Ramzi bin al-Shibh | |
|---|---|
رمزي بن الشيبة | |
.jpg) FBI photo of bin al-Shibh | |
| Born | Ramzi Mohammed Abdullah bin al-Shibh May 1, 1972 |
| Nationality | Yemeni |
| Other names | Abu Ubaidah |
| Criminal charges | Charged before a military commission in 2008; trial started in October 2012 |
| Criminal status | At the NSGB since 2002 |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  Al-Qaeda |
| Years of service | 1990s–2002 |
| Rank | Communication officer |
Ramzi Mohammed Abdullah bin al-Shibh (Arabic: رمزي محمد عبد الله بن الشيبة, romanized: Ramzī Muḥammad ʻAbd Allāh bin al-Shībh; born May 1, 1972) is a Yemeni terrorist who served as al-Qaeda's communications officer. He has been detained by the United States in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp (NSGB) since 2002. He is accused of being a "key facilitator" for the September 11 attacks in 2001.[1]
In the mid-1990s, bin al-Shibh moved as a student to Hamburg, Germany, where he allegedly became close friends with Mohamed Atta, Ziad Jarrah and Marwan al-Shehhi. Together, they are suspected of forming the Hamburg cell and becoming central perpetrators of the September 11 attacks. He was the only one of the four who failed to obtain a U.S. visa; he is accused of acting as an intermediary for the hijackers in the United States, by wiring money and passing on information from key al-Qaeda figures. After the attacks, bin al-Shibh was the first to be publicly identified by the U.S. as the "20th hijacker", for whom there have been several more possible candidates.
Bin al-Shibh has been in United States custody since he was captured on September 11, 2002, in Karachi, Pakistan.[2] He was held by the CIA in black sites in Morocco before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay in September 2006. Finally charged in 2008 before a military commission, he and several others suspected in the 9/11 attacks went to trial beginning in May 2012. In August 2023 a U.S. military judge ruled him too psychologically damaged to defend himself after CIA torture.[3]
- ^ "Detainee Biographies" (PDF). Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 1, 2009. Retrieved March 4, 2017.
- ^ . He was captured after a gun battle in Karachi with the Pakistani ISI and the CIA's Special Activities Division a year after the attacks.
- ^ Rosenberg, Carol (August 25, 2023). "Man Accused in 9/11 Plot Is Not Fit to Face Trial, Board Says". The New York Times. Retrieved August 25, 2023.