Mastermind: The Many Faces of the 9/11 Architect, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed

Richard Miniter

May 2011 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

The bestselling author of Shadow War and Losing Bin Laden exposes the sinister Al Qaeda mastermind behind 9/11.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the architect of the 9/11 attacks, has carried out many of the biggest terrorist plots of the past twenty years, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Millennium Plots, and the beheading of Daniel Pearl. As the world awaits his trial, bestselling author and investigative journalist Richard Miniter brings to life his shocking true story.

Based on more than one hundred interviews with government officials, generals, diplomats and spies-from the United States, Europe, the Arab world, and Afghanistan-and on the ground reporting from Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Guantánamo Bay, Miniter reveals never-before-reported Al Qaeda plots and surprising new details about the 9/11 attacks.

He also shows how Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was radicalized in America and takes us inside terrorist safe houses, CIA war rooms, and the cages of Guantánamo Bay.

While thoroughly reported and strongly sourced, this is a pounding narrative that reads like a thriller.

Ratings and reviews

I don't know who this author is, but I would recommend readers save their time and money and avoid this book. . I learned of this book through a google news alert, and the text of that google news alert suggests Miniter routinely accepts and repeats the narrative of the US intelligence establishment at face value, with no critical examination. </p> . The google news alert that advised me that this book had been published quotes this passage from the text: "Al Qaeda manuals found in Afghanistan instruct 'the brothers' that if they are captured by American or Western European forces, they are to vocally and repeatedly demand a public trial for propaganda and martyrdom purposes. ... " . I believe Miniter is refering to the so-called "Manchester Manual" -- captured in Manchester UK, in the late 1990s -- hence the nickname "Manchester Manual". . Miniter either didn't bother downloading and reading this document for himself, or chose to repeat, verbatim, the deceitful account of its contents offered by US spin doctors. . The US Department of Justice has had the full contents of this manual available for download since, at least, 2006. After reading the claims that it counseled its readers to lie about torture I read the chapters that tell readers how to behave when captured, and found those accounts highly inaccurate. . The manual was captured in Manchester, UK, in the 1990s. So, in contrast to Miniter's claim, it was not written for jihadists captured by US or European security agencies. The intended readership was those captured in Lybia, Syria, Egypt, Saudia Arabia, Pakistan, Uzbekistan -- states notoriously for their widespread and indiscriminate use of torture instead of modern forensics. . The claim that the manual counselled its readers to lie about torture for propaganda purposes is not supported by the text. . The manual tells its intended readers to do everything they can to have a medical examination as soon as possible after they were captured. It explains that a medical examination prior to their interrogation will enable them to document that the wounds inflicted on them when they were tortured during their interrogations were not from pre-capture injuries. . Yes, the manual does repeatedly advise its readers to tell the court they had been tortured. But it doesn't anywhere tell readers to lie about torture. It doesn't anywhere tell readers to falsely claim they were tortured, for propaganda purposes. . When the manual was written its readers were only likely to be captured by torture states, and I believe the author's advice its readers should always speak out about their torture was based on the author's certainty that his intended readers would always be tortured by the security officials of the torture states that captured them. . The advice to get a pre-interrogation medical examination is diametrically opposite the advice the author would have given if he wasn't assuming all his readers would face torture. . I am going to repeat that, based on Miniter's failure to check important references, or to summarize them accurately, readers should save their time and money, and avoid his works.

save your time. Im pretty sure this guy's comment is as long as the book itself and twice as confusing. Besides he's more than likely the only one on earth to ever buy this from any smartphone market and take it seriously.

He is not alive plus he was not arab he was egyptian! Egyptians speak their one language!

About the author

Richard Miniter, formerly an editor for the Wall Street Journal Europe, is an award-winning business journalist. His work has been published in major newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Sunday Times (London), and Australian Financial Review. He lives in Brussels.