Ammar al-Baluchi (born Ali Abdul Aziz Ali; 29 August 1977) is a Kuwaiti-born Pakistani citizen who has been in American custody at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp since 2006. He was arrested in the Pakistani former capital city of Karachi in 2003 before being transferred;Shannon, Elaine. Time, Al-Qaeda Moneyman Caught, 1 May 2003 the series of criminal charges against him include: "facilitating the 9/11 attackers, acting as a courier for Osama bin Laden and plotting to crash a plane packed with explosives into the U.S. consulate in Karachi." He is a nephew of the Pakistani terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who served as a senior official of al-Qaeda between the late 1980s and early 2000s; and a cousin of the Pakistani terrorist Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, who played a key role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Philippine Airlines Flight 434 bombing, and the high-profile Bojinka plot.
American authorities have stated that al-Baluchi was a "key lieutenant" of his uncle Khalid Sheikh Mohammed during al-Qaeda's preparation for the 9/11 attacks, and that he had told investigators that he had sought help in al-Qaeda's efforts to develop biological weapons to use against enemy forces and other targets. al-Baluchi's ex-wife Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani cognitive neuroscientist, was arrested by Afghan police in Ghazni Province in 2008 and subsequently transferred to American custody at FMC Carswell, where she remains incarcerated on terrorism charges.Scroggins, Wanted Women, 2012: p.246 Siddiqui's family has denied that she was ever married to al-Baluchi, but the marriage has been attested by Pakistani and American intelligence personnel, Mohammed, and Siddiqui herself.
After being arrested in Karachi, al-Baluchi was transferred to Afghanistan and detained at the Salt Pit, a now-defunct CIA black site near Bagram Airfield. It has been reported that he was tortured extensively, being used as a "training prop" to teach enhanced interrogation techniques to new agents; trainees took turns shoving his head into a wall in sessions that lasted for hours, inflicting considerable brain damage. He was also doused with icy water and kept in stress positions, though these techniques ultimately failed to contribute to the acquisition of any useful intelligence. In 2018, the United Nations released a public announcement stating that al-Baluchi's ongoing captivity "breaches human rights law" and called on American authorities to immediately end his arbitrary detention.
Early life and education Ammar al-Baluchi was born on 29 August 1977, in Al Ahmadi, Kuwait. He is the nephew on his mother's side of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (the organizer of the September 11 attacks) and the cousin of Ramzi Yousef, the organizer of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. His family was of ethnic Baluch origin, originally from Balochistan, Pakistan. As such, his name "al-Baluchi" also comes from his ethnic identity. The family patriarch and his brother were lay Deobandi preachers. They moved the family to Kuwait in the 1960s.Scroggins, Wanted Women, 2012: p.60
Baluchi grew up in Kuwait but spent most of his teenage years in Iranian Baluchistan.Scroggins, Wanted Women, 2012: p.219 He is a citizen of Pakistan. Trained as a computer technician, he dressed in Western clothes and "introduced himself as a businessman", but had been "groomed ... since boyhood" by his cousins and uncles "to join their clandestine war," according to journalist Deborah Scroggins. According to a U.S. government biography, his "chief mentor" was his cousin and 1993 World Trade Center bombing orchestrator Ramzi Yousef, "who taught him in the early 1990s in Iran about the importance of war against the West."
He 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. According to some evidence given at the Combatant Status Review Tribunal, he was "very open-minded and western-oriented", while his ex-wife told investigators he was "a very strict Muslim" who opposed his wife's leaving the home.
Career Preparation for the 9/11 attacks According to a U.S. government biography, al-Baluchi "volunteered his services" to his uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, in 1997.
According to U.S. officials, the majority of money that came to the Saudi hijackers for the September 11 attacks 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.
On 10 October 1998, al-Baluchi used his passport to open a bank account with the Emirates Bank International, using the name "Ali" based on his nasab 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.9/11 Commission Report Findings FBI Report: "Summary of Penttbom Investigation", 29 February 2004. pp. 78
On 18 April, al-Baluchi sent a wire transfer of $5,000 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.
Tracing the calls made to al-Baluchi's phone number, authorities discovered that he had received 16 calls from 28 to 30 June from a pre-paid Voicestream mobile purchased in Manhattan on 4 June. The phone was deactivated on 11 July, 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 29 June, a man named "Isam Mansur" wired $5,000 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 Center, a $10,000 payment to Shehhi on 18 July from "Isam Mansur" and a $9,500 5 August payment from "Isam Mansour", gave al-Baluchi's PO Box number.
On 8 August, 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 29 August gave a phone number one digit different from the one given by Isam Mansour on 5 August.
A $70,000 payment was made to Shehhi's account by "Hani (Fawaz Trading)" on 17 September 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 29 August.
In September, Hani Hanjour went to Dubai, where al-Baluchi gave him $3,000 to open a new bank account, and later deposited $5,000 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 cell phone. 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 27 August 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.
Post-9/11 period Moving back in with his parents in Karachi, Pakistan, al-Baluchi saw his uncle several times when he came to visit. According to a short biography written by the United States government's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), after the Taliban was initially driven from power after the 9/11 attack, al-Baluchi assisted KSM in organizing the movement of al-Qaeda operatives and their families to safehouses in Pakistan. According to US government information, KSM had Baluchi be the "communications intermediary" between al-Qaeda and "shoe bombers" Richard Reid and Saajid Badat. In early 2002 Baluchi helped his uncle "prepare operatives" for travel from Pakistan to the United States, "ostensibly to carry out attacks". Another plan was to hijack airliners and crash them into London's Heathrow airport, but this plan was set aside in order to focus on a plan to bomb the US Consulate and other Western targets in Karachi.Scroggins, Wanted Women, 2012: p.252 He also worked with his uncle to prepare Majid Khan and others for travel to the United States to conduct terrorist operations. Baluchi reportedly sent Majid Khan to Thailand in late 2002 to deliver $50,000 to finance a plan by Jemaah Islamiya leader Hambali (Riduan Isamuddin) to attack US and Israeli targets in Southeast Asia.
He later told investigators he helped his uncle arrange travel visas for people, but didn't know whether 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. His uncle KSM was arrested in Rawalpindi on 1 March 2003. al-Baluchi spent the next two months with Walid bin 'Attash. According to US reports, following his uncle's arrest al-Baluchi took charge of some of the new attacks being planned.
Marriage to Aafia Siddiqui al-Baluchi also married Aafia Siddiqui. She was accused of being an al-Qaeda member and in February 2010 was convicted of assaulting with a deadly weapon and attempting to kill U.S. soldiers and FBI agents who were seeking to interrogate her while she was in custody, claimed to be married to al-Baluchi.Al-Qaeda Woman? Putting Aafia Siddiqui on Trial, TIME, 18 January 2010 The marriage was confirmed by Pakistani and US intelligence,The mystery of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, The Guardian, 24 November 2009 a defense psychologist, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's family,Mystery of Siddiqui disappearance, BBC, 6 August 2008 while Siddiqui's own family denies she was married to al-Baluchi.