Saifullah Paracha

ISN: 1094

Nationality: Pakistani

The following is a summary of the allegations against Saifullah Paracha found in publicly available US military documents. If US military documents about this prisoner are inaccurate or misleading then this summary will be as well. The introduction to this set of summaries explains some of the terms used below. Saifullah’s son Uzair Paracha was convicted of material support for terrorism in a federal court.

Saifullah Paracha was a Pakistani businessman.

KSM said that Saifullah, Ammar al Baluchi and Majid Khan discussed a plan for al-Qaeda to use Saifullah’s textile business to smuggle explosives, specifically C4, into the US.  KSM said the explosives would have been shipped in containers Saifullah used to ship women’s and children’s clothing into the US.

At his ARB Saifullah said that this allegation, “is absolutely baseless.” He said that his company only facilitated agreements between buyers and sellers of textiles, and that it did not ship any goods itself.

A statement from Majid Khan was presented at Saifullah’s ARB saying that Khan was not aware of a plan to use Paracha’s company to smuggle chemicals.

KSM said that Saifullah told al-Baluchi that he believed he could obtain unspecified chemicals from Chinese sources. KSM said that he assumed Saifullah was talking about chemical or biological weapons. KSM said that plans for shipping explosives into the US included transporting them with legitimate items in regular shipping containers, as Saifullah said that the containers would not be opened. 

Saifullah’s DAB says that he admitted advising al-Baluchi on methods to smuggle chemicals into the US. 

At his ARB Saifullah said that he didn’t know anything about the shipping regulations of the US.

Saifullah’s DAB says that he explained to KSM his plan to have Osama Bin Laden read Koranic verses on his broadcast network.

At his ARB, Saifullah said he met with someone who was going to meet with Osama bin Laden and proposed to him to have Osama record programs in English based on Koranic verses.

Al-Baluchi said he used Saifullah’s TV studio to record a video of an al-Qaeda fighter discussing his experience fighting at Tora Bora, Afghanistan. The video was then given to Al Jazeera.

At his ARB, Saifullah said that al-Baluchi was allowed to use his company’s studio to test the equipment for a discussion program.

KSM said that he gave Saifullah between 500 thousand to 600 thousand dollars for safekeeping.  Al Balucci said that in November 2002 KSM told him to retrieve the money from Saifullah.

At his ARB, Saifullah said that he referred KSM to a bank his company used to set up a bank account.

Saifullah’s DAB says that when he was arrested he had his SF-5580 Casio digital diary with him. The digital diary contained references to chemical, biological, and nerve agents Saifullah had recorded. The chemicals referenced included Sarin, Soman, and Cyclosarin.

This specific allegation about the chemical agents was not presented to Saifullah at his ARB for him to respond to.

Al Baluchi said that Saifullah did not know that he or KSM were members of Al Qaeda.

At his ARB Saifullah said that he did not know that Al Baluchi or KSM were members of Al Qaeda.

At his CSRT KSM said that made false statements as a result of torture.

Saifullah Paracha was arrested in July 2003 in Thailand. He was transferred to Guantanamo in September 2004. He was recommended for prosecution by Obama's Guantanamo task force in January 2010.