Tawfiq bin Attash
Encyclopedia
Walid Muhammad Salih bin Roshayed bin Attash (born 1979) is a Yemeni prisoner held in extrajudicial detention
at the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camps.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence described him as a "scion of a terrorist family".
American prosecutors at the Guantanamo military commission
s allege that he helped in the preparation of the 1998 East Africa Embassy bombings
and the USS Cole bombing
and acted as a bodyguard to Osama bin Laden
, gaining himself the reputation of an "errand boy". He is formally charged with selecting and helping to train several of the hijackers of the September 11 attacks.
, Attash had several brothers fighting during the tumultuous 1990s in Afghanistan
. His family was deported from Yemen based on his father's radical views, and he grew up in Saudi Arabia.
He studied at the University of Islamic Studies
in Karachi, Pakistan.
Attash lost his right leg in 1997 while fighting against the Northern Alliance
and wore a metal prothesis in its place, leading to the nickname "Father of the Leg". His brother was killed in the same battle, and his death led Attash to join al-Qaeda
.
He was asked to help obtain explsoives to target the USS The Sullivans
in 1999, as part of the intended 2000 millennium attack plots
.
In late 1999 while using the nom de guerre Khallad, Attash phoned Khalid al-Mihdhar
, informing him up the upcoming Kuala Lumpur al-Qaeda Summit. In January 2000, Attash flew to Malaysia, ostensibly to receive a new prosthetic leg, and attended the summit. On January 8, Malaysian Special Branch
informed the CIA that Attash had flown to Bangkok
together with al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi
. While there, the FBI received a transcript of a phone call from Fahd al-Quso and one of the bombers, which mentioned giving Attash $5000 to purchase a new prosthesis. During later interrogation, al-Quso confessed that he was handing over $36,000, and that it wasn't actually meant to purchase a prosthesis.
In October 2000 Attash was identified as the mastermind behind the USS Cole bombing
which took place in Aden
, Yemen
.
On September 11, 2002, his 17-year old brother Hassan bin Attash
was taken prisoner by Pakistani forces raiding the Tariq Road House, handed over to the Americans and sent to The Dark Prison
.
, on April 29, 2003.
He was sent to The Dark Prison
, and his brother was moved to Guantanamo Bay detention camps in 2003 or 2004. While there, he was interrogated under harsh circumstances, and confessed that Abderraouf Jdey
had been known to him. Despite having only one leg, he was forced to stand in stress positions
, "an acutely difficult technique for him" as the Americans took away his false leg, forcing him to balance awkwardly on one foot until losing his balance and ripping at the tendons in his arms.
He was transferred to Guantanamo on September 6, 2006, together with 13 other "high-level detainees" the CIA had been holding in secret detention.
s, to determine whether the captives met the new definition of an "enemy combatant
". They had been instituted in 2004 to mitigate the Supreme Court
's findings that the holding of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay was unconstitutional.
A Summary of Evidence memo
was prepared for the tribunal, listing the alleged facts that led to his detainment. These included that Mohammad Rashed Daoud al-Owhali had stated that Attash had told him to prepare for a suicide carbombing against East African embassies of the United States a month or two before the attacks occurred. The memo alleged that Attash had trained in close-combat
in the Lowgar training camp and seen Osama bin Laden
give a speech to graduates of the camp. The memo also alleged that Attash used a Yemeni merchant's registration card that had been forged by "a suspect of the USS Cole bombing". An unnamed participant in the Cole bombing also confessed to being given a letter written by Attash which asked for his assistance with the bombing, and was the only reason he aided the bombers.
It also said that authorities knew of an al-Qaeda cell dubbed "Father of the Leg" that revolved around a senior member, and believed this was a reference to Attash due to his missing limb.
It also stated that a contact stored in the phone belonging to Attash was also listed as a contact in a notebook belonging to "a senior al Qaida operative", and that his University ID card had been found "at an alleged al Qaida residence" in Karachi. He was also "implicated" by a notebook found during a raid, which listed payments made to various al-Qaeda members. An unnamed source also claimed to have seen him at al Farouq training camp
.
Bin Attash attended his Tribunal.
