Ramzi Mohammed Abdullah bin al-Shibh (; born 1 May 1972) is a Yemeni citizen currently being held by the U.S. as an enemy combatant detainee at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. He is accused of being a "key facilitator for the September 11 attacks" in 2001 in the United States.
In the mid-1990s, bin al-Shibh moved as a student to Hamburg, Germany, where he allegedly became close friends with Mohamed Atta, Ziad Jarrah and Marwan al-Shehhi. Together, they are suspected of forming the Hamburg cell and becoming central perpetrators of the September 11 attacks. He was the only one of the four who failed to obtain a U.S. visa; he is accused of acting as an intermediary for the hijackers in the United States, by wiring money and passing on information from key al-Qaeda figures. After the attacks, bin al-Shibh was the first to be publicly identified by the U.S. as the "20th hijacker", for whom there have been several more possible candidates.
Bin al-Shibh has been in United States custody since he was captured on 11 September 2002, in Karachi, Pakistan. He was held by the CIA in black sites in Morocco before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay in September 2006. Finally charged in 2008 before a military commission, he and several others suspected in the 9/11 attacks went to trial beginning in May 2012. In August 2023 a U.S. military judge ruled him too psychologically damaged to defend himself after CIA torture.
Early life
Ramzi bin al-Shibh was born 1 May 1972 in Hadhramaut province in Yemen. When he was young, his family moved to a working-class neighborhood in the capital, Sana'a. In 1987, his father died. He was cared for by his older brother, Ahmed, and his mother.
In 1987, while still in high school, bin al-Shibh began working part-time as a clerk for the International Bank of Yemen. He continued working there until 1995.
Bin al-Shibh applied for a U.S. visa in 1995, but his request was denied. He instead went to Germany, where he requested political asylum, claiming that he was a political refugee from Sudan. He lived in Hamburg until 1997, when a judge refused his asylum request.
Bin al-Shibh returned to the Hadramaut region of Yemen. A short while later he received a German visa under his real name. While he was in Germany, bin al-Shibh used the name Ramzi Omar. In 1997, bin al-Shibh met Mohamed Atta at a mosque; he was the leader of the Hamburg cell. For two years, Atta and bin al-Shibh were roommates in Germany.
Al Qaeda training
In late 1999, bin al-Shibh traveled to Kandahar in Afghanistan, where he received training at al-Qaeda camps and met others involved in planning the September 11 attacks.
Attempts to come to the United States
Original plans for the 9/11 attacks called for bin al-Shibh to be one of the hijacker pilots, along with three other members of the Hamburg cell, including Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, and Ziad Jarrah. From Hamburg, bin al-Shibh applied to take flight training in the United States. At that time, he also applied to Aviation Language Services, which provides language training for student pilots. Bin al-Shibh applied four times for an entry visa to the United States and was refused each time. He made visa applications in Germany on May 17, 2000, and again in June, on September 16, and October 25, 2000.
According to the 9/11 Commission, this refusal of a visa was motivated by general concern by U.S. officials at the time that people from Yemen, which was struggling economically, would illegally overstay their visit and seek work in the United States. His friend, Zakariyah Essabar, was also denied visas. After failing to gain a visa to enter the United States, bin al-Shibh took on a "coordinator" role in the plot, serving as a link between Atta in the United States and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Afghanistan.
Connections to 9/11 attacks
Saeed al-Ghamdi
According to the Al Jazeera reporter Yosri Fouda's documentary, Top Secret: The Road to September 11, three weeks prior to the attacks, Saeed al-Ghamdi is believed to have used the name "Abdul Rahman" to message bin al-Shibh online (who was posing as a girlfriend), writing:
The first semester commences in three weeks. Two high schools and two universities. ... This summer will surely be hot ...19 certificates for private education and four exams. Regards to the professor. Goodbye.
This was said to be a reference to two military/governmental targets and two civilian targets, 19 hijackers and 4 hijacked planes.
Mohamed Atta
Bin al-Shibh later said that Mohamed Atta had phoned him on the morning of August 29.