A photograph of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed taken after his capture in 2003 remains one of the defining images of the U.S. “war on terror.”
In the picture, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks is in his 30s, disheveled and visibly exhausted after being taken from his bed in his pajamas.
He was captured with several other suspected militants in Pakistan about 18 months after the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. More than two decades later, however, the legal case against him and his co-defendants has yet to go to trial.
The proceedings have been repeatedly delayed by a complex web of legal and procedural disputes at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The case may finally be moving toward trial. Lt. Col. Michael Schrama has set June 2028 as the date for proceedings against Sheikh Mohammed and three other defendants. Schrama rejected a prosecution request to begin the trial in January 2027, saying both sides needed more time to resolve outstanding legal disputes.
The judge’s decision sends Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi to trial before a military commission. Ramzi bin al-Shibh had also been charged in the case, but in 2023 a judge found him mentally incompetent to stand trial and removed him from the proceedings. They face charges including conspiracy, attacks on civilians, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, murder, kidnapping and terrorism.
Ronald Flesvig, director of public affairs for the Office of Military Commissions, told MBN that prosecutors could seek the death penalty. The office, which is part of the Pentagon, oversees military commission proceedings.
The possibility of a death sentence was revived after a plea agreement reached in July 2024 between prosecutors and Mohammed and two other defendants, Mustafa al-Hawsawi, and Walid bin Attash, was subsequently revoked. The agreement would have required the men to plead guilty in return for life sentences without parole.
A Long Road to Guantanamo
Mohammed is perhaps the most notorious detainee at Guantanamo, with a history of traveling across several countries to plan and execute attacks. He met Osama bin Laden, then the leader of Al Qaeda, and presented him with a plan for a major attack on the United States.
The 9/11 Commission Report, published in 2004 by the independent bipartisan commission that investigated the attacks, devotes an entire chapter to Mohammed and several of the men now due to stand trial in 2028.
Born to a Pakistani family and raised in Kuwait, Mohammed moved to the United States in the 1980s, where he studied mechanical engineering. That technical background helped him move through militant networks.
Mohammed did not attract attention in the United States as a radical. He later traveled to Afghanistan, where he joined the fight against Soviet forces, received weapons and combat training and developed contacts with militant leaders.
His travels later took him to Bosnia, Sudan, Yemen, Malaysia and Brazil. In Qatar, he worked as an engineer at the Ministry of Water and Electricity, according to the 9/11 Commission.
His path toward becoming a major figure in international terrorism was shaped in part by the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, which was planned by his nephew. Mohammed provided advice and financial assistance.
A truck packed with explosives detonated in a parking garage beneath the North Tower, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000.
The prominence his nephew gained helped inspire Mohammed to plan attacks of his own against the United States.
In 1994, he allegedly began plotting what became known as the “Manila plot,” a plan to bomb commercial airliners bound for the United States. It was ultimately foiled.
Two years later, U.S. intelligence learned of Mohammed’s involvement in plots targeting American passenger aircraft.
When he was living in Qatar in 1996, U.S. authorities were preparing to arrest him. But the 9/11 Commission concluded that a Qatari official likely warned him, allowing him to escape to Afghanistan.
It was there that plans for the Sept. 11 attacks took shape.
Bin Laden had by then left Sudan and established himself in Afghanistan. Mohammed, meanwhile, was looking for an opportunity to launch a major attack against the United States.
He eventually met bin Laden at Tora Bora. Mohammed outlined his background, including his role in the World Trade Center bombing and the Manila plot, before proposing an ambitious plan to attack the United States using trained pilots.
Mohammed later said the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam were a turning point in the development of the Sept. 11 plot.
The attacks convinced him that bin Laden was serious about striking the United States.
Bin Laden ultimately approved Mohammed’s plan. Mohammed moved to Kandahar, where he began working directly with Al Qaeda on preparations for the attacks.
Capture and Guantanamo
Pakistani authorities, working with U.S. intelligence, captured Mohammed in Rawalpindi, after receiving a tip from another Al Qaeda operative,
He was arrested with four others in the early hours of March 1, 2003, in an intelligence operation that also led to the seizure of computers containing a large amount of information.
The men were subsequently held in a network of secret CIA detention sites before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay. Formal charges were first brought against them in June 2008, during the administration of President George W. Bush.
The case has since moved slowly through the courts, held up by repeated changes of judges, disputes over plea agreements and questions surrounding the military commission system, said Eugene Fidell, a visiting lecturer in military law at Yale Law School.
Military commission proceedings have required a series of legislative and legal changes, Fidell said, adding to the delays.
The Obama administration also debated whether the case should remain before a military commission or be transferred to federal court. It ultimately kept the proceedings within the military commission system.
The case then became bogged down in years of procedural disputes. Mohammed’s appearance changed dramatically during that period: When he later appeared in court, he wore traditional clothing and had an orange-dyed beard.
In a capital case, Fidell said, defense lawyers have strong incentives to devote substantial time to efforts to prevent the death penalty. They filed hundreds of motions, including allegations that their clients had been mistreated.
The military commission system was intended in part to move the cases more quickly. Instead, it created another source of delay: judges, prosecutors and many defense lawyers are active-duty military personnel.
They typically rotate out of their assignments every two or three years, requiring their replacements to spend significant time becoming familiar with a case that has already lasted for years.
“This is a particularly significant obstacle for defense teams, which need to build trust with their clients,” said David Glazier, a professor of law at Loyola Law School.
In July 2024, prosecutors reached a plea agreement with Mohammed and three other defendants. Lloyd Austin, then the defense secretary, later revoked the agreement, sending the case back toward trial.
Adapted and translated from the original Arabic.
