The Culture of Muslim Terrorism

The Culture of Muslim Terrorism
Madrassas, Madafas, and Fatwas The al Qaeda Experience The Culture of Muslim Terrorism

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Objective Action: Identify key aspects of the Culture of Terrorism.
Conditions: Given student handouts Standards: Identified key aspects of the Culture of Terrorism. Objective: Action: Identify key aspects of the Culture of Terrorism. Conditions: Given student handouts Standards: Identified key aspects of the Culture of Terrorism.

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Culture of Islamic Terror
Education The Concept of Jihad Recruiting Madrassas Guest Houses Training Camps Return of the Afghan Arabs Fatwas The Declaration of War Case Study: Mohammed Mansour Jabarah Questions The Culture of Islamic Terror Education Madrassas Guest Houses The Concept of Jihad Return of the Afghan Arabs Fatwas The Declaration of War Case Study: Mohammed Mansour Jabarah Questions

Education Declining Quality Illiteracy Gender Barriers
Rote Memorization Media to Population Avg This year's United Nation's Arab Human Development Report urges governments in the region to implement economic, political and social reform or risk continuing to lag behind. The report, compiled by Arab intellectuals and analysts, stressed the untapped potential of knowledge across the 22-country area and slammed pan-regional curbs on both intellectual and civil liberties. The deterioration in individual and political freedoms in the Arab world is attributed to newly enacted legislation such as the Arab Charter against Terrorism, created in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. The charter, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) report says, “allows censorship, restricts access to the internet, and restricts printing and publication... the charter neither explicitly prohibits detention or torture nor provides for questioning the legality of detentions.” The importance of letters Education, the media and translation, considered by the authors as key channels for the distribution of information, present a picture of impotence, the report warned. “The most important challenge facing Arab education is its declining quality,” the report said. “The mass media are the most important agents for the public diffusion of knowledge, yet Arab countries have lower information media-to-population ratios compared to the world average,” it added. The region has fewer than 53 newspapers per 1,000 citizens, compared to 285 papers per 1,000 in developed countries. Translation, the report added, which is a salient medium of propagating information, is stagnant in the Arab world. Persecution of journalists. A separate report earlier this week showed that Arab journalists continue to suffer, with a number of cases in the past and current year of imprisonment or detention. “Journalists face illegal harassment, intimidation and even physical threats, censorship is rife and newspapers and television channels are sometimes arbitrarily closed down,” it reported. There is a consensus in Arab states and among Arab intellectuals that education has become stagnant. Rarely a day goes by without criticism of the failure of the education systems in Arab countries to produce students who can think critically and innovatively. Critics consider the education systems in Arab countries obsolete, consistently failing generations of Arab students and squandering their creativity and productive capacities. Furthermore, progress has thus far been measured only in quantitative terms, such as the number of students enrolled and produced, while the quality and productivity of those who filter through the system has been disregarded. Many have recognized this point, however, there seems to be a common despair and lack of effective means to achieve systemic change. Changes so far have been merely cosmetic, as visions are yet to be transformed into strategies and measurable outcomes. The usual suspects for educational failure are more often than not curriculum and programmatic deficiencies. There is also the occasional ramble regarding the lack of resources. However, according to the 2003 Arab Human Development Report (AHDR) curriculum practices in Arab countries, in technical and formal terms, do not differ from that of many other countries, which suggests that the primary problem lies elsewhere. The fundamental issue of teaching and teachers at the primary and secondary education levels is often minimized in discussions about reform, without which all other reform efforts in the educational process would be in vain. The field of teaching throughout the Arab world is long overdue for an overhaul, as it seems to have stalled. As such, the development of teaching should be a principle focus of reform efforts. What are the Challenges to Education Development in Arab States? The most recent Arab Human Development Report raised an alarm about the regretful state of Arab education. This well-received report pointed out that education was, above many, the gravest deficiency that Arab countries are experiencing. The report