Mustafa Setmariam Nasar
Encyclopedia
Mustafa bin Abd al-Qadir Sitt Maryam Nasar is a suspected 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...

 member and writer. He has held Spanish citizenship since the late 1980s following marriage to a Spanish woman.
He is considered by many as 'the most articulate exponent of the modern jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...

 and its most sophisticated strategies'.
Nasar was reportedly captured in the Pakistani city of Quetta in late October 2005, because Nasar was shopping for breakfast but although exactly where and when is disputed. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1391123.ece
He was captured by Pakistani security forces and handed over to American custody a month or so later. He was not among the 14 high-profile al-Qaida suspects transferred to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in late 2006, and it appears that Nasar was renditioned to Syria, where he was a wanted man. He is also wanted in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 for the 1985 El Descanso bombing
1985 El Descanso bombing
The 1985 El Descanso bombing was a bomb attack against the El Descanso restaurant just outside Madrid, Spain, late on April 12, 1985. The explosion killed 18 Spaniards and injured 82 others, including 11 American servicemen, who were believed to be the target of the attack...

 and (as a witness) in connection with the 2004 Madrid train bombings.

Life

Nasar has ginger hair
Red hair
Red hair occurs on approximately 1–2% of the human population. It occurs more frequently in people of northern or western European ancestry, and less frequently in other populations...

, green eyes, and a light complexion. He was born and grew up in Aleppo in Syria, and attended four years of university studies there at the University of Aleppo's Department of mechanical engineering. In 1980, he joined the Combatant Vanguard organisation, a radical offshot of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...

, which was at the forefront in the armed uprising against Hafez Assad's regime. Nasar was forced to flee Syria at the end of 1980. He then joined the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood organisation in exile, receiving training at their bases and safe houses in Iraq and Jordan. He is reported to have participated in the uprising of Hama
Hama
Hama is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria north of Damascus. It is the provincial capital of the Hama Governorate. Hama is the fourth-largest city in Syria—behind Aleppo, Damascus, and Homs—with a population of 696,863...

 in 1982. He emigrated to France and later to Spain in the mid 1980s.

In 1987, Nasar and a small group of Syrian friends left Spain for Peshawar
Peshawar
Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....

 where they met Abdallah Azzam
Abdullah Yusuf Azzam
Abdullah Yusuf Azzam was a highly influential Palestinian Sunni Islamic scholar and theologian, who preached in favor of defensive jihad by Muslims to help the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet invaders...

, the godfather of the Arab-Afghan movement. Nasar was enlisted as a military trainer at the camps for Arab volunteer fighters, and he also fought at the frontlines against Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 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...

 and the Communist regime in Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...

 after the Soviet withdrawal in 1988.

Nasar met 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...

 in Peshawar and claims to have been a member of his inner circle and working for bin Ladin until sometime around 1992, when Nasar returned to Spain. In Peshawar, Nasar became well-known under his pen name Umar Abd al-Hakim after he published a 900 page treatise in May 1991, entitled 'The Islamic jihadi revolution in Syria’, also known as 'the Syrian Experience' (al-tajrubah al-suriyyah). The treatise was a vehement attack on the Muslim Brotherhood and constituted an important part of the intellectual foundation for al-Qaida and the jihadi current during the 1990s.

From 1985 to 1995 Nasar adopted Spain as his primary place of residence, even though he traveled extensively and spent much time in Afghanistan. In Spain, he married his wife Elena Moreno in 1987 (or 88), who converted to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

, which gave him Spanish citizenship. They have four children.

Among his associates there were Imad Eddin Yarkas alias Abu Dahdah
Abu Dahdah
Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas alias Abu Dahdah is a Syrian-born Spaniard sentenced to a 27-year prison term in Spain for his part in the September 11, 2001 attacks and for his membership in the banned terrorist organization al-Qaeda...

, head of al-Qaeda's Madrid cell, who was arrested in November 2001, on suspicion of membership in al-Qaida and of involvement in the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...

 in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. He was later acquitted of charges of assisting the 9/11 plotters, but convicted of membership in a terrorist organization.

Nasar first moved to London in 1994, and brought his family along in mid-1995. It is possible that he fled Spain because of suspicions he was involved in the 1995 Islamist terror bombings in France. For a time Nasar edited al-Ansar, the most important jihadi magazine at the time, with ties to the Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

n Armed Islamic Group
Armed Islamic Group
The Armed Islamic Group is an Islamist organisation that wants to overthrow the Algerian government and replace it with an Islamic state...

