Briefs
Still at Large Ten Years After 9/11: Said Bahaji, Mohammed Atta’s Right Hand Man
Background On the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the United States, Said Bahaji, one of two known members of the Hamburg cell, remains at large. [1] Said Bahaji was born in Lower Saxony, Germany to a Moroccan father and a German mother in... MORE
August 2011 Briefs
PAKISTANIS DOUBT LIBYAN AL-QAEDA LEADER KILLED After the United States announced the death of Attiyah Abd al-Rehman - the Libyan national Washington describes as al-Qaeda’s new number two ranking figure - in a drone strike in North Waziristan Agency on August 22, a U.S. official... MORE
A Profile of Sudanese Rebel Leader Abd al-Aziz al-Hilu: Continuing the Civil War in the Nuba Mountains
Since the mid-1980s, Abd al-Aziz al-Hilu has been one of the leading rebel commanders in Sudan. Well known for his organizational skills and dedication to replacing the Arab-dominated central government of Sudan, al-Hilu has advocated for a more broad-based federalist system that would recognize the... MORE
The Man Who Knew Bin Laden: A Biographical Sketch of Hassan Ghul
There is not much known about Hassan Ghul, the alleged conduit whose information led to the killing of former al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan. The mysterious Hassan Ghul was an important al-Qaeda facilitator, financier and messenger of Pakistani descent with Saudi residency. Ghul... MORE
Fazal Saeed Haqqani: A New Player on the Jihadi Scene in Pakistan’s FATA
The split in the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on the eve of a military operation in the Kurram agency is a victory for the Pakistan army. In a surprising move, Fazal Saeed Haqqani, a relatively lesser known TTP commander in Kurram Agency, announced on June 27... MORE
A Portrait of Abu Bakr bin Abdul Aziz al-Athri: Salafi-Jihad’s Emerging Internet Ideologue
In mid-June 2010, the brother-in-law of Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi, the late leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), Abu Qudama al-Hami, [1] posted a lengthy article on several jihadi web forums stating that a London-based Jordanian jihadi called Muhammad Eid al-Rifai’i (a.k.a. Abu Hammam; Abu Essa)... MORE
Vice, Virtue, and Vitriol: The Resurrection of Former Taliban Minister Maulvi Qalamuddin
Maulvi Muhammad Qalamuddin, the former chief of Amr-e-Bil M’arouf wa Nahi Anil Munkar (the General Department for the Preservation of Virtue and the Elimination of Vice) in the government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996-2001, has been chosen as... MORE
Terror’s Puppet Master: Lashkar-e-Taiba’s Sajid Mir
Sajid Mir (a.k.a. Sajid Majid), commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), is perhaps one of South Asia’s least known jihadi commanders. Though details of his background are scarce, knowledge of his doings began to surface during the 2003-2004 interrogation of a jihadi called Willie Brigitte by French... MORE
A Life on the Run: A Profile of Jemaah Islamiyah’s Marwan
Zulkifli bin Hir (a.k.a. Zulkifli Abdkhir), who goes most frequently by the alias Marwan, is the highest ranking of the 20-30 active Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorists in the Philippines. The Philippine government intensified its manhunt for Marwan on May 1, 2011 because he has the... MORE
From Saudi Arabia to Yemen: Faris al-Zahrani, the Ideologue of Jihadi Operations in the Gulf
The then-Saudi Crown Prince (now King) Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz announced a four week long amnesty in 2004 and a pardon program for al-Qaeda operatives who were engaged in an open, bloody confrontation with Saudi authorities and Western expatriate workers. Those who voluntarily gave themselves... MORE