characterized the various education systems as consisting of outdated curricula, unqualified teachers, substandard facilities, as well as inefficient institutions and policies. In comparing the knowledge base and capacities in Arab countries to that of others, the report concedes the difficulty of measuring the quality of education in Arab countries because of the paucity of information, which is, in itself, a substantial deficiency. The report declares that, "Efforts to measure the quality of Arab education are still limited—in itself an indication of a crises in education in the Arab countries." Nevertheless, available data shows that Arab states trail their Asian Tigers counterparts in many areas, including the level of investment in education, the number of students pursuing scientific disciplines, and the number of computers in classrooms. Kuwait, with its wealth and small population, was the only Arab country that participated the "Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in 1995." It placed in the bottom of the rankings, compared to Singapore, which was ranked first. Jordan, Tunisia, and Morocco participated in the second TIMSS survey in 1999, and received mathematics rankings of 32nd, 29th, and 37th, respectively. Singapore again ranked first. In science, the three countries were ranked 30th, 34th, and 37th, respectively, while Taiwan ranked first. Arab countries also score dismally in science education and the methods of teaching science is often said to be "outdated and archaic (Castillo, 2004)." The AHDR highlighted the importance of employing able teachers and teaching methods in the intellectual development of children. For example, in proper nursery and kindergarten settings, the emphasis should be upon the intellectual and psychosocial development of children, such as the provision of "opportunities for play and access to free space that allows them to move, express themselves, make decisions, and enhance their self-respect…[in an environment] that is interactive, not didactic (AHDR, 2003, p. 52)." Currently, the focus of early childhood education in Arab countries is primarily confined to teaching reading and writing. Moreover, teaching in the Arab world is often hampered, among other things, by low teacher morale, which likely derives from low salaries and "indifferent quality of teacher training," coupled with poorly designed and inadequately funded facilities and curricula. Teacher training institutions throughout Arab states are said to place premium on "rote memorization." Dr. Victor Billeh, Director of UNESCO's Regional Office for Education in the Arab States, concurs with the assessment that teaching in the Arab world presents a formidable obstacle to the development of education. Dr. Billeh points out that, in general, the teaching profession is undervalued in Arab countries and as a result, teachers often absorb the financial and psychological repercussions of this neglect. According to Dr. Billeh, "there is generally a lack of respect for development, coupled with insufficient financial and psychological rewards, which has resulted in low motivation and few incentives to the profession." Furthermore, he points that there is a lack of appropriate and systematic evaluation mechanisms as well as professional development for teachers. These convictions and observations are frequently echoed by other scholars and policymakers, who warn that the profession will be further unable to retain and attract qualified teachers. Which is the Way Forward? Just as education institutions need to evolve and keep pace with rapid global and technological changes, teaching and teacher education in Arab countries must do the same. Teachers who themselves have not been exposed to effective teaching strategies and are unaware of different modes of learning, different motivational techniques, multiple student needs and intelligences, as well as varied assessment regimes, cannot implement effective change. At the end of the day, the promotion of new education ideas, such as student-centered learning, interactive classrooms, and critical thinking, will not amount to much. Furthermore, there is often the erroneous notion that the introduction of technology and computers into classrooms will magically transform schools. What will render classrooms more student-centered and interactive and promote critical thinking are TEACHERS. Therefore, negligible improvement will occur unless teachers are equipped with the appropriate knowledge and training. Educators in Arab higher education institutions will be challenged to spearhead this reform effort by examining their teacher preparation programs and instituting appropriate changes, which should include programs based on the best and most promising instruction and learning practices. Similarly, governments will be tasked to boost teacher salaries in order to attract and retain bright teachers. In addition, teachers will have to receive ongoing development and support. This endorsement and intervention will solve the issue of low morale and enhance the reputation of the profession and thereby, education in the Arab world.

