Mastermind: The Many Faces of the 9/11 Architect, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed [Hardcover]

Richard Miniter (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 3, 2011

The bestselling author of Shadow War and Losing Bin Laden exposes the sinister Al Qaeda mastermind behind 9/11.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the architect of the 9/11 attacks, has carried out many of the biggest terrorist plots of the past twenty years, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Millennium Plots, and the beheading of Daniel Pearl. As the world awaits his trial, bestselling author and investigative journalist Richard Miniter brings to life his shocking true story.

Based on more than one hundred interviews with government officials, generals, diplomats and spies-from the United States, Europe, the Arab world, and Afghanistan-and on the ground reporting from Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Guantánamo Bay, Miniter reveals never-before-reported Al Qaeda plots and surprising new details about the 9/11 attacks.

He also shows how Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was radicalized in America and takes us inside terrorist safe houses, CIA war rooms, and the cages of Guantánamo Bay.

While thoroughly reported and strongly sourced, this is a pounding narrative that reads like a thriller.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Advance Praise for Mastermind

"Mastermind is a heart-pounding read that not only reveals the never before told story of KSM and his terrorist plots, but also the politics surrounding his capture and possible trial. Miniter has it all. If you want the real story behind KSM from beginning to end you must read this book."
-Richard Perle, former assistant secretary of defense

"In telling the full story of KSM, Richard Miniter also reveals the conditions that bred so many other dangerous terrorists-conditions that persist today as much as ever. This is a fascinating book and a must read for those who want to understand the greatest threat to our nation's security."
-General Richard B. Myers, ret., former chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff

"An absolutely captivating biography of the wheelhorse of Islamist terror. Learn, for example, how the FBI's insistence on unnecessary formalities in 1996 left Khalid Shaikh Mohammed free to plot and direct 9/11. Impossible to put down. Stunning."
-R. James Woolsey, director of Central Intelligence

"Richard Miniter has written a lively book that raises and offers answers to fascinating questions about Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, one of the world's most murderous and significant terrorists."
-Douglas Feith, former undersecretary of defense for policy; author of War and Decision --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Richard Miniter, an award-winning investigative journalist, has written two New York Times bestsellers on terrorism. He has written for The Atlantic Monthly, Reader's Digest, National Review, and the New Republic as well as for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He frequently appears on CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Sentinel HC (May 3, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595230726
• ISBN-13: 978-1595230720
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #681,317 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Doing the hard work of reporting May 6, 2011

By chicagobookworm

Format:Hardcover

When it comes to important national security issues, I'm tired of reading book-length C.Y.A. or 'I told ya so' memos from former government officials leaked to sympathetic 'reporters'. Even worse are radio and television talking heads who pontificate about 'extraordinary rendition', 'enhanced interrogation', and 'waterboarding' five minutes after they themselves hear the term for the first time.

It is refreshing to find someone like Miniter who takes the time and has the work ethic to investigate the subject, educate himself, and give appropriate weight and context to what's he's discovered. I've read some praise his technical reporting skills, but I consider him a very engaging writer. It is as information-rich as a CIA memo and reads like a novel.

While our fellow citizens are in harm's way, at the very least we all have the obligation to educate ourselves about who exactly is trying to kill them, and us. This book is an excellent place to start, and reveals new and connections to those who are already engaged deeply in the subject.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Miniter's patient, thorough and original research reveals a disturbing portrait of the jihadist mind-set July 3, 2011

By The Guardian TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

In a sea of mainly shallow media coverage populated by small islands of ignorant delusional conspiracy theories about the origin of the 9/11 attacks and other acts of jihadi terrorism over the past 30 years, Richard Miniter's book `Mastermind' is a breath of fresh air: a researcher/writer who has the diligence to do the leg-work and burrow to the heart of the matter.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (`KSM') was captured in Rawalpindi in a combined US-Pakistani sting operation on 1st March 2003 and at the time of writing (July 2011), languishes in Guantanamo Bay posing serious problems for the US administration. As jihadis crave the global publicity resulting from high-profile execution the author details why, in his assessment, political consideration of the repercussions of KSM's martyrdom now make trial by a civilian court all but impossible.

