Jamal al-Fadl
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The Sudanese Jamal Ahmed al-Fadl is a former member of al-Qaeda who defected to the United States in 1996. He subsequently testified in the trial of four of those accused of the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Africa. To date his testimony is one of the few publicly available accounts of al-Qaeda's constitution and activities from an al-Qaeda insider. But to what extent it can be trusted has, naturally, been disputed.
Copies of al-Fadl's testimony in USA v. Osama bin Ladin et. al. at the Monterey Institute of International Studies:
- 6 February 2001
- 7 February 2001, includes al-Fadl's testimony on why he defected
- 13 February 2001
L'Houssaine Kherchtou is another ex-Qaeda person who defected in East Africa at nearly the same time as al-Fadl; he too became a witness in US criminal trials. The credibility of both witnesses was greatly enhanced by the fact that they gave much the same answers to the same questions, on subjects about which they both might be aware, while there is no indication that the two had ever met.
Jamal al-Fadl has been given a new identity and his location and status are no longer available[1].
[edit] Further reading
The massive report[2] of the 9/11 Commission contains much information on the makeup of al-Qaeda at around the time of al-Fadl's defection.
[edit] References
- ^ A Traitor's Tale, Time, 19 February 2001
- ^ The 9/11 Commission Report (large PDF file)