Palestinian Education فلسطين
Judaism Israel Jerusalem Refugees Peace War, Jihad, Martyrdom Terror The Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (CMIP) issued a comprehensive report in November 2001 on the textbooks published by the Palestinian Authority in the years for grades 1, 2, 6, 7 and 11. Since then, more books have been added to the Palestinian curriculum, which necessitated a follow-up study. The present complementary report deals with 14 newly received books, in addition to 26 high school final examinations in various subjects from the years 2000 and 2002. Findings: For the first time, there is mention of Jerusalem's importance to "the three religions". The old themes still remain in force in these newly received books. Israel’s name does not appear on any of the maps, and several Israeli cities, as well as an archaeological site, a region and mountain are defined as Palestinian. Jerusalem is presented as a Palestinian city. When the Temple is discussed in the context of the life of Jesus, nothing is said about its Jewish character and reference to the Jews is negative. Peace is not mentioned at all, while war against Israel as a usurper, occupier and aggressor is implicitly encouraged. Israel is presented as an occupier and aggressor in one of the final exams. The refugee issue is also mentioned within the context of the destined return to the 1948 homes. The Jews. The present textbooks, like the ones already studied in the former report, do not provide the student with scholarly information about the Jews, their history or their religion. Beyond that the trend of presenting the Jews negatively still continues. The books surveyed for the former report mention traits such as trickery, greed and barbarity, and insinuate that Jews do not keep agreements and treaties as Moslems do. In the newly received textbooks, there are only two references to the Jews both appearing in one book and both negative. They focus on the relations of the Jews with Jesus but avoid any presentation of the Jews, even in this context, as having a legitimate part in Jerusalem’s history. One of the passages contains an explanation of the terms “Jerusalem” and the “Temple” and the Jews are not mentioned in that context. “From the Holy Bible: The Sentence of Jesus Pilate ordered Jesus to be flagellated, perhaps the Jews may be content with that, but they cried “crucify him, crucify him”. Then he handed Jesus over to them. They put on his head a crown of thorns, let him carry a cross, made him walk to the Golgotha hill and crucified him between two criminals. And they were mocking him while he was on the cross.” “Jerusalem (Urushalim): A Palestinian city built by the Arab Canaanites (the Jebusites) and named by them as Jebus. Later it was renamed Ursalem (Urushalim), and after that it was called by many [other] names such as: City of Justice, the Holy City, Noble Jerusalem (al-Quds al-Sharif). The prevalent name is al-Quds.” “The Temple (al-Haykal): A word meaning “the Great House” which was a place of worship of God, like the church today.” The world “Temple” hints to the Jewish Temple on Temple Mount “From the Holy Bible: The Christian Marriage One day the Pharisees came to Jesus and asked him in order to test him: ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’ He said to them: ‘What did Moses order you?’ They said to him: ‘Moses permitted divorce.’ He said to them: ‘Because of your rough hearts he wrote you this instruction…” [One of the questions following that passage reads:] “ Why did Moses allow the Jews to divorce?” Another reference to the Jews appears in a History exam: “Explain the reasons that made the Europeans persecute the Jews?” [Schoolbook text relating to question] “The reasons which make the Europeans persecute the Jews wherever they are manifold. Among them are [the following ones]: The Torah is full of many passages that strengthen the Jews’ inclination for religious and racial fanaticism, inspire a spirit of malice towards the other nations, and allow [the Jews to cause] dissensions and massacres within them [those nations] and eradicate the Jews’ opponents wherever they are. The Jews of Europe, due to their anti-Christian belief and their being self-centered, did not join the Western societies, and the latter remained looking at them suspiciously. Among the reasons for the [Europeans’] hatred of them as well is their sway over the economy, and even their open participation in the world of European economy. The Jews’ sense of racial, religious, cultural and political superiority, and their interaction with the peoples of the world basing on that sense, was an important reason for their persecution by the peoples of the world. The two occupations they were good at – brokerage and money changing – had their impact on the hatred towards them on the part of the peoples of the world. The association of the Jews’ name with the crucifixion of the Lord Christ, peace be upon him, was a factor of the persecution of the Jews by Christian Europe. The Church depicted the Jews in its religious publications in a way that causes hatred, which exposed the Jews to European Christian persecution. [But] persecution became desired by the Jews for two reasons: It could be exploited for the realization of material and moral gains. It encouraged the process of making the Jews emigrate from the world to Palestine. In other words, persecution became a means for ‘Zionizing’ the Jews of the world.” Israel. Israel’s name does not appear on any of the maps of the land included in the newly received books. Nor does any city established by the Jews in modern times, Tel Aviv