Khalid Shaikh Mohammed

After fighting in Afghanistan and Bosnia, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed could not simply return to a quiet professional and family life. His nephew is Ramzi Yousef. Three years apart in age and of Pakistani heritage, they grew up together in Kuwait. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed sent Yousef a small amount of money for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Although he had gone to school in the U.S. and wasn't particularly anti-American until working with Yousef, the success of the first World Trade Center attack sends him in a new direction. In 1995, Mohammed and Yousef develop a grandiose plan, code-named Bojinka to bomb twelve American passenger planes flying from Asia to the U.S. A fire in Yousef’s Manila apartment ended the scheme. Mohammed learned a lot, however, from this foray into terrorism. His next major plot was 9/11. He was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and held in a CIA black prison before being taken to the Guantanamo Bay Prison camp.

In 1995, my world came apart. My boyfriend had a heart attack. The inside of Bellevue hospital was real. International terrorist plots were not. I felt responsible for returning my boyfriend to health through diet and exercise. I was spending two to three hours a day preparing the foods that I was sure were the key to a cure. I also realized that I had to take care of myself. I needed security. I needed to make more money. I had first seen a web site in April 1995. I thought maybe this new technology could provide a future for me. I went out and bought a copy of Laura Lemay’s HTML in 7 Days and put up a web site. I gave it a blue and white-checkered background. I thought it looked so cool. I told everyone who would listen I wanted to be a website designer.