The 9/ 11 mastermind’s top secret vacuum — and the CIA’S hand in it
WASHINGTON — Confined to the basement of a CIA secret prison in Romania about a decade ago, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the admitted mastermind of the 9/ 11 terrorist attacks, asked his jailers whether he could embark on an unusual project: Would the spy agency allow Mohammed, who had earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, to design a vacuum cleaner?
The agency officer in charge of the prison called CIA headquarters and a manager approved the request, a former senior CIA official said.
Mohammed had endured the most brutal of the CIA’s harsh interrogation methods and had confessed to a career of atrocities. But the agency had no long- term plan for him. Someday he might prove useful.
And for that, he’d need to be sane.
“We didn’t want them to go nuts,” the former senior CIA official said, one of several who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the now- shuttered CIA prisons or Mohammed’s interest in vacuums.
So, using schematics from the Internet as his guide, Mohammed began re- engineering one of the most mundane of household appliances.
That the CIA may be in possession of the world’s most highly classified vacuum cleaner blueprints is but one peculiar byproduct of the controversial U. S. detention and interrogation program.
By the CIA’s own account the program’s methods were “designed to psychologically ‘ dislocate’” people. But once interrogations stopped, the agency had to try to undo the psychological damage inflicted on the detainees. The CIA apparently succeeded in keeping Mohammed sane. He appears to be in good health, according to military records.
Others haven’t fared as well. Accused al- Qaida terrorists
We didn’t want them ( detainees) to go nuts.
UNIDENTIFIED EX- CIA OFFICER SPEAKING ABOUT AL- QAIDA PRISONERS
Ramzi Binalshibh and Abd alNashiri, who were locked up in Poland and Romania with Mohammed, have had mental issues. Al- Nashiri suffers from depression and posttraumatic stress disorder, while Binalshibh is being treated for schizophrenia with anti- psychotic medications.
In Poland, agency officers and contractors forced Mohammed to stay awake for 180 hours, according to a CIA inspector general’s report. He also had 183 instances of waterboarding, or simulated drowning.
After the CIA prison in Poland was closed in September 2003, Mohammed was moved to Bucharest. Soon the CIA was trying to find ways to entertain Mohammed as his intelligence value diminished.
The prison had a debriefing room, where Mohammed, who saw himself as something of a professor, held “office hours,” as he told CIA officers. While chained to the floor, Mohammed would lecture the CIA officers on his path to jihad, his childhood and family. Tea and cookies were served.
It remains a mystery how far Mohammed got with his designs or whether the plans still exist. The secret CIA prison in Romania was shuttered in early 2006 and Mohammed was transferred later that year to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base prison, where he remains.
Mohammed’s military lawyer, Jason Wright, said he was prohibited from discussing his client’s interest in vacuums.
The CIA won’t discuss the Mohammed’s vacuum plans, either. The AP asked the CIA for copies of the vacuum designs or any government records about them under the Freedom of Information Act.
The CIA responded that the records, “should they exist,” would be considered operational files of the CIA and therefore exempt from ever being released to the public.