Abu Hafs Al Mauritania
Encyclopedia
Sheikh
Mahfouz Ould al-Walid (محفوظ ولد الوليد) is an Islamic religious scholar and author associated with al-Qaeda
. A veteran of the Soviet war in Afghanistan
, he has he been active in Afghanistan
, where he tried to build an advanced religious school called the Institute of Islamic Studies in Kandahar, Afghanistan. He has insisted that he is ideologically tied to the Taliban, rather than al-Qaeda
. Along with Saeed al-Masri
and Saif al-Adel
, he is believed to have opposed the September 11 attacks two months prior to their execution.
The later interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed revealed that al-Walid had opposed any large-scale attack against the United States, and written Bin Laden a stern letter warning against any such action, quoting the Quran.
Although the United States has twice reported his death, it is believed he is still alive and possibly living in Iran or Mauritania, after distancing himself from Islamist militant groups.
, and was invited to give spiritual lectures to mujahideen
at Afghan training camps. Some time in late 2000 or early 2001, bin Laden was videotaped reciting al-Walid's poem "Thoughts Over al-Aqsa Intifadah".
It was later suggested that he had traveled to Iraq in early 1998 in an attempt to meet with Saddam Hussein
, but was turned away as the leader did not want to create problems for his country. The United States considered him a person of interest following the 1998 embassy bombings.
Later in 1998, the United States learned al-Walid was staying in Room 13 at the Dana Hotel in Khartoum
, and President Bill Clinton
sought to have him killed or preferably rendition
ed to a friendly country for interrogation. When a plan was finally made to capture him using another country's officials, he has already left the Sudan.
In 1998, Germany began monitoring Mohamedou Ould Slahi
's accounts, and it was noticed that al-Walid had asked him to spare some money twice, resulting in a DM
8,000 transfer in December and one other situation in which he sent him money. In January 1999, al-Walid telephoned Slahi using a monitored satellite phone
he borrowed from Bin Laden. He was initially labeled as being the same person as Slahi by the Office of Foreign Assets Control
, who amended their list in June 2007 to distinguish the two people, and it was later suggested they were brothers-in-law
, cousins or cousins-in-law. The confusion seemed to stem from the fact that al-Walid's wife and Slahi's wife were sisters.
Both Slahi and al-Walid worked for El-Hijra Construction and Development. In mid-2000, al-Walid was approached by Ahmed al-Nami
and Mushabib al-Hamlan
who asked him about becoming suicide operatives.
Ayman al-Zawahiri
has credited al-Walid's book Islamic Action Between the Motives of Unit and the Advocates of Conflict as being one of the driving forces behind convincing al-Qaeda to merge with Egyptian Islamic Jihad in June 2001.
.
In November 2001, al-Walid became only the second militant leader to give a public interview, in which he agreed with Osama bin Laden
's earlier comments, stating that the terrorist organisation was not responsible for the September 11th attacks, but intimated that many scholars would still justify the attacks, and that "if this act was carried out by mujaheddin Muslims, then it was an unblemished act of jihad".
It is believed that the American invasion of Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks by Bin Laden actually drove al-Walid away from al-Qaeda, and that he and a number of other discontent former members moved to the south to avoid connection with the ongoing fight.
The United States accused him of entering Iraq again in an attempt to get Hussein to negotiate, but state that he was rebuffed in identical terms as his first visit. He was reported killed twice, the second time following a January 8, 2002 airstrike in Zawar Kili, outside of Khost
.
When Shadi Abdellah was arrested in 2002, he cooperated with authorities, but suggested that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
and Osama bin Laden
were not as closely linked as previously believed, in large part because al-Zarqawi disagreed with many of the sentiments put forward by al-Walid for al-Qaeda.
By mid-2002, media in Thailand
suggested that al-Walid, Abu Zubaydah
and Saif al-Adl had traveled to North Africa
as part of their exodus from al-Qaeda, while American media suggested the three were in Mashhad, Iran. Nevertheless, al-Zawahiri continues to speak positively of the role al-Walid played in encouraging Pan-Islamic
peace and cooperation.
Media in Gambia suggested he returned to Mauritania
in 2006 to set up a militant group. However, the Magharebia
news website believes he was killed in a Pakistan airstrike.
Libyan islamist Nomam Benotman also indicated in a letter to Bin Laden that he, al-Walid and Al Qaeda security official Abu Muhammad al-Zayat opposed the 9/11 attacks.
In the 2008 Chilean book El Norte de Africa en la Intriga de al Qaeda, author Carlos Saldivia suggested that al-Walid was also involved in the 2003 Casablanca bombings
.
