Video: 'Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Captured - 2003 | Today In History | 1 Mar 17'

(Saturday, March 1, 2003; following the September 11 attacks, part of terrorism in the United States and the War on Terror) — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,  named as “the principal architect” of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington in the 9/11 Commission Report and one of the F.B.I.’s most wanted terrorists, was captured this morning in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, by Pakistani and American officials.

He has been in U.S. custody since then and is awaiting trial at Guantanamo Bay.

The arrest represented a significant victory in the American-led global search for pivotal leaders of Al Qaeda — the men who planned the Sept. 11, 2001, suicide hijacking attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, and other terrorist acts.

It is also the most prominent arrest yet in Pakistan, where more than 400 Qaeda suspects have been detained and many have been sent on to American custody, in a cooperative effort that has opened President Pervez Musharraf to criticism from Islamic political forces at home.

Video: 'Trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - The man who plotted the 9/11 attacks'

“We have finally apprehended Khalid Shaikh Mohammed,” Rashid Qureshi, a spokesman for Mr. Musharraf, said late tonight. “He is the kingpin of Al Qaeda.”

In Washington today, the White House issued a statement praising Pakistani and American officials for a joint operation in capturing Mohammed.

“Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is one of Osama bin Laden’s most senior and significant lieutenants, a key Al Qaeda planner and the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks,” said the statement, issued by Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary.

Officials suspect that Mohammed, believed to be 37, was also involved in the simultaneous bombings of the American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, as well as the bombing of the United States destroyer Cole in Yemen in October 2000.