for example, does not appear on any map. One of the maps is defined as “map of Palestine”. Also, four Israeli cities – Haifa, Acre, Safed and Jaffa, an archeological site – Caesarea, a mountain – Jermaq [Meiron], and the Negev region are presented as Palestinian. Israel is referred to twice, both within the final exams: within the context of “a brutal Israeli attack” on a refugee camp, and by mentioning the USA’s role in establishing the Jews’ state in Palestine. “There are several [agricultural] seasons which characterize the [various] districts of Palestine, such as … , in addition to fishing which characterizes the coastal cities like Haifa, Jaffa and Gaza.” “The Roman art (500 BC – 400 AD) was influenced by the Greek and Etruscan art. The Roman distinctive character appeared in statues and architecture and among their monuments are the theaters of Sebastia and Caesarea in Palestine…” “One of the most famous mountains of Palestine is Mount Jermaq near Safed.” “ Tourism Tourism is visits by people to religious, archeological and recreational sites. Palestine is a huge museum for tourism… Religious and archeological: Others visit Jericho, Nablus, Sebastia and Caesarea because there are archeological sites there. Recreational tourism: In summertime people go to visit Gaza, Haifa and Acre because of the beautiful beaches there.” “Write a composition of about 120 words on one of the following topics. A visit to a refugee camp after a brutal (wahshi) Israeli attack. I deas: Demolished (muhaddamah) houses Destruction of infra-structure (al-binyah al-tahtiyyah) Homeless people Martyrs (shuhada’) Shortage of food and medicine Assassinations (ightiyalat) Wounded people” “Explain the role of the following: America's role] in the establishment of the Jews’ state and in its continued existence in Palestine.” “Since 1940 the USA helped in Judaizing Palestine, by supporting the Jews materially and morally and by adopting their case in the UN and defending it. It was among the first countries to recognize the State of Israel immediately following its declaration in 1948. Questions What is the USA’s role in the establishment of the Jews’ state and in its continued existence in Palestine?” Jerusalem. Jerusalem is presented as exclusively Palestinian and as the capital of the State of Palestine. The Jews are not mentioned as part of its history. Nor are they mentioned as inhabitants of the city. There appears in one of the books, perhaps for the first time in any teachers’ guide published by the Palestinian Authority, a general statement about “the importance of the city of Jerusalem to the three religions” without going into any detail. “Let us connect between the state in the first column and its capital in the second column: Palestine Cairo Egypt Damascus Syria Jerusalem Iraq Amman Jordan Baghdad Saudi Arabia Riyad” “Suggested methods, means and activities Discussing the city of Jerusalem and its most important monuments, focusing on the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque. Presenting pictures of the monuments in the city of Jerusalem… Illustrating the importance of the city of Jerusalem to the three religions. Referring to the shape of the gates, columns, domes, squares, etc. The relation of the Muslim and Christian Palestinians and Arabs to the place. The story of al-Mi’raj [Prophet Muhammad’s ascension to Heaven from Jerusalem, according to Muslim belief]. …..” Another aspect of Jerusalem, that of a suffering city, is presented in the language exams. “Read the following text and then answer the questions below: Jerusalem’s heart has been cut to pieces, and the pure spirit that used to purify her has been suppressed. Gone is the scent whose garden Jerusalem used to be, and all the dew rivulets have become dry. There is no more [olive] oil in the hills for her to kindle as fire and light to illuminate herself… Questions: There is a principal idea in the first three verses. Mention it. Clarify the artistic picture in the first verse. …” The Refugees The refugee problem is dealt with twice in the textbooks researched for this report, in both cases within the context of the return to the old homes. “It is possible to connect between the house in the refugee camp and the houses left by their [the pupils’] parents and grand-parents in the Palestinian cities and villages in 1948.” Peace, Tolerance, Co-existence. No material advocating these ideals has been found in the newly received textbooks or in the final exams, which continue the trend already identified in the rest of the PA books that have been published so far. War, Jihad, Martyrdom. These issues, which are widely dealt with in the textbooks that were studied within the former survey, do not appear in the 14 books surveyed for the purpose of the present report. There are two passages that imply a belligerent message. “ Clarify the Muslims’ duty towards their brethren who are threatened by occupation and aggression on the part of the enemies.” “Explain the following: Sheikh ‘Izz al-Din al-Qassam issued his orders that the battle of Ya’bad thicket [against] the Imperialists be mobile.” “Sheikh al-Qassam issued his orders that the battle be mobile, adopting the pattern of skirmishes, so that the battle would last until nightfall, and thus the Jihad fighters might be helped by darkness to move to another place.” It should be noted that Sheikh ‘Izz al-Din al-Qassam and his companions’ activities during the first half of the 1930’s have become a widely accepted example of true Jihad and martyrdom, to be emulated by later generations – against Israel in particular. Terror. No relevant material has been found, not