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14 top terror suspects transferred to cuba { September 6 2006 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/06/terrorr.detainees/http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/06/terrorr.detainees/
14 terror suspects profiled
POSTED: 8:29 p.m. EDT, September 6, 2006
(CNN) -- Fourteen al Qaeda prisoners in CIA custody have been transferred to the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for trial before a military tribunal, President Bush said in a speech Wednesday.
U.S. officials have linked the suspects to myriad terrorist plots -- successful and thwarted -- including the 2002 bombings on the resort island of Bali, the September 11, 2001, attacks, the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen and the 1998 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania.
Here is a rundown of the 14 suspected operatives:
• Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks on Washington and New York, was captured in Pakistan in 2003. Mohammed provided information under interrogation that led authorities to other al Qaeda operatives, Bush said. The New York Times reported in 2004 that the interrogation methods used on Mohammed included "water boarding," in which prisoners are made to believe they are drowning.
• Ramzi Binalshibh is a Yemeni suspected of coordinating, financing and arranging money for the 9/11 attacks. Binalshibh was arrested in September 2002 in Karachi, Pakistan. He was allegedly a roommate of lead 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta.
• Abu Zubaydah is suspected of helping smuggle al Qaeda operatives into the United States and Iraq. He also is suspected of playing a key role in the disrupted Millennium Plot of 1999, which allegedly involved plans to attack California's Los Angeles International Airport and other sites. His 2002 capture in Faisalabad, Pakistan, made him the first major al Qaeda leader to fall into U.S. custody.
• Walid bin Attash is a suspected recruiter and former bodyguard for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. He was captured in Pakistan in 2003. In addition to allegedly helping prepare al Qaeda defenses around the Afghan stronghold of Tora Bora, bin Attash also is suspected of recruiting terrorists who participated in attacks on American interests. Included among his recruits are two of the 9/11 hijackers; one suicide bomber involved in the USS Cole attack that killed 17 U.S. sailors; and a cell leader in the 2003 bombings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that killed 40 people, U.S. officials said.
• Riduan bin Isomuddin, aka Hambali, is allegedly the operational leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, an Indonesian militant group linked to al Qaeda that was blamed for the 2002 bombings in Bali that killed more than 200 people. Bin Isomuddin is suspected of being the primary liaison between al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah. He was captured in 2003 in Thailand.
• Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani is wanted in connection with the 1998 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania, which killed 11 people. The Tanzanian-born Ghailani is allegedly an expert at forging documents and producing false papers for many al Qaeda operatives, U.S. officials said. Pakistani authorities captured him in 2004.
• Majid Khan allegedly plotted with Sheikh Mohammed to detonate bombs at U.S. gas stations, U.S. officials said. The Pakistani citizen also is suspected of helping recruit Lyman Faris, the Ohio man convicted of plotting to destroy bridges in New York by cutting their suspension cables. Khan was captured in Pakistan in 2003.
• Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri was the al Qaeda operations chief until his capture in 2002. A Yemeni court convicted al-Nashiri and sentenced him to death after determining he was the mastermind and local manager for the USS Cole attack, in which two suicide bombers ripped a 40-by-40-foot hole in the U.S. destroyer using a boat packed with explosives.
• Abu Faraj al-Libi is described by U.S. officials as an al Qaeda "communications conduit." He is suspected of conspiring to assassinate Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. He served as a trainer in the early 1990s before administering training camps in Afghanistan, authorities said. He moved up the ranks of al Qaeda after Sheikh Mohammed's 2003 arrest.
• Mohd Farik Bin Amin is a member of al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah, U.S. officials said. He was tapped to be a suicide operative for a planned al Qaeda attack in Los Angeles, the officials said. He also is suspected of helping transfer funds to Jemaah Islamiyah's Hambali for various attacks in Southeast Asia.
• Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep is one of Hambali's key lieutenants, officials said. He allegedly transferred al Qaeda funds used for the Jakarta Marriott Hotel bombing in 2003 and he knew of Jemaah Islamiyah plots to launch attacks elsewhere in Southeast Asia. He was slated to be a suicide operative for a "second wave" of al Qaeda attacks targeting Los Angeles, officials said.
• Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi was one of two financial backers used by Sheikh Mohammad to manage the funding for the 9/11 attacks. Sheikh Mohammad had a "close relationship" with al-Hawsawi and he apparently was key to Sheikh Mohammad's operational team, U.S. officials said. He also allegedly shared a United Arab Emirates-based financial account with one of the 9/11 hijackers.
• Gouled Hassan Dourad was head of a Mogadishu, Somalia-based network of al-Ittihad al-Islami members who supported al Qaeda and worked for the terror network's east African cell, officials said. Dourad is suspected of casing a U.S. military base in Djibouti as part of a plot to conduct a suicide truck-bomb attack. He was privy to several terrorist plots considered by al-Ittihad al-Islami members, officials said.
• Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali is the nephew of Sheikh Mohammed. Ali also is thought to be a Pakistan-based al Qaeda operative and a key Sheikh Mohammed lieutenant during the 9/11 attacks. After the collapse of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Ali helped direct al Qaeda members and their families to safe houses in Pakistan, U.S. officials said. He also helped plan a variety of terrorist attacks against the West, officials said.
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