Generating Leaders: The Rise of Uthman al-Ghamdi within AQAP

Generating Leaders: The Rise of Uthman al-Ghamdi within AQAP

On May 26, 2010 Al-Qaeda in Arabian the Peninsula (AQAP) released a propaganda video entitled Amreeka w’al-Fakh al-Akheer (America and the Final Trap). The video, which was produced by the al-Malahim Establishment for Media Production, the media arm of the AQAP, and disseminated by the al-Fajr Media Centre, includes statements by AQAP leading figures Fahd al-Qas al-Awlaqi and Qasim al-Rimi alongside Uthman al-Ghamdi. In the video, they are seen scolding Arab regimes for colluding with the United States against the Yemeni people in order to implement what AQAP terms a “U.S. scheme” in the peninsular region. The video also revealed the roles of three senior leaders killed in security incidents in December of 2009 and January of this year. Abdallah al-Mihdar, 47, was the head of AQAP in the Shabwa Governorate, when he was killed in clashes with security forces in mid-January. Muhammad Umayr al-Awlaki was killed in an air raid on his hideout in the Abyan Governorate in late December, just two days after he appeared in a videotape uttering threats against his native Yemen as well as the United States before a large crowd of Yemeni citizens. Lastly, Muhammad Salih al-Kazimi, a 38-year-old former “Afghan-Arab,” was killed with several other jihadis, during an air raid in Abyan in mid-December. Al-Kazimi was imprisoned for a year in Saudi Arabia before being deported to Yemen (alfaloja.net/vb, May 26, 2010).

Interestingly, the video presented Saudi national Uthman Ahmad al-Omira al-Ghamidi as a “new figure” among AQAP’s leadership in Yemen. [1] The footage labeled him as “the leader Uthman al-Ghamdi.” Al-Ghamdi’s background is very similar to his Saudi Salafi-Jihadi colleagues who have turned up throughout Yemen since 2007 and he has gone on to play a key role in the merger of al-Qaeda’s Saudi Arabia and Yemen branches, which have previously operated independently. Al-Ghamdi, like several other top AQAP figures, appears on the crucial 85 Most Wanted list that was disseminated in February 2009 by the Saudi Interior Ministry (Saudi Gazette, February 3, 2009).

Al-Ghamdi, according to Saudi official records, was born in the Saudi summer capital of Ta’if on the slopes of the al-Sarawat Mountains in Makkah (Mecca) Province on May 28, 1979. He migrated to Afghanistan on a date that remains unknown and resided there until he was captured following the battle of Tora Bora in late 2001 and was deported to the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. Al-Ghamdi was released from his Cuban exile on June 6, 2006 after more than four years of imprisonment (Okaz, February 5, 2009). Upon his return home, al-Ghamdi participated in two rehabilitation programs targeting detainees; but being an irreconcilable jihadi he rejoined al-Qaeda at the first opportunity and crossed the land border into Yemen.

It is reported that many key al-Qaeda operatives in Saudi Arabia are often integrated organizationally by marital relations that serve to provide enhanced group cohesion for AQAP. Al-Ghamdi is no exception to this phenomenon as his sister is married to Adnan al-Saygh, another Saudi on Riyadh’s 85 most wanted list. The al-Saygh family believes that Uthman al-Ghamdi recruited their son to join a jihadist movement (Okaz, May 29, 2010).

The appearance of al-Ghamdi on AQAP’s video as a leading figure led the Saudi daily al-Watan to conclude that this appearance “raises questions about the fate of [AQAP’s] leaders Nasir al-Wuhayshi and Sa’id al-Shihri, as unofficial sources said [they] died because of an air raid by the Yemeni military” (al-Watan, May 28, 2010). [2] Traditionally, however, the deaths of al-Qaeda leaders must be announced for religious reasons and thus contradict the Saudi media’s assumption of al-Wuhayshi and al-Shihri’s death; the appearance of al-Ghamdi is a method used by al-Qaeda and affiliated groups in generating operatives through visceral imagery and spirited rhetoric. 

A contributor to a well-known jihadi web forum filed a recent post asking for a biography of al-Ghamdi. The poster wrote that al-Ghamdi reminded online jihadis of the late mujahideen commander of Arab fighters in Chechnya, Abu al-Walid al-Ghamdi (see Terrorism Monitor, January 15, 2004). Such comparisons play positively into AQAP’s propaganda efforts, especially those related to the much-vaunted Abu al-Walid and his fellow Arab jihadis who fought in Chechnya. Those that are considered to have sacrificed themselves in the North Caucasus are perceived with great admiration, particularly among their own tribes in the Arab world. According to a declassified document released to The New York Times from the U.S. Department of Defense, dated September 20, 2005, al-Ghamdi’s initial foray into the world of internationalist jihad was brought on by a desire to fight Russian troops in Chechnya, a desire which went unfulfilled. After a brief stint in the Saudi military, he deserted and ended up training on the outskirts of Kandahar at the infamous al-Farouq camp, before traveling northward to fight fellow Muslims of the beleaguered Northern Alliance on behalf of the Taliban in Northern Afghanistan. He was later captured by Pakistani authorities in Frontier Region Kohat bordering the FATA and was transferred to American custody in Afghanistan in the last days of 2001.

In the aforementioned video, al-Ghamdi focused his talks on the “ruthless way” that Yemeni and American bombardments slaughter local Muslims in Yemen in the same way “they have been bombarding our brothers in Afghanistan and our children and women in Palestine, Iraq and Pakistan. It continues until this moment. Such bombardment reveals severe hatred deeply rooted in the hearts of these crusaders against Islam and Muslims.” It is interesting to note in this particular statement that al-Ghamdi makes no mention of fighting Russian federal forces whose atrocities in Chechnya enticed him into jihad as a young man. Al-Ghamdi resentfully articulates the cooperation between the Ali Abdullah Saleh regime and Washington, stating, “These spy planes found agents and treacherous rulers who extended their support to them (the Americans) and opened their airspace for them while acknowledging it as part of the intelligence cooperation framework. They continued to take photographs, spy and reveal the Muslim’s sanctuaries in a flagrant image of the Crusader occupation of the Arabian Peninsula.”

Although his digital diatribe does not specifically allude to his newfound significance, Okaz quoted unidentified counter-terrorism experts as saying that the announcement of al-Ghamdi’s ascendancy is purposed to present him as a replacement of another fellow former Guantanamo detainee, Muhammed al-Awfi, who was supposedly rehabilitated by Riyadh and subsequently returned to the battlefield. Al-Awfi surrendered to Saudi authorities after being captured in Yemen and was transferred back to Saudi Arabia (AP, February 17, 2009).  “He [al-Ghamdi] will be a field leader overseeing al-Qaeda operations, as well as training new recruits of the organization” (Okaz, op. cit.). In sum, the announcement of al-Ghamdi as one of the leaders within the structure of AQAP’s militant hierarchy is a clear indicator of the abilities that al-Qaeda and its franchises continue to maintain in generating new leaders despite the killing or capturing of previous leadership, and in spite of aggressive pursuits by Washington and its economic-military clients within the CENTCOM sphere of influence.

Notes

1. Al-Ghamdi’s origins and exact birth date continue remain unclear. A Department of Defense document lists him as detainee 184 and clearly states that he is a citizen of Yemen. The DoD PDF diverging from the official Saudi account can be seen here: www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/detainee_list.pdf.

2. For biographies of Nasir al-Wuhayshi and Sa’id al-Shiri, please see Militant Leadership Monitor, April 2010 and February 2010 issues respectively.