even passages such as the ones appearing in the books surveyed for the former report, which express solidarity with Palestinian terrorists by calling them martyrs and prisoners-of-war. The sole exception, perhaps, might be the afore-mentioned question about al-Qassam, whose followers attacked unarmed Jewish civilians, though their main enemies were the British. Al-Qassam is considered a national hero by the Palestinians, especially by the Hamas terrorist organization which has named its armed squads after him. Thus, al-Qassam has become a symbol of the present terrorist activity against Israel in the eyes of the Palestinians. Other Issues. Apart from the issues studied above, there are two references to historical events related to the conflict that appear as questions within the final exams. The relevant passages are to be found in the textbooks used in Grade 12, i.e., the older series that was not originally published by the Palestinian Authority itself. Though not an object for the present study, the material therein provides us with a unique opportunity to look into some of the Palestinian educational trends through the questions selected for the exams. “What were the implications of: The [UN] Partition Resolution [regarding Palestine], 1947?” “…The UN issued the Partition Resolution which was confirmed in 1947 and by which the UN recognized the Jews’ right to establish a state for themselves in part of the land of Palestine. Thus the Jews realized their old dream. The UN recognized the State of Israel in The Arab states, which participated with the [Arab] people of Palestine in the war of 1948, could not prevent the Jews from usurping the greater part of Palestine”… “The Jews took control of most of the lands of Palestine in 1949, except for the West Bank that was united with Jordan to form together the Jordanian Hashemite Kingdom. There remained a part in the south-west of Palestine which came to be known as “the Gaza Strip” and Egypt took upon itself to administer its affairs. This way the Palestine problem came into being. Among its most prominent characteristics are the following ones: Evicting more than a million Arabs, from among the people of Palestine, from their country, fields and lands, and transforming them into refugees in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. Transforming the struggle with the Jews from [a case of] usurpation of the land and the eviction of its folk into a refugee problem. An international agency was thus established for their relief and employment and for providing them with tents. It is the UN agency for the Palestinian refugees’ relief and work – UNRWA. Strengthening the Jewish state and effecting its scientific, material and military superiority, by influx of donations, aid and loans, and by providing it with the most advanced weapons and equipment made by American and European factories, so that it would become the first-rate military power in the region. Encouraging inter-Arab conflicts by which the nation’s energies would be exhausted.” “Mention the demands put forward [in 1937] by the Mufti [of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Huseini] to the two Axis Powers [Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy] regarding the Arab countries.” [Schoolbook text relating to question:] “As to the demands put forward by the Mufti to the two Axis Powers regarding the Arab countries, they are [as follows]: Germany and Italy will recognize the complete independence of the Arab countries that are independent now, the complete independence of the Arab countries under French Mandate (Syria and Lebanon) and under British Mandate (Palestine and Trans-Jordan), and [of] those ones that are British colonies or protectorates (Kuwait, Masqat [Oman] and Hadramout [the present south Yemen]). Germany and Italy will declare that they do not have any imperialistic ambitions in Egypt and the Sudan, will recognize their complete independence, and consider the limiting conditions put by England on these two countries null and void. Germany and Italy will undertake not to resort to any measure against the complete independence of the Arab countries, such as the Mandate measure invented by the League of Nations in agreement with the Democracies in order to hide their imperialistic desires. Germany and Italy will recognize the right of the Arab countries to establish their national union according to their wishes, and by the way they deem fit. They [Germany and Italy] will undertake not to place obstacles in the way to building that union. Germany and Italy’s only wish is to see the Arab nation enjoying prosperity and occupying its historic place. Germany and Italy will consider the Jewish National Home an illegitimate entity and will recognize the Arabs’ right to solve this question according to the Arab national interests. The German officials studied these demands thoroughly and notified the Mufti that it was difficult for them to comply with these demands due to the complications of the international situation.” Conclusion The textbooks studied for this complementary report do not change the picture presented by the CMIP former report of Nov The Jews are still presented in a negative light historically, yet at the same time denied any part in the history of the country shared by them and the Palestinians. Israel is still not recognized as a sovereign state, but is rather presented as a foreign entity imposed in 1948 on the land. It is a source of aggression, death and destruction to the Palestinians, especially the refugees among them who aspire to return to their former homes within its territory. Hence, no