Ammar al-Baluchi

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It is alleged that the majority of money that came to the hijackers from the Emirates was transferred through al-Baluchi and Mustafa al-Hawsawi. The 9/11 Commission reported that he "helped them with plane tickets, traveler's checks, and hotel reservations", and "taught them about everyday aspects of life in the West, such as purchasing clothes and ordering food"." In his defence, al-Baluchi claims that he often helped people in Dubai with such things to supplement his income, and he had no way of knowing whether any of them were criminals.

Life

The maternal nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and cousin of Ramzi Yousef, al-Baluchi is fluent in English and worked at Mohammed's honey-processing company in Karachi for a while before being hired in 1998 as a computer technician for "Modern Electronics Corporation" in Dubai. He described himself as "very open-minded and western-oriented".

On October 10 1998, the 20-year old al-Baluchi used his passport to open a bank account with the Emirates Bank International, using the name "Ali" based on his kunya name "Ibn Abdulaziz Ali" and listing his employer's address with PO box 16958, Jebel Ali, Dubai.

He was then introduced to Marwan al-Shehhi by his uncle, and Shehhi allegedly asked him to help transfer money from Shehhi's company in Dubai to his company in the United States, ostensibly to help avoid banking fees if he transferred the money himself.

In January 2000, an order using Shehhi's credit card had a Boeing 747-400 flight simulator program, a Boeing 767 flight deck video, and some flight attendant literature and flight manuals shipped to al-Baluchi's work address. al-Baluchi then shipped them to his uncle to pass onto Shehhi. [http://www.gpoaccess.gov/911/pdf/fullreport.pdf 9/11 Commission Report Findings] ] [FBI Report: "Summary of Pentbom Investigation", Feb 29, 2004. pp. 78]

On April 18th, al-Baluchi sent a wire transfer of $5000 to Adel Rafeea, the administrator of the Islamic Center of San Diego, from the Wall Street Exchange Centre in Dubai, using his PO Box, passport and listing his phone number as 0506745651. Rafeaa later claimed that Nawaf al-Hazmi had asked him to accept the money on his behalf. [ [http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2002_hr/092602mueller.html Statement for the Record: Robert S. Mueller to the Joint Intelligence Committee] ]

Tracing the calls made to al-Baluchi's phone number, authorities discovered that he had received sixteen calls from June 28-30 from a pre-paid Voicestream cellphone purchased in Manhattan on June 4. The phone was deactivated on July 11, and authorities allege it belonged to Atta, while al-Baluchi insisted that he only ever spoke with Shehhi, who had hired him. Around this time, al-Baluchi complained to Mohammed that he couldn't do all this additional work himself, and his uncle told him that Mustafa al-Hawsawi would co-ordinate with him to act as an assistant.

On June 29, a man named "Isam Mansur" wired $5000 to the Western Union at 1440 Broadway in New York where Shehhi picked it up. This is alleged to have been al-Baluchi, since two later direct payments into Shehhi's Sun Trust account from the Exchange Centre, a $10,000 payment to Shehhi on July 18 from "Isam Mans"u"r" and a $9500 August 5 payment from "Isam Mans"ou"r", gave al-Baluchi's PO Box number.

On August 8, al-Baluchi opened a bank account at Dubai Islamic Bank, using his name, passport and phone number. A $20,000 payment from al-Baluchi's bank account to Shehhi's Sun Trust account on August 29 gave a phone number one digit different than the one given by Isam Mansour on August 5.

A $70,000 payment was made to Shehhi's account by "Hani (Fawaz Trading)" on September 17 from the same exchange centre. Hani gave a telephone number one digit removed from the one al-Baluchi used on the transfer from his bank account on August 29.

In September, Hani Hanjour went to Dubai, where al-Baluchi gave him $3000 to open a new bank account, and later deposited $5000 in the account which Hanjour later accessed from ATMs in the United States. When Ahmed al-Ghamdi went to Dubai, al-Baluchi helped him purchase a cellphone. It is believed nine of the hijackers met with him in Dubai and received various levels of aid.

The 9/11 Commission Report stated that he "relied on the unremarkable nature of his transactions, which were essentially invisible amid the billions of dollars flowing daily across the globe."

On August 27 2001, al-Baluchi applied for a visa to travel to the United States for a week after his employer announced the closing of their Dubai branch, and the government had sent notices informing the employees their work permits had been rescinded and they had to leave the country. He was declined since he appeared to be an economic immigrant, and instead moved back home to Pakistan a few days before the attacks.

Investigation and capture

Moving back in with his parents in Karachi, Pakistan, the 23-year old al-Baluchi saw his uncle several times when he came to visit. He helped his uncle arrange travel visas for people, but said he didn't know if any of them were militants or not. In August 2002, the FBI questioned Abdul Samad Din Mohammed, the brother-in-law of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. He reported that al-Baluchi was often in the company of his uncle, and would pick people up from the airport.

