US prosecutors in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals on Tuesday filed charges against a Pakistani man who grew up outside Baltimore, alleging he plotted with al Qaeda to attack US targets and assassinate former president Pervez Musharraf. The charges against defendant Majid Khan allege that in 2002, he donned an explosives vest and sat in a mosque in Karachi, where Musharraf was expected. He planned to blow himself up and kill Musharraf, but the plot was foiled when the president failed to show up, the charges said. Prosecutors allege Khan, 31, was an al Qaeda operative who reported directly to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the September 11 attacks.
Khan is accused of plotting with Mohammed, better known as KSM, to blow up underground gasoline storage tanks in the United States – attacks that were apparently not carried out. And Khan is accused of conspiring with al Qaeda operatives in Indonesia to bomb bars, cafes and nightclubs frequented by Westerners. The charges, filed at the Pentagon, allege Khan delivered money used to fund a 2003 attack in which a suicide bomber drove a truck full of explosives into the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta. The explosion killed 11 people and injured scores.
Khan was charged with conspiring with al Qaeda, murder and attempted murder in violation of the laws of war, providing material support for terrorism and spying on US and Pakistani targets. He would face a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted. Khan was captured in Pakistan in March 2003 and held in secret CIA custody for three years before being transferred in 2006 to the detention centre at the Guantanamo Bay US naval base in Cuba. He is currently held in a top-security prison at the base for “high-value” prisoners.