Sheikh
Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...
Mahfouz Ould al-Walid (محفوظ ولد الوليد) is an Islamic religious scholar and author associated with al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
. A veteran of the Soviet war in Afghanistan
Soviet war in Afghanistan
The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist-Leninist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan against the Afghan Mujahideen and foreign "Arab–Afghan" volunteers...
, he has he been active in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, where he tried to build an advanced religious school called the Institute of Islamic Studies in Kandahar, Afghanistan. He has insisted that he is ideologically tied to the Taliban, rather than al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
. Along with Saeed al-Masri
Saeed al-Masri
Mustafa Ahmed Muhammad Uthman Abu al-Yazid , better known as Saeed al-Masri or simply al-Masri , was an Egyptian who was alleged to have acted as the financial chief for al-Qaeda...
and Saif al-Adel
Saif al-Adel
Saif al-Adel is an Egyptian explosives expert and a high-ranking member of al-Qaeda.Adel is under indictment for his part in the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Africa...
, he is believed to have opposed the September 11 attacks two months prior to their execution.
The later interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed revealed that al-Walid had opposed any large-scale attack against the United States, and written Bin Laden a stern letter warning against any such action, quoting the Quran.
Although the United States has twice reported his death, it is believed he is still alive and possibly living in Iran or Mauritania, after distancing himself from Islamist militant groups.
Life
The publisher of the magazine Al-Talib (The Student), al-Walid wrote poetry that attracted the attention of Osama bin LadenOsama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
, and was invited to give spiritual lectures to mujahideen
Mujahideen
Mujahideen are Muslims who struggle in the path of God. The word is from the same Arabic triliteral as jihad .Mujahideen is also transliterated from Arabic as mujahedin, mujahedeen, mudžahedin, mudžahidin, mujahidīn, mujaheddīn and more.-Origin of the concept:The beginnings of Jihad are traced...
at Afghan training camps. Some time in late 2000 or early 2001, bin Laden was videotaped reciting al-Walid's poem "Thoughts Over al-Aqsa Intifadah".
It was later suggested that he had traveled to Iraq in early 1998 in an attempt to meet with Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
, but was turned away as the leader did not want to create problems for his country. The United States considered him a person of interest following the 1998 embassy bombings.
Later in 1998, the United States learned al-Walid was staying in Room 13 at the Dana Hotel in Khartoum
Khartoum
Khartoum is the capital and largest city of Sudan and of Khartoum State. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia. The location where the two Niles meet is known as "al-Mogran"...
, and President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
sought to have him killed or preferably rendition
Rendition
Rendition may refer to:*Rendition , a legal term meaning "handing over"*Extraordinary rendition by the United States, the abduction and illegal transfer of a person from one nation to another*"Rendition" , an episode of Torchwood...
ed to a friendly country for interrogation. When a plan was finally made to capture him using another country's officials, he has already left the Sudan.
In 1998, Germany began monitoring Mohamedou Ould Slahi
Mohamedou Ould Slahi
Mohamedou Ould Slahi or Salahi is a Mauritanian who has been detained at Guantánamo Bay detention camp since August 4, 2002...
's accounts, and it was noticed that al-Walid had asked him to spare some money twice, resulting in a DM
DM
-Academia:* Doctor of Management, an academic management degree* Doctorate in Medicine, an academic medical degree* Doctor of Music, an academic music-performance degree, also known as D.M.A-Science:* Adamsite, a chemical agent used in riot control...
8,000 transfer in December and one other situation in which he sent him money. In January 1999, al-Walid telephoned Slahi using a monitored satellite phone
Satellite phone
A satellite telephone, satellite phone, or satphone is a type of mobile phone that connects to orbiting satellites instead of terrestrial cell sites...
he borrowed from Bin Laden. He was initially labeled as being the same person as Slahi by the Office of Foreign Assets Control
Office of Foreign Assets Control
The Office of Foreign Assets Control is an agency of the United States Department of the Treasury under the auspices of the Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. OFAC administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on U.S...
, who amended their list in June 2007 to distinguish the two people, and it was later suggested they were brothers-in-law
Brother-in-law
A brother-in-law is the brother of one's spouse, the husband of one's sibling, or the husband of one's spouse's sibling.-See also:*Affinity *Sister-in-law*Brothers in Law , a 1955 British comedy novel...
, cousins or cousins-in-law. The confusion seemed to stem from the fact that al-Walid's wife and Slahi's wife were sisters.
