| Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani | |
|---|---|
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani
(FBI photo) |
|
| Born | circa 1974 (age 35–36) Zanzibar, Tanzania |
| Detained at | CIA black sites; Guantanamo |
| Alternate name | Foopie[1] Ahmed the Tanzanian[1] |
| ISN | 10012 |
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani (Arabic: أحمد خلفان الغيلاني, ʼAḥmad Khalifān al-Ghaīlānī) is an alleged member of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization. He was indicted[2][3] in the United States as a participant in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings. He was on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list[4] from its inception in October 2001. In 2004, he was captured and detained by Pakistani forces in a joint operation with the United States. Until June 9, 2009, Ghailani had been held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.[5]; he is one of the 14 people who had previously been held at secret locations abroad[6].
At the behest of the Obama administration, Ghailani was transported from Guantanamo Bay to New York City to stand trial in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on the morning of June 9, 2009 [7]. He is currently being held in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.
According to the Washington Post, Ghailani told military officers he is contrite and that he is an exploited victim of al-Qaeda operatives.[8]
Contents |
Ghailani has used a variety of different aliases including Ahmad Khalafan Ghilani, Ahmed Khalfan Ahmed, Abubakar K. Ahmed, Abubakary K. Ahmed, Abubakar Ahmed, Abu Bakr Ahmad, A. Ahmed, Ahmed Khalfan, Ahmed Khalfan Ali, Abubakar Khalfan Ahmed, Ahmed Ghailani, Ahmad Al Tanzani, Abu Khabar, Abu Bakr, Abubakary Khalfan Ahmed Ghailani, Mahafudh Abubakar Ahmed Abdallah Hussein, Shariff Omar Mohammed, "Foopie", "Fupi", and "Ahmed the Tanzanian."
Ghailani was born around 1974 in Zanzibar, Tanzania[5] (possibly on March 14, April 13, or April 14 of that year, or on 1 August 1970) and is a Tanzanian citizen. He speaks Swahili. Ghailani had served as a tabligh, a Muslim travelling preacher, and probably visited Pakistan in this capacity. After joining al Qaida, he became an explosives expert and was assigned to obtain the bomb components in Dar es Salaam according to convicted fellow Embassy bombing conspirators Mohammed Sadiq Odeh and Khalfan Khamis Mohamed. This role was complicated by the fact that Ghailani could not drive so whatever purchases were too large or heavy for his bicycle such as oxygen and acetylene tanks would have to be picked up by another person in a car. Ghailani was in Nairobi by August 6, 1998 where he is thought to have rented a room at the Hilltop Hotel used for meetings by the bombers and flew to Karachi on a Kenya Airways flight before the bombs exploded.
At some time in Pakistan or Afghanistan, he married an Uzbek and had children.[9] Many Uzbek Islamists had moved into Pakistan and the woman is thought to be from that group.
On May 26, 2004, United States Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller announced that reports indicated that Ghailani was one of seven al-Qaeda members who were planning a terrorist action for the summer or fall of 2004. The other alleged terrorists named on that date were Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who had also been earlier listed with Ghailani by the FBI as a Most Wanted Terrorist for the 1998 embassy attack, and Abderraouf Jdey, Amer El-Maati, Aafia Siddiqui, Adam Yahiye Gadahn, and Adnan G. El Shukrijumah. Jdey was already on the FBI Seeking Information - War on Terrorism list since January 17, 2002, to which the other four were added as well. [10]
On July 25, 2004 a nearly eight hour battle ensued in the town of Gujrat in central Pakistan. Ghailani and thirteen others, included his wife and children, were arrested. A police officer was wounded in the battle. Pakistani Interior Minister Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayyat announced the capture of Ghailani on July 29, 2004.[9] The US Government had offered a $5,000,000 USD bounty offered for information leading to the arrest of Ghailani.[11]
Some press reports (including the New Republic[12]) questioned whether the timing of the announcement of Ghailani's capture was politically motivated at the behest of the Bush administration. The announcement was made just hours before U.S. Presidential candidate John Kerry was due to make his acceptance speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, an event at which a candidate usually receives a significant boost in the polls. Hayyat made the announcement after midnight local time, despite having apparently known Ghailiani's identity for some days beforehand. Pakistani officials denied there was any such motivation.
Soon after the capture of Ghailani and the others with him, the Boston Globe, quoting a United Nations source, said that Ghailani was one of several al-Qaeda personnel who had been in Liberia around 2001, handling conflict diamonds under the protection of then-dictator Charles Taylor.[13] Ghailani is said to have spent more than three years in Liberia.
The CSRTs are not bound by the rules of evidence that would apply in civilian court, and the government’s evidence is presumed to be “genuine and accurate.”[15] From July 2004 through March 2005, a CSRT was convened to make a determination whether each captive had been correctly classified as an "enemy combatant". Ahmed Ghailani was among the two-thirds of prisoners who chose to participate in tribunal hearings.[16]
A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for the tribunal, listing the alleged facts that led to his detention. His memo accused him of the following:The Department of Defense announced on August 9, 2007 that all fourteen of the "high-value detainees" who had been transferred to Guantanamo from the CIA's black sites, had been officially classified as "enemy combatants".[19] Although judges Peter Brownback and Keith J. Allred had ruled two months earlier that only "illegal enemy combatants" could face military commissions, the Department of Defense waived the qualifier and said that all fourteen men could now face charges before Guantanamo military commissions.[20 ][21 ]
The Al-Qaeda suspect alleged to have been involved in the 1998 United States embassy bombings that killed 11 people faces nine war crimes charges, six of them offenses that could carry the death penalty, if he is convicted by a military tribunal, it was reported on March 31, 2008.[22] Scott L. Fenstermaker and David Remes are in a rare dispute as to who has been authorized to assist Ghaliani.[23]
In June 2009, Ghailani was transferred to New York to face trial in a federal court.[24 ] The Department of Justice, under U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, directed the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, to not seek the death penalty in an October 2009 memorandum.
On August 31 2009 Corrections One, a trade journal for the prison industry, speculated that "Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani" was one of ten captives they speculated might be moved to a maximum security prison in Standish, Michigan.[25 ]
Instead Ghailani was transferred to New York City to stand trial in a civilian court there.
Ghailani learned that being transferred from military to civilian jurisdiction meant that he could no longer be assisted by Colonel Jeffrey Colwell and Major Richard Reiter.[26 ][27 ][28][29]
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
   | Key al-Qaeda suspect arrested - BBC NEWS | South Asia | Key al-Qaeda suspect arrested |
| | Current FBI Most Wanted Terrorists page - Federal Bureau of Investigation Most Wanted Terrorists |
| | Transcript: Ashcroft, Mueller news conference - CNN.com - Transcript: Ashcroft, Mueller news conference - May 26, 2004 |
| | Liberia's Taylor gave aid to Qaeda, UN probe finds - Liberia's Taylor gave aid to Qaeda, UN probe finds - The Boston Globe |
| | Pentagon: 14 Guantanamo Suspects Are Now Combatants - 14 Gitmo Suspects Now Combatants - TIME |
| | Charges Dismissed Against Canadian at Guantanamo - DefenseLink News Article: Charges Dismissed Against Canadian at Guantanamo |
|
|
Wikis
Search
/
Ahmed
Ghailani (