A week after the March 12, 2007, tribunal, Attash was reported to have confessed to his role in preparing both the Cole and Embassy attacks. He confessed purchasing the explosives and small boat used in the Cole bombing, as well as recruiting the perpetrators, and planning the operation 18 months before the actual attack; he stated that he was in Kandahar, Afghanistan with bin Laden at the time of the Cole attack, and in Karachi at the time of the simultaneous embassy bombings meeting with the mastermind of the attack.
The DoD was later to publish a ten page transcript from the unclassified portion of the Tribunal.
His Personal Representative
met with him on
February 13, and told the tribunal that Attash confirmed that many of the allegations were basically correct, but that he had never owned a telephone and that he had forged the Yemeni registration card himself.
They requested laptops, and internet access, in order to prepare their defenses. In October 2008 Ralph Kohlmann ruled that they be provided with the computers, but not the internet access.
On December 8, 2008, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told the judge that he and the other four indictees wished to confess and plead guilty; however, the plea would be delayed until after mental competency hearings
for Hawsawi and bin al-Shibh. Mohammed said, "We want everyone to plead together."
On May 17, 2010, Saba News reports that Walid bin Attash, and four other Yemenis would face charges in the summer of 2010.
Two of the other Yemenis Saba News reported would face charges were: Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri
. Saba News did not name the fourth and fifth individuals.
Extrajudicial detention
Arbitrary or extrajudicial detention is the detention of individuals by a state, without ever laying formal charges against them.Although it has a long history of legitimate use in wartime , detention without charge, sometimes in secret, has been one of the hallmarks of totalitarian states...
at the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camps.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence described him as a "scion of a terrorist family".
American prosecutors at the Guantanamo military commission
Guantanamo military commission
The Guantanamo military commissions are military tribunals created by the Military Commissions Act of 2006 for prosecuting detainees held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps.- History :...
s allege that he helped in the preparation of the 1998 East Africa Embassy bombings
1998 United States embassy bombings
The 1998 United States embassy bombings were a series of attacks that occurred on August 7, 1998, in which hundreds of people were killed in simultaneous truck bomb explosions at the United States embassies in the East African capitals of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. The date of the...
and the USS Cole bombing
USS Cole bombing
The USS Cole Bombing, or the USS Cole Incident, was a suicide attack against the United States Navy destroyer on October 12, 2000 while it was harbored and refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen American sailors were killed, and 39 were injured...
and acted as a bodyguard to Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden bodyguard
American officials have reported that the late al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had numerous bodyguards. They reported that the detainees held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp included at least 30 of Bin Laden's bodyguards.-Sources of the allegations:...
, gaining himself the reputation of an "errand boy". He is formally charged with selecting and helping to train several of the hijackers of the September 11 attacks.
Life
Hailing from a prominent Saudi family on friendly terms with Osama bin LadenOsama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
, Attash had several brothers fighting during the tumultuous 1990s in Afghanistan
History of Afghanistan since 1992
This article on the History of Afghanistan since 1992 covers the time period from the fall of the Najibullah government in 1992 to the ongoing American military presence in Afghanistan.-End of Najibullah government:...
. His family was deported from Yemen based on his father's radical views, and he grew up in Saudi Arabia.
He studied at the University of Islamic Studies
University of Islamic Studies
-University of Islamic Studies students suspected of ties to terrorism:The University is notable because some of the students have been accused of ties to terrorism....
in Karachi, Pakistan.
Attash lost his right leg in 1997 while fighting against the Northern Alliance
Northern Alliance
The Afghan Northern Alliance is a military-political umbrella organization created by the Islamic State of Afghanistan in 1996.Northern Alliance may also refer to:*Northern Alliance , a Canadian white supremacist group...
and wore a metal prothesis in its place, leading to the nickname "Father of the Leg". His brother was killed in the same battle, and his death led Attash to join al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
.
