- By Kamakshi Bishnoi
- Sat, 29 Aug 2026 06:25 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
- US court rejected KSM's FBI confession as involuntary.
- 9/11 mastermind's trial now delayed until June 2028.
- CIA failed to identify KSM's "Mukhtar" link pre-9/11.
A US military court has rejected a key confession made by 9/11 attacks mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) nearly two decades ago.
Trial Judge Michael Schrama ruled that KSM’s statements to the FBI were not made entirely voluntarily. The decision marks another setback for the Trump administration, which has been trying for years to bring the case to trial.
The latest ruling has further delayed proceedings. The trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and three other accused is now scheduled to begin in June 2028 at the US Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
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The ruling comes as the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks approaches. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
Before the attacks, the CIA had received several pieces of intelligence linked to terrorist activity but failed to connect them in time.
Who Was ‘Mukhtar’?
Weeks before 9/11, the CIA’s Counterterrorism Centre received information that a man known as “Mukhtar” was recruiting and training terrorists for attacks against the United States.
The agency did not realise at the time that “Mukhtar” was actually Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
The CIA also failed to identify the significance of KSM’s family connections. Several of his cousins, including Ramzi Yousef and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, had direct links to al-Qaeda.
Key Connections Emerged After 9/11
After the attacks, investigators uncovered further links between individuals associated with the plot. Among them was a telephone connection involving Yemeni terrorist Ramzi bin al-Shibh, another 9/11 suspect, and Zacarias Moussaoui.
These connections became clearer only after the September 11 attacks.
Arrest And Years Of Torture
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, regarded as one of Osama bin Laden’s key associates, was captured in Pakistan in March 2003.
In a BBC interview, he had claimed that he planned the 9/11 operation from “A to Z”. Following his arrest, he was held in secret CIA detention facilities overseas until 2006.
During that period, he was subjected to harsh interrogation techniques, including waterboarding.
Why Was His FBI Statement Rejected?
Because of the torture he endured during CIA detention, prosecutors had already moved to exclude statements he made while in custody.
Prosecutors, under the new ruling, will also be unable to use statements KSM later made to the FBI after the judge declared the statements to be involuntary to a certain extent.
KSM has been held with three other defendants at Guantanamo since September 2006. Their long-delayed trial is now expected to begin in June 2028.
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