On March 1, 2003, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad was arrested in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, by members of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency and the CIA. It marked the end of one of the lengthiest terrorist manhunts in history. It also marked the beginning of years of legal wrangling within the U.S., and many debates about the morality of U.S. interrogation methods and military commissions.
Mohammad is now awaiting trial for his role in the 9/11 attacks, along with five other defendants, and he is alleged to have participated in some of the most infamous terrorist attacks in modern history, from the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center to the 2002 bombings in Bali to the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, whom Mohammad, while in detention, claimed to have killed himself. Josh Meyer, chief terrorism reporter for the Los Angeles Times, co-wrote “The Hunt for KSM: Inside the Pursuit and Takedown of the Real 9/11 Mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad” with Terry McDermott. He discusses the pursuit, detainment, and trial of the man he calls “the ghost of our times.”