 (GIA). Nasar left the journal in 1996 partly due to disagreements with the new GIA leadership in Algeria and partly as a result of a conflict with its chief editor, Umar Mahmud Uthman Abu Umar, better known as Abu Qatada
Abu Qatada
Abû-Qatâda al-Filisṭînî , sometimes called Abû-Omar is an Islamist militant. Under the name Omar Mahmoud Othman , he is under worldwide embargo by the United Nations Security Council Committee 1267 for his affiliation with al-Qaeda...

 al-Filastini. The latter is widely regarded as al-Qaeda's principal cleric in Europe.

In 1997, Nasar established a media company called Islamic Conflict Studies Bureau with Mohamed Bahaiah. Through this media office he facilitated two important media events for bin Ladin in Afghanistan, in particular Peter Bergen
Peter Bergen
Peter Bergen is a print and television journalist, author, and CNN's national security analyst. Bergen produced the first television interview with Osama Bin Laden in 1997. The interview, which aired on CNN, marked the first time that bin Laden declared war against the United States to a Western...

's famous CNN interview with bin Laden in March 1997.

In the autumn of 1997 Nasar left London for Afghanistan, operating initially as a lecturer and trainer in the Arab-Afghan camps and guesthouses. He settled there with his family in 1998. In 1999 he formed a media and research center in Kabul and in 2000 he was allowed to open his own training camp, the al-Ghuraba Camp
Al Ghuraba training camp
Al Ghuraba training camp is an alleged al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, near Kabul.-Alleged alumni:-References:...

, located in Kargha, near Kabul. Nasar's camp was formally part of Taliban's Ministry of defense, and separate from al-Qaida and bin Ladin's organization, whom he had fallen out with in 1998. In a seven-page letter from mid-1998, Nasar launched scathing criticism of bin Ladin for his disdain al-Qaeda has shown towards the Taliban leadership of Afghanistan, including Mullah Omar
Mohammed Omar
Mullah Mohammed Omar , often simply called Mullah Omar, is the leader of the Taliban movement that operates in Afghanistan. He was Afghanistan's de facto head of state from 1996 to late 2001, under the official title "Head of the Supreme Council"...

. He is also highly critical of their strategies, and has denounced al-Qaeda's 1998 attacks on the US embassies in East Africa, and the September 11 attack on New York's Twin Towers, which he argues put a catastrophic end to the jihadi cause.

Due to his prolific writings on strategic and political issues, and his guerrilla warfare experience, Nasar was a popular lecturer and to a certain degree an unofficial adviser for a wide range of jihadi groups in Afghanistan. Organizationally, however, he remained a rather independent figure. While some reports have linked him to 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...

, who later led al-Qaeda's component of the insurgency in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

, his network of contacts was much wider, and included jihadis from Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

, Algeria, Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, Syria, Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

, Iraqi Kurdistan, Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

, Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....

, Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....

, and elsewhere. Media reports have also alleged that one of his associates, the Moroccan Amer Azizi, (Uthman al-Andalusi), had met September 11 organizers Mohamed Atta
Mohamed Atta
Mohamed Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta was one of the masterminds and the ringleader of the September 11 attacks who served as the hijacker-pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, crashing the plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the coordinated attacks.Born in 1968...

 and Ramzi bin al-Shibh in Tarragona
Tarragona
Tarragona is a city located in the south of Catalonia on the north-east of Spain, by the Mediterranean. It is the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and the capital of the Catalan comarca Tarragonès. In the medieval and modern times it was the capital of the Vegueria of Tarragona...

, Spain weeks before the attacks, but this seems to be incorrect.

Nasar's best known work is the 1600-page book The Global Islamic Resistance Call (Da'wat al-muqawamah al-islamiyyah al-'alamiyyah) which appeared on the Internet in December 2004 or January 2005. In it author Lawrence Wright reports that Nasar

'proposes that the next stage of jihad will be characterized by terrorism created by individuals or small autonomous groups (what he terms `leaderless resistance') which will wear down the enemy and prepare the ground for the far ambitious aim of waging war on `open fronts' .... `without confrontation in the field and seizing control of the land, we cannot establish a state, which is the strategic goal of the resistance.'


The American occupation of Iraq, he declares, inaugurated a `historical new period' that almost single-handedly rescued the jihadi movement just when many of its critics thought it was finished.