Following his uncle's arrest in Rawalpindi on March 1 2003, the 25-year old al-Baluchi spent the next two months with Walid bin 'Attash, until the pair were arrested on April 29 along with a man named Abu Ammar in Karachi on suspicion of a plot to bomb the American embassy. al-Baluchi had a copy of a letter to Osama bin Laden from Saudi scholars in his pocket, a computer disk containing a draft of a letter to bin Laden, two images of the September 11 attacks, and a perfume bottle containing low-concentration cyanide used to bleach and perfume clothes. al-Baluchi was also accused of discussing the possibility of exporting explosives to the United States through textile companies, but claims to have no knowledge of what conversation is being referenced. The arrests led to the arrests of Jawad al-Bashar and Farzand Shah. [CNN, [http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/south/05/03/pakistan.terror/index.html Arrests amid Karachi terror plot] , May 3, 2003]

On November 7 2003, a detainee was interrogated and said that Mohammed Atta and Ramzi Binalshibh spoke briefly in August 2000 about a "Losh" who had asked Atta if he could travel to the United States to help with any potential plots, having already asked Mohammed three months earlier. Authorities allege this is a reference to al-Baluchi.

In December 2005, Human Rights Watch listed him as a "ghost prisoner" held in the CIA prison system. [ [http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/11/30/usdom12109.htm List of “Ghost Prisoners” Possibly in CIA Custody] , "Human Rights Watch", December 1, 2005]

Guantanamo Bay

On September 6 2006, al-Baluchi was transferred from his black site to Guantanamo Bay detention camp, along with 13 other "high-value" prisoners, and was given the Internee Security Number 10018. [CNN, [http://edition.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/06/terrorr.detainees/index.html 14 terror suspects profiled] , September 7, 2006] cite web
url=http://www.odni.gov/announcements/content/DetaineeBiographies.pdf
title=Detainee Biographies
publisher=Office of the Director of National Intelligence
accessdate=2007-08-10
format=PDF] cite news
url=http://edition.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/06/bush.speech/index.html
title=Bush: CIA holds terror suspects in secret prisons
publisher=CNN
date=September 7, 2006
accessdate=2007-08-10]

US District Court Justice Joyce Hens Green ruled that the Combatant Status Review Tribunals were unconstitutional. Nevertheless the Department of Defense scheduled Tribunals for the 14 high-value captives who were transferred from covert CIA custody, on September 6 2006, for early winter of 2007.

The Summary of Evidence memo for al-Baluchi's Combatant Status Review Tribunal was drafted on February 8 2007. [http://www.defenselink.mil/news/ISN10018.pdf#1 Summary of Evidence (.pdf)] , prepared for Ammar Al Baluchi's "Combatant Status Review Tribunal" - February 8 2007]

al-Baluchi cooperated with his tribunal. Although he was not able to call Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Saifullah Paracha or Ramzi Binalshibh to testify about his lack of connection to al-Qaeda, he was permitted to have his legal representative field statements they had made. He chose to put forward the statements by Mohammed and Binalshibh as evidence, but not the statement by Paracha. [http://www.defenselink.mil/news/transcript_ISN10018.pdf#1 Summary of Evidence (.pdf)] , prepared for Ammar Al Baluchi's "Combatant Status Review Tribunal"]

al-Baluchi requested statements be garnered from "Modern Electronics Corporation" personnel, including Samir Sharin, Mohammed Mayer, Asraf Mayer, Ammar al-Tesqui and Sayed Tesqui that would testify he had no connections to militant forces, and that his employee records would show that he left several days before the attacks because his work permit had expired when MEC closed its Dubai branch. The tribunal judge ruled that although al-Baluchi's leaving Dubai a few days prior to the attacks was among the reasons for his capture, it was not relevant to seek records from his employer. Since the tribunal did not locate the individuals, al-Baluchi submit two statements he had written himself as what he believed his co-workers would say, and what he believed his Israeli roommates would say.

In his defence, al-Baluchi argued that he often acted as a "businessman" to supplement his income, and thus his signature, telephone number and similar details were easily-obtained in Dubai. He admitted dealing with Marwan al-Shehhi, but said that "when [he] approached me, he never declared himself as 'hijacker Marwan al Shehhi'. He approached me the same way he approached other individuals and companies in the U.S. - a man wanting to do business".

In February 2008, al-Baluchi was committed to a joint trial, charged with conspiracy, attacking civilians and civilian objects, causing serious bodily injury, murder, destruction of property, hijacking, terrorism and providing material support for terrorism. [Human Rights Watch, [http://www.hrw.org/photos/2008/guantanamo/Ali-Abdul-Aziz-Ali.html Ali Abdul Aziz Ali] ] [United States Department of Defense, [http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11921 9/11 Co-Conspirators Charges Referred] , May 13, 2008]

References

* [http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-baluchi21may21,1,6708051,full.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=1&cset=true "Al Qaeda Agent's 9/11 Role Comes Into Focus"] , "L.A. Times", May 21, 2006.
* [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23108871 Pentagon charges 6 in 9-11 attacks]
* [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23120362 'Clean team' interrogated 9-11 suspects]