Ammar al-Baluchi

Baluchi continued to assist and facilitate al-Qaeda operations after the 9/11 attacks. In November 2001, after the U.S. coalition commenced operations in Afghanistan, Baluchi helped move al-Qaeda members and their families to safe houses in Pakistan. He helped arrange travel and communications logistics for various other al-Qaeda terrorists intending to carry out plots abroad, including “shoe bomber” Richard Reid and Dhiren Barot in December 2001, as well as Jose Padilla and Binyam Mohammed in March and April of 2002. He also helped to plan regional al-Qaeda attacks, including an attack on a military base in Quetta, Pakistan, in December 2001. For much of 2002 and 2003, he worked on a plot to launch simultaneous attacks on U.S. and other Western targets in Karachi. “The Guantanamo Docket: Abd al Aziz Ali: JFT – GTMO Assessment,” New York Times , accessed August 10, 2017, 3-4, .× The Guardian reports that in 2003, he also married Aafia Siddiqui, a woman known as “Lady al-Qaeda” who in 2010, was convicted for the attempted murder and assault of Americans. Declan Walsh, “The mystery of Dr Aafia Siddiqui,” Guardian (London), November 23, 2009, ; Terrence McCoy, “‘Lady al-Qaeda’: The American-educated PhD the Islamic State desperately wants freed,” Newsweek, August 28, 2014, .× Nonetheless, in February 2008, a military commission indicted Baluchi and four fellow Guantanamo detainees on capital murder charges related to the 9/11 attacks. The U.S. government also announced that it would seek the death penalty against the defendants. “Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Fast Facts,” CNN, last modified December 22, 2016, .× Between 2009 and 2012, however, the status of Baluchi’s trial fluctuated as U.S. authorities requested freezes and delays in the proceedings. In November 2009, the U.S. Justice Department announced that the trial would be transferred to a New York court room. That decision was reversed in April 2011 when Attorney General Eric Holder said that the trial would be re-transferred to Guantanamo. The capital charges were re-filed against Baluchi and his four co-defendants that May. They included conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, hijacking an aircraft, and terrorism. The detainees appeared in public for the first time during their arraignment at Guantanamo in May 2012. However, during the proceedings, the detainees largely refused to cooperate. “Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Fast Facts,” CNN, last modified December 22, 2016, .× In 2014, the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee revealed that Baluchi had been subjected to various torture techniques. “The Senate Committee’s Report on the C.I.A.’s Use of Torture,” New York Times , December 9, 2014, .× A few months later, Baluchi’s lawyers requested that the court review evidence of his alleged torture while in CIA custody, delaying the trial. “9/11 trial dealt blow as defendant asks for alleged CIA torture records,” Guardian (London), June 30, 2014, .× The proceedings have continued to face various delays. Carol Rosenberg, “Guantanamo judge formally restores five-man 9/11 trial,” Miami Herald, December 4, 2015, .× Al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks was the deadliest ever on American soil, killing nearly 3,000 people. Since the fall of the Taliban, al-Qaeda has established operations worldwide, including in Syria, the Gulf, North Africa, West Africa, East Africa, and the Indian subcontinent. Get the latest news on extremism and counter-extremism delivered to your inbox.