“Mastermind of the Millennium Plot”

The designation “Mastermind of the Millennium Plot.” became a frame through which the United States pursued information about Mohamedou Ould Slahi, even as the material described in his account offered little concrete support for the accusation. Its force lay not only in the words themselves, but in the international inquiries and increasingly coercive interrogation that gathered around them.

How the Label Was Applied

Slahi describes the United States as treating his arrest and transfer to Mauritania as a rare opportunity to learn about Ahmed Ressam, who was then refusing to cooperate with U.S. authorities. Investigators also wanted details about Slahi’s friends in Canada and Germany and beyond, and about jihadist activity in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Chechnya. Slahi notes that a cousin and brother, whose names are redacted in the text, was already wanted with a reward of $5 million. He says the United States asked countries, especially Canada and Germany, for even the smallest information about him, and that authorities labeled him “Mastermind of the Millennium Plot.”

The Canadian Material

The information Slahi attributes to Canada consisted, as he recounts it, of reports that he had been seen with people described as bad, had visited certain mosques, and had been the subject of intercepted telephone conversations that yielded nothing substantial. He objects that the United States asked for transcripts after they had been edited: separating passages from their full conversations, he argues, could distort their meaning. From the words passed along, U.S. interrogators became fixed on “Tea and Sugar.” for more than four years.

Slahi emphasizes the contrast between his twelve years in Germany, where he says no accurate incriminating information about him was provided, and his less than two months in Canada, which he says produced claims of extensive intelligence. He insists that his Canadian activities were nonexistent in the criminal sense. In his telling, Mauritanian and U.S. officials interpreted the uncertain material to confirm the theory that he was the plot’s mastermind, rather than treating its limitations as a reason for caution.

The Label’s Consequences in Mauritania

The accusation also shaped the questioning by the Mauritanian interrogator, who focused on Slahi’s activities in Canada. Slahi repeatedly denied having done the things suggested to him, but felt that the interrogation was going nowhere. He believed that withholding the full story of his 1991 and early 1992 trip to Afghanistan made him appear guilty, and considered supplying it to strengthen his case—even though he did not want the United States to receive that account or, in his words, use it to put gas on the fire.

When the interrogator brought filming equipment, Slahi feared he would be forced to confess and broadcast on national television, as he remembered happening to Islamists arrested in Mauritania in October 1994. The interrogator warned that Slahi would be passed to a special team if he did not admit what was alleged. In this sequence, the label is more than a disputed description: it helps turn fragmentary intelligence into a presumption of guilt, while the threat of televised confession and torture presses Slahi to provide a fuller account on terms he cannot control.