Walid bin Attash

Walid Muhammad Salih bin Mubarak bin Attash (وليد محمد صالح بن مبارك بن عتش; born 1978) is a Yemeni prisoner held at the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camp under terrorism-related charges and is suspected of playing a key role in the early stages of the 9/11 attacks.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has described him as a "scion of a terrorist family".

Hailing from a prominent Saudi family on friendly terms with Osama bin Laden, 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 prosthesis 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.

American prosecutors at the Guantanamo military commissions 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.

He was asked to help obtain explosives 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 of the upcoming Kuala Lumpur al-Qaeda Summit.

In the spring of 1999, Bin Laden selected four individuals to serve as suicide operatives after discussing what U.S. targets to crash planes into.

These operatives were identified as Walid Bin Attash, Nawaf al-Hazmi, Khalid al-Mihdhar, and Abu Bara al-Yemeni.

Bin Laden directed Bin 'Attash to obtain a United States visa so that he could travel to the U.S. and obtain pilot training in order to participate in what Bin'Attash termed the "Planes Operation."

However, in April 1999 Khalid was unable to obtain a U.S. visa and returned to Afghanistan.

Once back in Afghanistan, Bin 'Attash administered a forty-five day special course in hand-to-hand combat training at an al Qaeda camp in Logar, Afghanistan, in order to help select trainees for the "Planes Operation."

Nawaf al Hazmi (AA #77) and Khalid al Mihdhar (AA #77) attended this course and would later be selected as "muscle" hijackers in the 9/11 attacks.

Still wanting Bin'Attash to be involved in the planes operation, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) split the operation into two parts.

The first part involved the planned attacks in the US with the second part involving the hijacking of US-flagged commercial airlines over South East Asia and blowing them up.

Bin'Attash confirmed this part of the plot and state the intention was to hijack several airlines from various Southeast Asian countries.

In December 1999, Bin'Attash was trained by KSM in Karachi, Pakistan which involved learning basic English, interpreting and reading airline timetables/flight schedules, making travel arrangements, watching movies that featured hijackings, using flight simulator games and learning how to case flights.

Near the end of December 1999, KSM directed Bin 'Attash to conduct a casing mission in support of the Planes Operation.

Bin 'Attash was given a razor knife to assess airline security and carried this razor knife on flights to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Bangkok, Thailand, and Hong Kong, China.

On these flights, Bin 'Attash collected information on United States air carriers, such as the number of passengers on the flights that were in first class, business class, and economy class.

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 USS Cole (DDG-67) bombers, which mentioned giving Attash $5,000 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.

During a January 1, 2000 flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong, Bin 'Attash flew aboard a U.S. airliner and tested security by carrying his razor onto the plane in his toiletries kit and realized that siting in first class on that flight did not offer a good view of the cockpit.

Bin 'Attash traveled to Kuala Lumpur where he met with Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar and discussed the surveillance obtained while casing flights, which included the security on the flights, secreting the razor knife on board the aircraft, and other flight information for use in the "Planes Operation."

During this time Bin 'Attash was aware that Hazmi and Mihdhar were involved in an operation involving planes in the U.S. but denied knowing details of the plan.

Upon his return to Karachi, Pakistan, Bin 'Attash prepared a written report and briefed KSM and Mohammed Atef (the military commander of al Qaeda) on airline security and his ability to get the razor knife on board the flights.

Bin Laden would cancel the East Asia portion of the plot in the spring of 2000 as he thought it would be too difficult to coordinate this part of the plan along with the operation in the U.S. Bin 'Attash would later provide future hijacker Hani Hanjour with an email address in order to contact Nawaf al Hazmi in the United States sometime in December 2000.

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.

Attash was captured together with Ali Abdul Aziz Ali in Karachi, 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.