Courier who led US to bin Laden was involved in 9/11

Abu Ahmad al-Kuwaiti, courier for bin Laden, provided computer training to 9/11's "20th hijacker" and likely was linked to bin Laden prior to 2001.

GTMO Guantanamo Prison_311 (photo credit: Reuters)
GTMO Guantanamo Prison_311
(photo credit: Reuters)
According to WikiLeaks reports, Abu Ahmad al-Kuwaiti, the courier whose trail led right to Osama bin Laden's Pakistan compound, provided computer training for the 9/11 hijackers.
Information on an August 2010 monitored phone call between bin Laden and Kuwaiti, that led the US to the al-Qaida leader, was revealed Monday by a US official.
RELATED:Analysis: A blow to Al-Qaida?Obama's aids were split, but he approved bin Laden hit
Officials also revealed that Kuwaiti's name appears in leaked files from the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. In an intelligence report on detainee Muhammed Mani al-Qahtani, whom US officials believe was the planned "20th hijacker" on Sept. 11, 2001, the statement "detainee received computer training from Al-Qaida member Abu Ahmad al-Kuwaiti in preparation for his mission to the US," appears.
The file is dated Oct. 30, 2008.
After receiving his computer training from Kuwaiti, intelligence files revealed that Qahtani was instructed by the lead 9/11 hijacker, Muhammad Atta, “to make reservations and buy airline tickets to Orlando for five individuals,” including himself.
American officials had been monitoring Kuwaiti for four years prior to Sunday's assassination of Osama bin Laden, but were likely unaware of his longstanding relationship with the 9/11 plotters prior to the intelligence report on Qahtani. It was a 2010 phone call that Kuwaiti made to bin Laden that put US officials back on the trail toward the Al-Qaida mastermind and led US SEALs to his heavily-fortified front door.
The same file reveals intelligence that led the CIA to Kuwaiti in the first place. According to the documents, interrogation reports with Al-Qaida facilitator Hassan Ghul shed light on his identity. Ghul was captured in Iraq in 2004, and although he was never transferred to Guantanamo, was questioned in a Pakistani prison.
US officials have referred to Ghul's testimony as a "linchpin" in the investigation to locate and kill bin Laden.