Both Slahi and al-Walid worked for El-Hijra Construction and Development. In mid-2000, al-Walid was approached by Ahmed al-Nami
Ahmed al-Nami
A former law student and muezzin, Ahmed bin Abdullah al-Nami was one of four hijackers of United Airlines Flight 93 as part of the September 11 attacks.Born in Saudi Arabia, Nami had served as a muezzin and was a college student...
and Mushabib al-Hamlan
Mushabib al-Hamlan
An original candidate in the September 11 attacks, Mushabib al-Hamlan became involved with militancy at secondary-school in December 1999, where he attended gatherings to watch videos about the glory of Jihad and detailing the atrocities of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Yugoslav wars...
who asked him about becoming suicide operatives.
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri is an Egyptian physician, Islamic theologian and current leader of al-Qaeda. He was previously the second and last "emir" of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, having succeeded Abbud al-Zumar in the latter role when Egyptian authorities sentenced al-Zumar to life...
has credited al-Walid's book Islamic Action Between the Motives of Unit and the Advocates of Conflict as being one of the driving forces behind convincing al-Qaeda to merge with Egyptian Islamic Jihad in June 2001.
"War on Terror"
In October 2001, he was misidentified in Canadian media as being the same person as Abu ZubaydahAbu Zubaydah
Abu Zubaydah is a Saudi Arabian citizen, sentenced to death in Jordan and currently held in U.S. custody in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.Not neutral: Arrested in Pakistan in March 2002, he has been in US custody for more than eight years, four-and-a-half of them spent incommunicado in solitary confinement...
.
In November 2001, al-Walid became only the second militant leader to give a public interview, in which he agreed with Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
's earlier comments, stating that the terrorist organisation was not responsible for the September 11th attacks, but intimated that many scholars would still justify the attacks, and that "if this act was carried out by mujaheddin Muslims, then it was an unblemished act of jihad".
It is believed that the American invasion of Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks by Bin Laden actually drove al-Walid away from al-Qaeda, and that he and a number of other discontent former members moved to the south to avoid connection with the ongoing fight.
The United States accused him of entering Iraq again in an attempt to get Hussein to negotiate, but state that he was rebuffed in identical terms as his first visit. He was reported killed twice, the second time following a January 8, 2002 airstrike in Zawar Kili, outside of Khost
Khost
Khost or Khowst is a city in eastern Afghanistan. It is the capital of Khost province, which is a mountainous region near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan...
.
When Shadi Abdellah was arrested in 2002, he cooperated with authorities, but suggested that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ; October 30, 1966 – June 7, 2006), born Ahmad Fadeel al-Nazal al-Khalayleh was a Jordanian militant Islamist who ran a paramilitary training camp in Afghanistan...
and Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
were not as closely linked as previously believed, in large part because al-Zarqawi disagreed with many of the sentiments put forward by al-Walid for al-Qaeda.
By mid-2002, media in Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
suggested that al-Walid, Abu Zubaydah
Abu Zubaydah
Abu Zubaydah is a Saudi Arabian citizen, sentenced to death in Jordan and currently held in U.S. custody in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.Not neutral: Arrested in Pakistan in March 2002, he has been in US custody for more than eight years, four-and-a-half of them spent incommunicado in solitary confinement...
and Saif al-Adl had traveled to North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
as part of their exodus from al-Qaeda, while American media suggested the three were in Mashhad, Iran. Nevertheless, al-Zawahiri continues to speak positively of the role al-Walid played in encouraging Pan-Islamic
Pan-Islamism
Pan-Islamism is a political movement advocating the unity of Muslims under one Islamic state — often a Caliphate. As a form of religious nationalism, Pan-Islamism differentiates itself from other pan-nationalistic ideologies, for example Pan-Arabism, by excluding culture and ethnicity as primary...
peace and cooperation.
Media in Gambia suggested he returned to Mauritania
Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...
in 2006 to set up a militant group. However, the Magharebia
Magharebia
Magharebia is an AFRICOM sponsored online news web site dedicated to coverage of North Africa. Online since Oct 2004 Magharebia is the only regional website that publishes content identically in three languages; Arabic, English & French...
news website believes he was killed in a Pakistan airstrike.
Libyan islamist Nomam Benotman also indicated in a letter to Bin Laden that he, al-Walid and Al Qaeda security official Abu Muhammad al-Zayat opposed the 9/11 attacks.
In the 2008 Chilean book El Norte de Africa en la Intriga de al Qaeda, author Carlos Saldivia suggested that al-Walid was also involved in the 2003 Casablanca bombings
2003 Casablanca bombings
The 2003 Casablanca bombings were a series of suicide bombings on May 16, 2003, in Casablanca, Morocco. The attacks were the deadliest terrorist attacks in the country's history. 45 people were killed as a result of these attacks...
.