He was asked to help obtain explsoives to target the USS The Sullivans
USS The Sullivans (DDG-68)
USS The Sullivans , an Arleigh Burke-class "Aegis" guided missile destroyer, is the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the five Sullivan brothers — George, Francis, Joseph, Madison, and Albert Sullivan, aged 20 to 27 — who lost their lives when their ship, USS...
in 1999, as part of the intended 2000 millennium attack plots
2000 millennium attack plots
The Year 2000 attack plots were terrorist attacks planned to occur on or near January 1, 2000: the bombing of four sites in Jordan, the bombing of Los Angeles International Airport , and the bombing of the USS The Sullivans. The first two plots were foiled by law enforcement agencies; the third was...
.
In late 1999 while using the nom de guerre Khallad, Attash phoned Khalid al-Mihdhar
Khalid al-Mihdhar
Khalid Muhammad Abdallah al-Mihdhar was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, which was flown into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks....
, informing him up the upcoming Kuala Lumpur al-Qaeda Summit. In January 2000, Attash flew to Malaysia, ostensibly to receive a new prosthetic leg, and attended the summit. On January 8, Malaysian Special Branch
Malaysian Special Branch
The Special Branch or SB is an intelligence agency attached to the Royal Malaysian Police. The SB is empowered to acquire and develop intelligence on internal and external threats to the nation, subversive activities, extremist activities and activities of sabotage and spying...
informed the CIA that Attash had flown to Bangkok
Bangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
together with al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi
Nawaf al-Hazmi
Nawaf Muhammed Salim al-Hazmi was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, which was crashed into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks....
. While there, the FBI received a transcript of a phone call from Fahd al-Quso and one of the bombers, which mentioned giving Attash $5000 to purchase a new prosthesis. During later interrogation, al-Quso confessed that he was handing over $36,000, and that it wasn't actually meant to purchase a prosthesis.
In October 2000 Attash was identified as the mastermind behind the USS Cole bombing
USS Cole bombing
The USS Cole Bombing, or the USS Cole Incident, was a suicide attack against the United States Navy destroyer on October 12, 2000 while it was harbored and refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen American sailors were killed, and 39 were injured...
which took place in Aden
Aden
Aden is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea , some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a...
, Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
.
On September 11, 2002, his 17-year old brother Hassan bin Attash
Hassan bin Attash
Hassan Mohammed Ali bin Attash is a citizen of Saudi Arabia, held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts estimate that bin Attash was born in 1985, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia....
was taken prisoner by Pakistani forces raiding the Tariq Road House, handed over to the Americans and sent to The Dark Prison
The Dark Prison
The dark prison is the informal name used by some Guantanamo Bay detainees for a secret prison they claim they were detained in near Kabul, Afghanistan...
.
Capture, tribunal
Attash was captured together with Ali Abdul Aziz Ali in KarachiKarachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
, on April 29, 2003.
He was sent to The Dark Prison
The Dark Prison
The dark prison is the informal name used by some Guantanamo Bay detainees for a secret prison they claim they were detained in near Kabul, Afghanistan...
, and his brother was moved to Guantanamo Bay detention camps in 2003 or 2004. While there, he was interrogated under harsh circumstances, and confessed that Abderraouf Jdey
Abderraouf Jdey
A Canadian citizen, Abderraouf bin Habib bin Yousef Jdey was found swearing to die as a shaheed on a series of videotapes found in the rubble of Mohammed Atef's house in Afghanistan...
had been known to him. Despite having only one leg, he was forced to stand in stress positions
Stress positions
A stress position, also known as a submission position, places the human body in such a way that a great amount of weight is placed on just one or two muscles. For example, a subject may be forced to stand on the balls of his feet, then squat so that his thighs are parallel to the ground...
, "an acutely difficult technique for him" as the Americans took away his false leg, forcing him to balance awkwardly on one foot until losing his balance and ripping at the tendons in his arms.
He was transferred to Guantanamo on September 6, 2006, together with 13 other "high-level detainees" the CIA had been holding in secret detention.
Combatant Status Review Tribunal
Having been brought to Guantanamo from black sites, the new prisoners were accorded a new series of Combatant Status Review TribunalCombatant Status Review Tribunal
The Combatant Status Review Tribunals were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as "enemy combatants". The CSRTs were established July 7, 2004 by order of U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense...
s, to determine whether the captives met the new definition of an "enemy combatant
Enemy combatant
Enemy combatant is a term historically referring to members of the armed forces of the state with which another state is at war. Prior to 2008, the definition was: "Any person in an armed conflict who could be properly detained under the laws and customs of war." In the case of a civil war or an...
