Binalshibh was born in 1972, in the Yemini province of Hadhramaut. At an early age, his family moved to a working class neighborhood in the capital, Sana'a. In 1987, Ramzi's father died and he was then cared for by his older brother, Ahmed, and his mother.
He noted that he was religious from the age of 12 and fought briefly in Yemen's civil war in 1994. After two attempts to immigrate to the United States failed, Binalshibh traveled to Germany, where he applied for political asylum under an assumed name and as a Sudanese citizen. Denied his request for asylum in January 1996, he left Germany and returned to Yemen, where he applied for a visa in his true name. In December 1997, he returned to Germany, where he became a student. In Hamburg, he met hijackers Muhammad Atta, Marwan al-Shebhi, and Ziad Jarrah.
Binalshibh, Atta, al-Shebhi, and Jarrah traveled to Afghanistan in 1999. In Afghanistan, the four men met Osama bin Laden, pledged their loyally to him, and readily accepted Bin Laden's proposal to martyr themselves in an operation against the United States. Binalshibh was slated to be one or the Sept. 11 hijacker pilots. He and Atta traveled to Karachi, where they met with Khaled Sheikh Mohammed.
After returning to Germany in early 2000, Binalshibh obtained a new passport but was unable to obtain a U.S. visa, despite four attempts. Binalshibh said that in late 2000 he tried to convince a U.S. citizen in San Diego via e-mail to marry him to gain entry into the United States, but Atta convinced him to abandon the idea.
During the eight months before the attacks, Binalshibh was the primary communications intermediary between the hijackers in the United States and al Qaeda's leadership in Afghanistan and Pakistan, He relayed orders from al Qaeda senior operatives to Atta via e-mail or phone, and he met with Atta in Germany in January 2001 and in Spain in July 2001 for in-depth briefings from Atta on the progress of the plot. He also made travel plans to the United States for some of the Sept. 11 terrorists and facilitated the transfer of money to them, including Zacharias Moussaoui. After learning from Atta in late August 2001 of the date of the hijacking attacks, Binalshibh passed the information to Khaled Sheikh Mohammed.
A week before the attacks, Binalshibh left Germany and arrived in Afghanistan three or four days after the attacks. In late 2001, he fled Afghanistan after the collapse of the Taliban and began working with Khaled Sheikh Mohammed in Karachi on other plots against the West, particularly the Heathrow plot. He was tasked by Mohammed to recruit operatives in Saudi Arabia for an attack on Heathrow Airport, and, as of his capture in Karachi in September 2002 Binalshibh had identified four operatives for the operation.
Charges: Conspiracy. Murder in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, terrorism and providing material support for terrorism Hijacking or hazarding a vessel.
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