Kong, and on and on…. After a few hours, bin Laden politely declined to back any of KSM’s plans but asked him to join Al Qaeda and move his family from the Baluch region of Iran to Kandahar, Afghanistan.”

[Valin]

Front Page Magazine:

Published on Oct 28, 2012

Richard Miniter talked about his biography of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed at the Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. He contends that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was the brains behind al Qaeda's deadliest attacks, including the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S, and personally beheaded journalist Daniel Pearl. He investigated how he became a terrorist, and detailed his life, including his college career in the United States and his detention at Guantanamo Bay. Mr. Miniter responded to questions from members of the audience.