peace is sought after, but rather a war against Israel as the usurper, aggressor and occupier is to be waged. For the first time, some recognition of Judaism’s relation to Jerusalem is inferred from a brief statement that appears in one of the teachers’ guides, although emphasis is placed on Arab and Christian relations to Jerusalem. The former trend of showing the territory of the State of Israel without its name on it continues in textbooks that were published in The argument raised by Palestinians and others, that no names could be inscribed on maps until the borders between Israel and a Palestinian state are finally agreed upon, is illogical, unless the border dispute perceived by the Palestinians covers the whole territory of the State of Israel. This argument further fails to explain why the Palestinian textbooks sometimes do put a name on the map of the country in its entirety – that of Palestine. The overall picture is gloomy. One cannot but regretfully conclude that most of the questions asked in the context of the CMIP and the UNESCO criteria are answered in the negative. Israel and the Jewish people are not recognized as legitimate neighbors with interests and rights of their own. They are rather stereotyped and prejudiced. Palestinian education does not foster peaceful relations with Israel, nor does it support the peace process between the two parties. Some of the data given in the Palestinian textbooks are inaccurate (The so-called “Arab” Canaanites and Jebusites spoke a language closer to Hebrew than to Arabic; Israeli cities and sites are defined as Palestinian; Jerusalem – at least presently – is Israel’s capital, not Palestine’s) or incomplete (The Jewish connection to Jerusalem and to the Temple is ignored.). All the maps are inaccurate, since neither the state of Israel, nor the city of Tel Aviv, exists in any of them. According to one map, Palestine covers the whole territory of Israel. These maps could be described as “outdated” too, according to one specific criterion of UNESCO, bearing in mind that the State of Israel was established 54 years ago , and Tel Aviv – in 1909. None of the achievements of Israel or the Jews in history is dealt with objectively. Equal standards are not applied, for example the relation of the Jews to Jerusalem is not mentioned. The political dispute, is not presented in an objective and honest manner; the Palestinians are presented as victims while Israel is depicted as a brutal aggressor (in the English final exam). “Is wording likely to create prejudice, misapprehension and conflict avoided?” By all standards, if a question in a textbook reads: “Why did Moses allow the Jews to divorce?” and the available answer is: “Because of their rough hearts”, then such wording is not avoided. Much more serious is the answer in an older textbook to the question in one of the PA final exams about the reasons for the persecution of Jews in Europe. It is true that the older textbooks are not an object of the present survey, but the final exams are, and it is quite disturbing that the PA Ministry of Education would order the inclusion of such a question in a history examination in As regards “the advancement of the cause of peace” – no trace has been found either in the Palestinian textbooks or in the 26 exams studied within the present survey. One cannot, of course, ignore the hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians which broke out in late September But that should not impede the attempt to develop a curriculum that would foster mutual understanding and peace between the presently warring peoples.

Syrian Education السّوريّة
Arab-Israeli Conflict Judaism and Zionism Israel Jerusalem Peace Terror Peace has become Syria's declared strategic choice since the Madrid Conference of The present survey, initiated by the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (CMIP), has undertaken to determine the extent to which the idea of peace with Israel has become part of Syria's official curriculum. Sixty-eight textbooks for grades 1-12 in various subjects, all having been part of the Syrian curriculum during the year 2000, were examined within this survey. The findings are as follows: The Arab-Israeli conflict is a major theme in the Syrian curriculum and is dealt with in most textbooks. The essence of the conflict is Israel's right to existence, not its borders. In fact, the conflict is portrayed as a fateful struggle for existence between the whole Arab nation and a Zionist- Jewish entity that has established itself in Palestine. Not a single word in favor of the Jews is to be found in the Syrian textbooks. The Jews are denied the characteristics of a nation, they are detached from their ancestors and from the land of Palestine, and their religion is racist. They are portrayed as enemies of the Arabs since antiquity, of Islam since its inception, of all mankind, of the prophets and of God himself. The hatred of the nations of the world towards them is justified. The Holocaust is justified, though its magnitude is exaggerated by the Jews. There is one passage in the textbooks that calls for their elimination. Zionism is depicted as a racist and aggressive movement based on false assumptions that the Jews are one people connected to Palestine. Zionism exploits the Jewish religion in order to exercise control over vast areas of the Arab homeland. Israel is portrayed as an alien and artificial entity and is not recognized as a legitimate state. Its place on the map is always referred to as Palestine. Israel is wholly evil. It resembles a spreading cancer and is also the source of innumerable troubles that