Ali Mohamed

Ali Abdul Saoud Mohamed (born June 3, 1952) is an Egyptian Islamist militant who was convicted of involvement in the al-Qaeda 1998 United States embassy bombings in Nairobi, Kenya, and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Mohamed was a major in the Egyptian Army's military intelligence, until being discharged for suspected fundamentalism in 1984. During this period he was a member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ). According to FBI special agent Jack Cloonan, Mohamed trained Mujahideen militants en route to fight against Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and called him "bin Laden's first trainer". He then became an agent for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) but was quickly dropped by the agency after an undercover operation in West Germany. He moved to the United States and enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1986. He then returned to Afghanistan 1988 and used his U.S. military experience to train al-Qaeda and other Muslim militants.

He returned to the United States working as a translator for Ayman al-Zawahiri, Emir of the EIJ and future Emir of al-Qaeda, who toured California in 1993 following the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, hoping to raise money for EIJ. Mohamed was later charged in connection with the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. In October 2000, he pleaded guilty to five counts of conspiracy to kill nationals of the United States and to destroy U.S. property.

In Afghanistan During the 1980s, Mohamed was involved in the training of the anti-Soviet Afghan mujahideen. Mohamed conducted training during the war to small classes that included Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, later leaders of al-Qaeda, and the terrorist members responsible for the bombings of the two U.S. embassies in Africa.

In 1990, Mohamed returned to Afghanistan, and once more, trained terrorists in the art of guerrilla and unconventional warfare which include hijacking, suicide bombing, kidnapping, and IED bombs.

During this time, it is also known that he began planning the embassy bombings with Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. Later, Mohamed was key in assisting the movement of al-Qaeda from Afghanistan to Sudan. He moved back and forth, assisting in key movements of camps.

In 1992, Mohamed made several trips to Afghanistan as part of the training of terrorist cells. During that year he made at least 58 trips whilst under CIA surveillance. He fought and trained in the civil war among the Afghan mujahideen that ensued after the defeat of the Soviet forces. In this time he trained the al-Qaeda generals in the art of intelligence warfare. This included surveillance, counter-surveillance, assassinations, kidnapping, codes, and ciphering codes.

The system of cell structures and groups within a terrorist faction was developed by Ali around this time as a means of making it harder to destroy terrorism by spreading members out. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and managed to get stationed at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, until 1989. "His awed superiors found him 'beyond reproach' and 'consistently accomplished'."

Mohamed also took maps and training manuals off base to downsize and copy at Kinko's and used them to write al-Qaeda's multivolume terrorist training guide. and Mahmud Abouhalima, who assisted Ramzi Yousef in his 1993 terrorist truck bomb attack on the World Trade Center in New York.

In the early 1990s, Mohamed returned to Afghanistan, where "he trained the first al-Qaeda volunteers in techniques of unconventional warfare including kidnappings, assassinations, and hijacking planes, which he had learned from the American Special Forces." According to FBI special agent Jack Cloonan, in one of Mohamed's first classes were Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and other al-Qaeda leaders. In May, he became an FBI informant after being approached by John Zent in San Jose, informing U.S. Department of Defense counterintelligence analysts about the existence of al-Qaeda's training camp network in Afghanistan. It is believed that Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which had not yet formally merged with al-Qaeda, authorized the leak on al-Qaeda in order to gain access to American intelligence information in return. Although the meeting with Mohamed proved to provide the United States with some of the most valuable intelligence on al-Qaeda for years, the FBI did not act on Zent's report and the DOD did not take notes on the meeting.

In a televised interview Mohamed explained his rationale for his efforts: "Islam without political dominance cannot survive."

1993 Vancouver airport incident Mohamed was detained in early 1993 by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) at Vancouver International Airport to which Mohamed had come to meet an associate of Osama bin Laden, who was caught there upon arriving from Damascus with two forged Saudi passports. The RCMP was about to arrest Mohamed but he told the RCMP that he was an FBI asset and was released immediately by the RCMP at the request of the FBI.

Arrest and trial In 1998, two weeks after the East African embassy bombings, FBI agents searched Ali's apartment. They found evidence of terrorist activities which included plans and scripts of Al-Qaeda training. Ali Mohamed had made plans to leave the country to meet with Osama bin Laden. However he was subpoenaed to testify in the trial of the other suspects. The same day of the trial, Mohamed was arrested as a key suspect in the embassy bombings.

Further news sources in 2001 seem to suggest that Ali Mohamed is providing information on al-Qaeda in an attempt to reduce his sentence,

In 2011, former FBI agent Ali Soufan confirmed that Mohammed is still awaiting sentencing. Since October 2001 he has not appeared in public records of the US Prison system, and his current whereabouts are unknown. It is speculated that he may be in witness protection somewhere in the United States.