". They had been instituted in 2004 to mitigate the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
's findings that the holding of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay was unconstitutional.
Summary of Evidence (CSRT)
Counter-terrorism analysts prepared a Summary of Evidence memo for the Combatant Status Review Tribunals of the 558 captives who remained in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba in the fall of 2004.-The 2005 release:...
was prepared for the tribunal, listing the alleged facts that led to his detainment. These included that Mohammad Rashed Daoud al-Owhali had stated that Attash had told him to prepare for a suicide carbombing against East African embassies of the United States a month or two before the attacks occurred. The memo alleged that Attash had trained in close-combat
Close combat
*Close combat is a generic term for both Close Quarters Battle and Hand to hand combat.*Mêlée generally refers to disorganized close combat.*CQB is an acronym for Close Quarters Battle, such as that which occurs in urban warfare....
in the Lowgar training camp and seen Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
give a speech to graduates of the camp. The memo also alleged that Attash used a Yemeni merchant's registration card that had been forged by "a suspect of the USS Cole bombing". An unnamed participant in the Cole bombing also confessed to being given a letter written by Attash which asked for his assistance with the bombing, and was the only reason he aided the bombers.
It also said that authorities knew of an al-Qaeda cell dubbed "Father of the Leg" that revolved around a senior member, and believed this was a reference to Attash due to his missing limb.
It also stated that a contact stored in the phone belonging to Attash was also listed as a contact in a notebook belonging to "a senior al Qaida operative", and that his University ID card had been found "at an alleged al Qaida residence" in Karachi. He was also "implicated" by a notebook found during a raid, which listed payments made to various al-Qaeda members. An unnamed source also claimed to have seen him at al Farouq training camp
Al Farouq training camp
The Al Farouq training camp, also known as "the airport camp", was an alleged Al-Qaeda training camp near Kandahar, Afghanistan. Camp attendees received small-arms training, map-reading, orientation, explosives training, and other training....
.
Bin Attash attended his Tribunal.
A week after the March 12, 2007, tribunal, Attash was reported to have confessed to his role in preparing both the Cole and Embassy attacks. He confessed purchasing the explosives and small boat used in the Cole bombing, as well as recruiting the perpetrators, and planning the operation 18 months before the actual attack; he stated that he was in Kandahar, Afghanistan with bin Laden at the time of the Cole attack, and in Karachi at the time of the simultaneous embassy bombings meeting with the mastermind of the attack.
The DoD was later to publish a ten page transcript from the unclassified portion of the Tribunal.
His Personal Representative
Personal Representative (CSRT)
The Personal Representative is an officer who serves before the Combatant Status Review Tribunals, convened for the captives the United States holds in extrajudicial detention in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.-History of the Tribunals:...
met with him on
February 13, and told the tribunal that Attash confirmed that many of the allegations were basically correct, but that he had never owned a telephone and that he had forged the Yemeni registration card himself.
Faces charges before military commission
Bin Attash, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ammar al Baluchi chose to serve as their own attorney.They requested laptops, and internet access, in order to prepare their defenses. In October 2008 Ralph Kohlmann ruled that they be provided with the computers, but not the internet access.
On December 8, 2008, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told the judge that he and the other four indictees wished to confess and plead guilty; however, the plea would be delayed until after mental competency hearings
Competency evaluation (law)
In the United States criminal justice system, a competency evaluation is an assessment of the ability of a defendant to understand and rationally participate in a court process....
for Hawsawi and bin al-Shibh. Mohammed said, "We want everyone to plead together."
On May 17, 2010, Saba News reports that Walid bin Attash, and four other Yemenis would face charges in the summer of 2010.
Two of the other Yemenis Saba News reported would face charges were: Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri
Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri
Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri is a Saudi Arabian citizen alleged to be the mastermind of the USS Cole bombing and other terrorist attacks, he allegedly headed al-Qaeda operations in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf states prior to his capture in November 2002 by the CIA's Special Activities Division.The...
. Saba News did not name the fourth and fifth individuals.