Who is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? Outrage as plea deal sparing death penalty for 9/11 mastermind reinstated- The Week

Months after Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin revoked the shocking plea deals that spared death penalty for three terrorists, a military judge has reinstated the agreement.

One of them is 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The other two co-conspirators Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi.

The order was issued by Air Force Colonel and judge Matthew McCall in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This has sparked outrage from family members of the victims.

Who is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is known as ‘KSM’, is considered one of the trusted lieutenants of Osama bin Laden. The trained engineer attended university in the USA and was captured in Pakistan in March 2003.

In terror circles, KSM was known as mukhtar or ‘the chosen one’ or ‘the brain’. He was also mocked as KFC for his love for fried chicken.

Hailing from a Baluchistan family living in Kuwait, KSM joined the Muslim Brotherhood at 16. In 1983, he moved to the US where he was with Kuwait-based Arabs.

In 1987, he went to Afghanistan to fight against the Soviet invasion. In 1992, he left for Bosnia and Herzegovina to fight against Serbs.

He also financed 1993 World Trade Centre bombing carried out by his nephew Ramzi Youssef, killing six people. In 1995, his plot to blow up US flights as part of Operation Bojinka was foiled.

Following this he plotted the September 11, 2001 attacks and carried out several other terror attacks before his arrest in 2003.