Khalid

Lore & Background

Mohammed was born on 14 April 1965 to Baloch parents in Kuwait. His father, Shaikh Muhammad Ali Dustin al-Baluchi, was a Deobandi imam in Al Ahmadi who moved from Balochistan, Pakistan, to Kuwait in the 1950s. His mother was Halema Mohammed. He was raised in Badawiya, a neighborhood of the Fahaheel suburb of Kuwait City.

Mohammed is the uncle of Ramzi Yousef, convicted for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Ammar Al Baluchi, accused in multiple terror plots. He is one of at least five siblings—four boys and a girl—with brothers named Zahed, Abed, and Aref. Mohammed is fluent in Balochi, Urdu, Arabic, and English. At age 16, he joined the Muslim Brotherhood.

After high school in 1983, he traveled to the United States, enrolled at Chowan University in Murfreesboro, North Carolina, then transferred to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, receiving a BS in mechanical engineering in 1986. He attended the Sada training camp run by Abdallah Azzam and worked for the magazine al-Bunyan al-Marsous. In 1992, he received a master's degree in Islamic Culture and History through correspondence from Punjab University in Pakistan.

By 1993, he had married and moved his family to Qatar, working as a project engineer with the Qatari Ministry of Electricity and Water. The 9/11 Commission Report notes that, "By his own account, KSM's animosity toward the United States stemmed not from his experiences there as a student, but rather from his violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel." However, on 29 August 2009, The Washington Post reported from U.S. intelligence sources that Mohammed's time in the U.S. contributed to his radicalization: "KSM's limited and negative experience in the United States—which included a brief jail stay because of unpaid bills—almost certainly helped propel him on his path to becoming a terrorist."

Reader's Guide

Mohammed is widely regarded as the chief planner of the September 11 attacks. He also participated in planning Richard Reid's shoe bombing attempt to attack an airliner; the 2002 Bali bombings in Indonesia; the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; the murder of Daniel Pearl; and various foiled attacks as well as numerous other crimes. He was charged in February 2008 with war crimes and murder by a U.S. military commission at Guantanamo Bay, which could carry the death penalty if convicted.

In 2012, a former military prosecutor criticized the proceedings as insupportable due to confessions gained under torture. A 2008 decision by the United States Supreme Court drew into question the legality of the methods used to gain such admissions. On 30 August 2019, a military judge set a date of 11 January 2021 for Mohammed's death penalty trial. His trial was further postponed on 18 December 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The trial restarted on 7 September 2021 but was postponed again for years of plea deal negotiations. On 31 July 2024, Mohammed agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence rather than a death-penalty trial. His plea deal was revoked by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin two days later. In July 2025, the plea deal was voided by a D.C. appeals court in a 2–1 ruling.

Did You Know?

• Mohammed is known by at least 50 pseudonyms, including his initials KSM.
• He received a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in 1986.