Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani
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Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani (Arabic: أحمد خلفان الغيلاني) is a suspected member of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization. He is believed to have been a conspirator in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings, an association for which he is listed as one of the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists. He has been captured and detained by Pakistani forces in a joint operation with the United States.
Ghailani has used a variety of different aliases including Ahmad Khalafan Ghilani, Ahmed Khalfan Ahmed, Abubakar K. Ahmed, Abubakary K. Ahmed, Abubakar Ahmed, Abu Bakr Ahmad, A. Ahmed, Ahmed Khalfan, Ahmed Khalfan Ali, Abubakar Khalfan Ahmed, Ahmed Ghailani, Ahmad Al Tanzani, Abu Khabar, Abu Bakr, Abubakary Khalfan Ahmed Ghailani, Mahafudh Abubakar Ahmed Abdallah Hussein, Shariff Omar Mohammed, "Foopie", "Fupi", and "Ahmed the Tanzanian." He was born either on March 14, 1974, April 13, 1974, April 14, 1974, or August 1, 1970.
Ghailani was born in Zanzibar, Tanzania and is a Tanzanian citizen. He knows Swahili. Ahmed had served as a tabligh, a Muslim travelling preacher. He probably visited Pakistan in this capacity. After joining al Qaida, he became an explosives expert and was assigned to obtain the bomb components in Dar es Salaam according to convicted fellow Embassy bombing conspirators Mohammed Sadiq Odeh and Khalfan Khamis Mohamed. This role was complicated by the fact that Ghailani could not drive so whatever purchases were too large or heavy for his bicycle such as oxygen and acetylene tanks would have to be picked up by another person in a car. Ghailani was in Nairobi by August 6, 1998 where he isthought to have rented a room at the Hilltop Hotel used for meetings by the bombers and flew to Karachi on a Kenyan Airways flight before the bombs exploded.
At some time in Pakistan or Afghanistan, he married an Uzbek and had children. Many Uzbek separatists moved into Pakistan and the woman is thought to be from that group.
On May 26, 2004, he was listed along with six others when United States Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that reports indicated that al-Qaeda members were planning a terrorist action for the summer or fall of 2004. Others listed on that date were Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Amer El-Maati, Aafia Siddiqui, Adam Yahiye Gadahn, Abderraouf Jdey, and Adnan G. El Shukrijumah.
On July 25, 2004 a nearly eight hour battle ensued in the town of Gujrat in central Pakistan. Ghailani and thirteen others, included his wife and children, were arrested. A police officer was wounded in the battle. Pakistani Interior Minister Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayyat announced the capture of Ghailani on July 29, 2004. It is not known whether the arrest will cause the US Government to hand out any or all of the $5,000,000 USD bounty offered for information leading to the arrest of Ghailani.
Some press reports (including the conservative New Republic 1 (http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040719&s=aaj071904)) questioned whether the timing of the announcement of Ghailani's capture was politically motivated at the behest of the Bush administration. The announcement was made just hours before U.S. Presidential candidate John Kerry was due to make his acceptance speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, an event at which a candidate usually receives a significant boost in the polls. Hayyat made the announcement after midnight local time, despite having apparently known Ghailiani's identity for some days beforehand. Pakistani officials denied there was any such motivation.
References
- Ghaliani's entry on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists page (http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/terrorists/terghailani.htm)
- BBC News report on Ghailani's arrest (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3938133.stm)de:Ahmad Chalfan al-Ghailani