have befallen the Arabs, beginning with the usurping of Palestine, through preventing the realization of Arab unity and hindering Arab economic progress, and ending with the attempt to erase Palestinian and Arab national identity. Israeli society is full of malice towards the Arabs and Israeli soldiers are demonized. Jerusalem is, and has always been, an Arab city. The Jews are not mentioned as its inhabitants, neither in the past nor in present times. Their holy places in the city are not mentioned alongside those of Muslims and Christians. The Jews' presence in Jerusalem is that of foreign occupiers whom Arabs and Muslims should evict. Such an operation assumes the characteristics of purification, since the Jews defile the place by their mere presence there. Making peace with Israel means surrender and is rejected as a treacherous act. On the other hand, participating in the current peace process is presented as a continuation of the old struggle against Zionism and Israel by other means. In no place does the phrase "peace with Israel" appear and Syria is not referred to as committed to recognizing Israel's right to exist within its pre-1967 borders. The liberation of Palestine is portrayed as a major goal of Syria, as well as an all-Arab and all-Muslim duty. The Syrian textbooks do not conceal the fact that full liberation of Palestine is synonymous with the liquidation of Israel, which is mentioned as one of the goals of the ruling Ba'ath Party. It is also an act of purification, that is, purifying Palestine of the Zionist "filth", and a means to reasserting Arab and Muslim dignity. The struggle against Israel is a "holy war" – Jihad, which is the duty of every Muslim. Within this context, Martyrdom is an exalted value in the Syrian textbooks propagated by President Hafez Assad himself and inculcated in the minds of students in various ways. Finally, embracing and supporting terrorist activities against Israel is a common theme. Though the term "terror" itself is never used in this context and such activities are described as operations against military targets, the cases brought to the student's attention in the textbooks refer to actual or imagined attacks on civilians.

Egyptian Education مصر
Judaism and Christianity Israel Middle East Conflict Peace and Tolerance Terrorism This report by the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (CMIP) surveys 103 Egyptian textbooks for use in primary, preparatory and secondary state schools and 16 textbooks for use in preparatory and secondary schools within the religious Azharite school system. The majority of the books were published in 2002 and the others - between the years The books have been carefully scrutinized in accordance with specific criteria set by United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO and CMIP (see Introduction) focusing on the attitude of the Egyptian school textbooks toward the "other" and to the ideals of peace and tolerance. The manner in which the Middle Eastern conflict is dealt with in these books has also been investigated. Following are the main findings: The Attitude to the "Other" Judaism and Christianity are both respected as monotheistic religions and despised as unbelief. On the one hand, the Egyptian school textbooks stress the common human heritage of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and, on the other hand, they describe various aspects of Judaism and Christianity in negative terms. Islam is the only true religion and all other religions are viewed as false. Although the Torah and the Gospels are considered to be heavenly (i.e. revealed) books originally, it is claimed that they have been distorted by the Jews and the Christians, respectively. No adequate and objective information is given to the student about these two religions. Non-Sunnite Muslim sects and non-Muslim sects that originated in Islam are referred to in one religious (Azharite) textbook in mostly negative terms. No other information is provided. The Christian West is not presented as a rival as such, but no adequate and objective information is given about its civilization either. On the other hand, past conflicts with the West, mainly in the context of the Crusades and modern Imperialism, are vividly described, using hostile language. Western Imperialism is presented as the source of almost all the calamities that have befallen the Arab world in modern times, beginning with occupation and economic exploitation, through the fragmentation of the Arab world and the creation of internal problems therein, and ending with the creation of the Palestinian problem and the support of Israel. The Egyptian textbooks - at least those of the state schools - endeavor to foster a positive attitude among the students towards the Christian minority, the Copts. Coptic civilization and monuments are presented as an integral part of Egypt's history, and the Copts' friendly relations with the early Muslims are emphasized, as well as their participation in the Egyptian national struggle. The Copts are depicted as an integral part of the Egyptian nation. In the Azharite textbooks this trend is emphasized far less, but no negative references to the Copts appear in them. One should note, however, that the problems, difficulties and even clashes that have occurred in the past between the Copts and segments of Egyptian society are not mentioned or addressed. The image of the Jews, on the other hand, as portrayed in the Egyptian school textbooks of both systems, both historically and at present, is very negative. No Jewish individual is portrayed in positive terms, except for Biblical figures and