Khalid Sheikh Mohammed/Archive1 - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

According to the U.S. federal government, Human Rights Watch, and others, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was born on 14 April 1965 (or 1 March 1964) in Balochistan, Pakistan. However, BBC and others have reported his place of birth as Kuwait City, Kuwait. It is believed that he belongs to the Baloch ethnic group and is fluent in Arabic, English, Urdu, and Balochi.

Khalid Mohammad grew up and spent his formative years in Kuwait, as did his nephew Ramzi Yousef (three years his junior and the son of Mohammed's older sister). At age sixteen, Mohammed joined the Muslim Brotherhood. He returned to Pakistan and later travelled to the United States for college studies.

He completed a degree in mechanical engineering at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in 1986. The following year he went to Afghanistan, where he and his brothers (Zahed, Abed, and Aref) were among the many foreign fighters who joined the mujahideen to fight the Soviets. According to U.S. federal documents, in 1982 he had heard warlord Abdul Rasul Sayyaf's speech in which a call for jihad against the Soviets was declared.

The 9/11 Commission Report notes that, "By his own account, KSM's animus 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."

But, on August 29, 2009, The Washington Post reported from US intelligence sources that Mohammed's time in the U.S. contributed to his becoming a terrorist.

"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," according to this intelligence summary. "He stated that his contact with Americans, while minimal, confirmed his view that the United States was a debauched and racist country."

According to the 9/11 Commission, after the Afghan jihad, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was among those fighters called the Afghan Arabs, who stayed in Afghanistan. He worked for an electronics company, managing communications equipment. In 1988, he helped to head a non-governmental organization paid for by Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, which sponsored and aided Afghan veterans who had fought the Soviets. He continued this work until 1992, when he left Afghanistan to fight with Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina and supported this effort financially.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed moved to Qatar to work in a government office as a project engineer for the Qatari Ministry of Electricity and Water. He stayed at this job until 1996, during which time he traveled to the Philippines.