Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani

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Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani (FBI photo)
Born	circa 1974 Zanzibar, Tanzania
Died	n/a
Occupation	forger
Spouse	(married)

Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani (Arabic: أحمد خلفان الغيلاني) is a member of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization. He was indicted^[1] in the United States as a participant in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings. He was on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list^[2] from its inception in October of 2001. In 2004, he was captured and detained by Pakistani forces in a joint operation with the United States. Ghailani is currently held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp^[3]; he is one of the 14 people who had previously been held at secret locations abroad^[4].

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."

Ghailani was born around 1974 in Zanzibar, Tanzania^[3] (possibly on March 14, April 13, or April 14 of that year, or on 1 August 1970) and is a Tanzanian citizen. He speaks Swahili. Ahmed had served as a tabligh, a Muslim travelling preacher, and 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 is thought 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, United States Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller announced that reports indicated that Ghailani was one of seven al-Qaeda members who were planning a terrorist action for the summer or fall of 2004. The other alleged terrorists named on that date were Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who had also been earlier listed with Ghailani by the FBI as a Most Wanted Terrorist for the 1998 embassy attack, and Abderraouf Jdey, Amer El-Maati, Aafia Siddiqui, Adam Yahiye Gadahn, and Adnan G. El Shukrijumah. Jdey was already on the FBI Seeking Information - War on Terrorism list since January 17, 2002, to which the other four were added as well. ^[5]

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.^[6] 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.^[7]

Some press reports (including the New Republic^[8]) 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.

Soon after the capture of Ghailani and the others with him, the Boston Globe, quoting a United Nations source, said that Ghailani was one of several al-Qaeda personnel who had been in Liberia around 2001, handling conflict diamonds under the protection of then-dictator Charles Taylor.^[9] Ghailani is said to have spent more than three years in Liberia.

The unclassified portion of the transcript of Ghailani's Combatant Status Review Tribunal hearing (held in February of 2007) has been uploaded by the Pentagon.^[10]