In September 2003, Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzon
Baltasar Garzón
Baltasar Garzón Real is a Spanish jurist who served on Spain's central criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional. He was the examining magistrate of the Juzgado Central de Instrucción No...

 indicted 35 members of the Madrid cell for its role in the September 11 attacks, including Nasar. In November 2004, the United States Department of State
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...

 named Nasar a Most Wanted Terrorist
FBI Most Wanted Terrorists
The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Most Wanted Terrorists is a list of fugitives who have been indicted by sitting Federal grand juries in the United States district courts, for alleged crimes of terrorism. The initial list was formed in late 2001 in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks...

and offered a reward of US$5 million for information about his location.

Reports of secret detention on Diego Garcia and subsequent transfer to Syria

There have been persistent reports that he was one of the ghost prisoners held in secret detention on Diego Garcia
Diego Garcia
Diego Garcia is a tropical, footprint-shaped coral atoll located south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean at 7 degrees, 26 minutes south latitude. It is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory [BIOT] and is positioned at 72°23' east longitude....

.

Reportedly ran a Kabul guesthouse

On 19 January 2009, FBI interrogator Robert Fuller
Robert Fuller (FBI)
Robert Fuller is an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who has worked in counter-terrorism. He has questioned suspected terrorists, been a handler of informants in the U.S., and testified in both federal court and Guantanamo military commission trials.-September 11 attacks:The 9/11...

 testified during a hearing before Canadian Omar Khadr
Omar Khadr
Omar Ahmed Khadr is a Canadian child soldier and one of the juveniles held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. He was convicted of five charges under the United States Military Commissions Act of 2009 including murder in violation of the law of war and providing material support for terrorism,...

's Guantanamo military commission
Guantanamo military commission
The Guantanamo military commissions are military tribunals created by the Military Commissions Act of 2006 for prosecuting detainees held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps.- History :...

 that Khadr during interrogations in October 2002 Khadr confessed to staying at a Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...

 guest house run by "Abu Musab al-Suri".
Fuller testified that Khadr said he saw fellow Canadian Maher Arar
Maher Arar
Maher Arar is a telecommunications engineer with dual Syrian and Canadian citizenship who resides in Canada. Arar's story is frequently referred to as "extraordinary rendition" but the U.S. government insisted it was a case of deportation.Arar was detained during a layover at John F...

 at this guest house.
This report stirred controversy in Canada, because an official inquiry had cleared Arar of all the US justification for his extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition is the abduction and illegal transfer of a person from one nation to another. "Torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe situations in which the United States and the United Kingdom have transferred suspected terrorists to other countries in order to torture the...

 to Syria, where he was tortured.
In particular, his assertion that he had never been to Afghanistan.

Spain requests information on his current location

On April 14, 2009, Spanish magistrate Baltazar Garzon sent out queries as to Nasar's location.
Daniel Wodlls, reporting for the Associated Press, reported that Garzon queried Britain, the USA, Pakistan, Syria and Afghanistan.
The report stated US officials have confirmed that Nasar was apprehended in Quetta
Quetta
is the largest city and the provincial capital of the Balochistan Province of Pakistan. Known as the "Fruit Garden of Pakistan" due to the diversity of its plant and animal wildlife, Quetta is home to the Hazarganji Chiltan National Park, which contains some of the rarest species of wildlife in the...

, Pakistan in November 2005.
The Spanish newspaper El Pais attributed Garzon's query United States President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

's announcement that the Guantanamo detention camp, that the CIA's black sites would be closed.

Alleged publication of an article in Inspire

In June 2010, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was reported to have published Inspire magazine -- its first English language publication.
It contained an article published under the name Abu Mu'sab al-Suri.
His article was entitled: "The Jihadi experiences: The schools of Jihad".

Further reading

  • Lia, Brynjar
    Brynjar Lia
    Brynjar Lia is a Norwegian historian and research professor at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment where he is head of FFI's research on international terrorism and global jihadism. Lia is viewed as one of Norway's foremost experts on terrorism and is much cited in Norwegian and...

     Architect of Global Jihad: The Life of Al Qaeda Strategist Abu Mus'ab Al-Suri (2008), Columbia University Press ISBN 978-0231700306
  • Lacey, Jim, ed. A Terrorist's Call to Global Jihad: Deciphering Abu Musab al-Suri's Islamic Jihad Manifesto (2008), Naval Institute Press ISBN 978-1591144625

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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