Observing the classic journalistic truism `If you don't go, then you don't know' Miniter's thoroughness took him to Afghanistan, Algeria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, several EU countries including Germany and Spain, India, Indonesia, Kuwait, Pakistan, The Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen to interview members of KSM's extensive family of contacts face-to-face. In addition terror-cell insiders, police and soldiers from several nations, analysts, diplomats, intelligence agents, lawyers, prosecutors, judges, Prime Ministers and Presidential appointees in four continents involved over 30 years as witnesses, investigators and prosecutors of jihadist terror have been tracked down by the author and interviewed on the record. The result is a thoroughly researched book crammed with facts and compelling evidence....

KSM's history of early involvement with Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimin (`The Moslem Brotherhood') and exposure to the formative philosophy of Qutb is documented. In 1979, modern Islamist jihadism as most westerners would recognise it emerged onto the world stage in the wake of three significant global events:

1. The Islamic revolution in Iran and the taking of US hostages in the Tehran Embassy: the Islamists, according to the author, were astounded that "the Americans effectively did nothing" and their cause was strengthened in confidence

2. The Grand Mosque takeover in Mecca, resulting in the public beheading of 63 jihadis taken alive by the Saudi authorities

3. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which drew thousands of Arabs - including Osama bin Laden - from the Gulf and North Africa to the mountains of Afghanistan to fight a guerrilla war against the communist infidel. They were supported by money and resources from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states but had no support from, nor contact with, any agencies of western governments who focussed support instead on native Afghan `mujahideen' principally under the command of Ahmed Shah Massoud

Born in Kuwait to parents from the persecuted Balushi minority native to the region straddling Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan, KSM was always the outsider. The author has interviewed contemporaries at Chowan University in North Carolina, where KSM studied chemical engineering in the mid-1980s and where his reckless driving involved him in several serious road accidents and court cases (one case was improbably known as `Mohammed vs. Christian' after the names of the drivers of the two vehicles). In NC, KSM's Islamist radicalism hardened to the extent that he began to convert other Arab students, even meeting new arrivals at the airport. One concerned Kuwaiti recalls:

"A lot of our students came back from the US radicalised...I'm talking about cool guys; the guys who drank and went to discos came home as bearded hard-liners."

The complex process whereby exposure to American culture and values caused these `cool' young Gulf Arabs to become radicalised America-haters is investigated in detail by the author and the results are disturbing.

`Tradebom' (the 1993 WTC bombing) was planned and organised by Ramzi Yousef, KSM's nephew, inseparable friend and cohort who gained entry to the USA in the wake of the 1990 war for Kuwait by posing as a victim of Iraqi persecution. Miniter reveals that Rule 6E effectively forbade the FBI - who were investigating Tradebom as a federal crime but excluded the possibility of foreign government financing for political reasons - and the CIA from sharing information, by law. The result of the lack of inter-service co-operation was that both the CIA and the FBI overlooked links between RY, KSM and OBL, with whom KSM finally began to co-operate when he needed finance for the `planes operation,' planned in 1995 but not implemented until 2001.

The author demonstrates that the loose ad-hoc structure of Islamist terror networks, with no central C&C, was something new to the CTC which they failed to appreciate prior to September 2001. The lack of inter-service information sharing, both national and international, enabled a long string of attacks to be mounted in the Philippines, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and against the US embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi in August 1998 which killed 224 people and injured thousands.

Miniter details the `planes operation' was originally planned by KSM to strike targets simultaneously on both the West and East Coast with as many as 12 hijacked commercial airliners but was scaled down at OBL's insistence due to the high risk of a security breach and failure to recruit sufficient qualified pilot volunteers (e.g. Faruq al Tunisi backed out of the operation in May and had to be replaced by Hani Hanjour). The White House, on the original hit-list, was also removed for `targeting reasons'. Miniter's careful research has uncovered a lot of hitherto unknown detail and adds significantly to what we now understand about the motivation, organization and planning of the 9/11 attacks.

KSM also planned the aborted `Bojinka' plot to simultaneously destroy 11 passenger airliners in flight with chemical explosives; to destroy several apartment blocks (with their residents) in an American city by utilising explosive gas, and to murder both President Bill Clinton and Pope John Paul 2nd.

The concluding chapters discuss the legal and ethical issues surrounding KSM and other Guantanamo detainees (Miniter does not consider water-boarding to be `torture' by legal definition, so you can argue with him on that one). Can a civil criminal trial process be made to work in these exceptional circumstances, for which the US Constitution has no provision? KSM and other jihadis were extensively trained in exactly how to behave in US custody should they be captured, and followed their training to the letter - i.e. they were told to exploit to the maximum any opportunity of media exposure; to take full advantage of the `rights' of defendants; and that the American prison guards would be afraid to harm or even touch them for fear of legal recrimination.

