Also known as Khallad, he was a key al Qaeda operative from 1998 until his capture in 2003. Attash, who is 27, is the scion of a prominent terrorist family: his father, Muhammad, was close to Osama bin Laden and several of Attash's brothers went to Afghanistan to train and fight in the 1990s; two of these brothers were killed -- including one during U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan in late 2001 -- and another, Hassan, has been detained at Guantanamo Bay since 2004. Attash arrived in Afghanistan in about 1995 and trained at a number of camps. In 1996, after bin Laden's return to Afghanistan from Sudan, Attash alternated between serving as a bodyguard for the al Qaeda leader and participating in combat against the Northern Alliance; he lost his right leg during a battlefield accident in 1997. In 1998, bin Laden began using Attash operationally, first as the al Qaeda leader's intermediary to al Qaeda Arabian Peninsula network chief Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri; together during 1998 and 1999, Attash and Nashiri worked on the maritime plot that culminated in the bombing of the USS Cole in October 2000. In early 1999, bin Laden reportedly selected him to become a hijacker in the operation on Sept. 11, but he was arrested in Yemen in April of that year while attempting to obtain a U.S. visa because local authorities suspected he was a different extremist. Although his brief imprisonment blocked his travel to the United States, Attash otherwise assisted in the operation, including helping bin Laden select additional hijackers and traveling to Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok during December 1999-January 2000 to meet with hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar and to take two flights on a U.S.-flagged airliner to assess in-flight security procedures. In late 1999, bin Laden asked him to help select about two dozen experienced and reliable operatives for special training at the Mes Ainak camp in Afghanistan; Attash supervised the training at the camp; many of these operatives went on to participate in prominent operations: one became a suicide bomber in the Cole operation; two were later Sept. 11 hijackers; another was a cell leader who was killed during the suicide bombings in Riyadh in May 2003; and yet another gained renown for his involvement in the bombing of the Limburg in October 2002 and for his plot to assassinate the U.S. Ambassador to Yemen. After the Sept. 11 attacks, Attash helped prepare al Qaeda's defenses around Tora Bora, then fled Afghanistan after the collapse of the Taliban in late 2001. In early January 2002, Attash arrived in Karachi, where he served as a communications link between al Qaeda's senior leadership and the network in Saudi Arabia -- particularly after the detention of al-Nashiri in late 2002 -- and assisted in the movement of operatives from South and Southeast Asia to the Arabian Peninsula. He also aided efforts by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to recruit Saudi hijackers for the al Qaeda plot to hijack airliners to attack Heathrow Airport. In the months before his arrest, Attash and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's nephew Ali al-Baluchi were organizing a plot to carry out simultaneous attacks in Karachi against the U.S. Consulate, Western travelers at the airport, and Westerners residing in the Karachi area. The plot was close to execution when he was detained. 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.