MasterMind: The Many Faces of the 9/11 Architect, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed Hardback - 2011

by Richard Miniter

Ten years after killing some 3,000 people on September 11, in a military prison cell, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (KSM) calmly prays facing Mecca--but not facing American justice. A man of many faces, KSM delights in manipulating the media, the courts, even President Obama himself. KSM twice tried to kill President Clinton and the Pope and bragged that he beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. He planned attacks on shrines, stadiums, and skyscrapers, from Los Angeles' U.S. Bank Tower to London's Big Ben clock tower. He dreamed up the "shoe bomb," the radioactive "dirty bomb," and even aimed to blow up the Panama Canal. The baffling question is why? Why would a brilliant engineering student embark on a career of mass murder? And why, even though he was disliked by Osama bin Laden, did he rise to the top of Al Qaeda? In Mastermind, you will learn: * How KSM may have dreamed up his first assassination while still a student in North Carolina * Why KSM fought alongside Iran-backed forces in Bosnia * The untold story of KSM's rivalry with Osama bin Laden * What KSM's nickname inside al Qaeda has to do with his love of buckets of KFC * How the plotting of 9/11 nearly failed due to "office politics" * Why KSM "needed" to personally behead Daniel Pearl * How KSM's waterboarding helped the CIA stop terror plots already in motion, saving thousands of lives * How the ACLU and Janet Reno raised $8.5 million to fund the legal defense of KSM and other admitted terrorists * How Obama administration officials contrived to keep KSM alive-and lied to the families of 9/11 victims * How KSM got soldiers to take down the American flag at Guantanamo Bay * Why it may be more dangerous to execute KSM than to keep him alive Mastermind is the first book-length investigation of KSM's life. It combines on-the-scene reporting on three continents, thousands of documents, reports from intelligence agencies in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and the United States, as well as eyewitness accounts and exclusive interviews. It reads like a fast-paced spy thriller, but has serious implications for our lives and our security.