Miniter demonstrates obvious personal bias towards what he regards as the unambiguous and effective legal stance of the Bush 43 administration as opposed to the succeeding Obama administration which, once in office, came up against the hard realities of the Guantanamo situation and began to realise the answers were not so easy. As an example, the government of Yemen flatly refused to accept back its own citizens from Guantanamo so America is stuck with them. So, what to do? It seems the old dictum that `campaigning is poetry, but government is prose' is a hard lesson the Obama Administration has had to learn when dealing with these ruthless people who want to destroy America at any cost and welcome martyrdom in the process. Some readers will no doubt see the author as a Bush 43 apologist and he sure has it in for Eric Holder, the current US Attorney General, in his determination to prosecute CIA operatives for `abusing' Guantanamo inmates.

Miniter is a good writer, if not a great one. The book has a racy, novelistic style. However as most of these jihadis travelled under a number of aliases and had passports in several different nationalities, the narrative can be at times confusing if the reader does not pay close attention to the scores of (sometimes similar) Arabic names. However if you have a genuine interest in understanding the global Islamist jihadi phenomenon of the past 30 years and what led to the 9/11 operation and its aftermath, the thoroughness of detail uncovered by Miniter's original research is enlightening and indispensable. Read more ›

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Who is KSM, how he became a terrorist, what he did, and his life at GITMO June 7, 2011

By Craig Matteson HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

This is the story of a monster. To hundreds of millions of Muslims who hate the West, he is, of course, a hero. But for us who remember the shock and loss of 9/11 this man is the focus of our anger. But he was involved in so much more. He and his nephew, Ramzi Yousef - yes, the guy involved in the first bombing of the World Trade Centers in 1993 - were at the center of many attacks and bombings. And they had tried to do so much more damage that I think you will find this story horrifying not only for what happened, but what might have happened, and that we weren't aware of him earlier.

He was born in rural Pakistan in a region that seems to me to be something like the Basque region of Spain. It is part of Spain but it isn't. His father moved to Kuwait to work and finally gained some status there, but KSM grew up as an outsider in Kuwait after being an outsider in Pakistan. He came to the United States to study chemical engineering. And he hated America. He put his education to work right away in making explosives. He and his nephew, Ramzi Yousef, were fast friends all their lives and became the center of a terrorist wrecking crew. They were largely independent of organizations like Al Qaeda for a long time and raised their own funds from backers to carry out their attacks.

While be bombed nightclubs and tested bombs on airplanes his early dreams were to kill President Clinton, then the Pope, then his famous Bojinka plot: bring down eleven planes in one day. In one version of the plot, he was to personally land one of the hijacked planes, let the passengers go, make a big speech, and then fly out of America to safety.
The blurbs on the back call the book heart pounding, fascinating, captivating, and lively. It is all that and more.... I would add, that when you read the actual accounts of the terrorist events and the murder of Daniel Pearl (where KSM personally cut off his head and had to re-enact the decapitation because of camera difficulties) I think you will find some things horrifying. I did.

But I think reading all this is necessary to get to why the way Eric Holder and President Obama are treating terrorism as a criminal act is so wrong headed. In fact, we are playing into KSM's bloody hands. Miniter shows us how KSM (and the other detainees) are manipulating the system to make a joke of us and their captivity. We bow and scrape to their religious sensibilities while they attack the guards each and every day.

This is a very useful and informative read. You will learn things that will help you resist the concerted effort by the government and the media to fog our memories about what really happened and what is really going on in this struggle against global terrorism.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Saline, MI Read more ›

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Timely book. May 12, 2011

By Dawn From Ct.

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

After listening to an interview with Richard Minitar, I decided to get this book on my Kindle. What a timely book in light of the killing of Osama Bin Laden. Most of us will rejoice in that we "finally got a big fish". The fact is, we had a huge fish all along. KSM was a career terrorist with roots that go back to his early days and prior to the 1993 bombing of the WTC, which he was also responsible for. He has the blood of hundreds of people on his hands.. The story was fascinating and as someone said in a previous review, this book reads like a novel. It starts with his early years, gives us a historical over view of the politics and religion that shaped him and follows him up to the present. He alone was responsible for the high death count of Al Qaeda. OBL may have been "inspirational" but this guy was "operational". What is amazing to me is the support and attention that he received from the left and the impression that some saw him as a victim of the Bush policies. Nothing could be further from the truth. I hope he never steps foot on the Continental USA...not even for his well deserved execution.