Albert Einstein. The presentation of Jewish history is in considerable part lacking and often distorted. For example, the struggle of the Jews in ancient times against Roman occupation is presented as trouble-making. The harshest expressions against the Jews appear in the context of the relations between Prophet Muhammad and the Jews of Arabia. Negative attributes are sometimes attached to the Jews within the text, with the recurring theme that such traits characterize the Jews to this very day. Malice, greed, treachery, exploitation of others, fomenting of dissension, deception, racism, arrogance, hypocrisy, trickery, and hostility - are all presented as characteristics of the Jews. In the context of the Middle East conflict the Jews are referred to as a treacherous people and as enemies of the Egyptian people - in one case, even after the conclusion of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. On the other hand there is explicit recognition in the Egyptian books of at least one Jewish holy place in Jerusalem - the Western Wall. Zionism, the national movement of the Jewish people, is referred to on a few occasions, always in negative ways. It is described as an expansionist movement with terrorist inclinations, aspiring to take control of the whole area between the Nile and the Euphrates. No adequate and objective information about Israel, its society, etc., is found in the Egyptian school textbooks. Israel's image is negative: It is portrayed as a usurper who has taken possession of a country that belongs to others, driven them out of it and destroyed their homes. Israel inflicts pain and suffering and enjoys the resources of the land, while its rightful sons are regarded as strangers there. Israel is presented as an aggressor that attacked Egypt in 1956, collaborating with French and British Imperialism, and "lured" the Arab states into war in Although it has implemented the relevant clauses of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, its sincerity regarding a comprehensive peace in the Middle East is doubted. In spite of the peace treaty, Israel is not treated in the Egyptian textbooks as a sovereign state. Its name does not appear on the maps - except for two maps in a history book that refer to the "Jewish State". On many maps the name "Palestine" appears instead. Geographic descriptions of the country refer to Palestine, even when it is Israeli territory within the pre-1967 borders that is being discussed. The Middle East Conflict. The Middle East conflict is not presented objectively as a political struggle between two national movements, but rather as the usurpation of Palestinian land by foreigners with the help of Western Imperialism. The Egyptian textbooks fail to mention that it was the Arabs of Mandatory Palestine who started the war against the Jews immediately following, and in defiance and rejection of, the UN Partition Resolution of November However, they openly state that the Arab armies entered Palestine, following the termination of the British Mandate in May 1948, to expel the Jews from the land and eliminate their newly established state. The blame for the results of that war, mainly the loss of additional territory and the emergence of the Palestinian refugee problem, is put on the Jews alone. The solution of the conflict depends on the attainment by the Palestinians of their rights. The books reiterate the official Egyptian position regarding the establishment of a Palestinian state in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, including Jerusalem, and the return of the Palestinian refugees to their former homes. Egypt is described as a principal factor in fostering a peaceful solution along these lines. However, there are other expressions, although very few, that imply that the liberation of Palestine does not end here and that the option of war is not out of the question. All Arabs and Muslims should support the Palestinians in their struggle. The Egyptian books describe in detail Egypt's wars against Israel and its support of Palestinian armed raids inside Israel against Israeli civilians after 1967. Within the context of the Palestinian problem, Jerusalem, and especially the Al-Aqsa Mosque, receives special attention. Jerusalem is presented as the symbol of Arabism and Islam because of its religious importance and Arab roots. Its ancient Jebusite and Canaanite inhabitants are identified as Arabs. The ancient Jews are described as foreigners who tried to seize it, but were defeated by the Babylonians and the Romans, until the city was liberated by the Muslim Arabs. Jerusalem is holy to the three monotheistic religions but the Jews do not have any right to it. The facts that they constitute the majority of the population there, and that Jerusalem is the capital of the State of Israel, are not mentioned. Jerusalem is exclusively Arab and should be returned to the Arabs, if not peacefully, then through a Jihad. Peace and Tolerance. A major effort is made in the Egyptian school textbook to foster tolerance and fight religious extremism. Emphasis is placed on the promotion of good relations between Muslims and Christian Copts inside Egypt and on the inhibiting of extremist trend among Muslims there. In this respect, the books talk of the importance of freedom of thought in religion and against the influence of extremist religious leaders on "half-ignorant youths," which has brought about the emergence of fanaticism and terrorism inside Egypt. The textbooks highlight, in this context, the generally tolerant nature of Islam toward non-Muslims, as well as aspects of Islamic history and law that indicate such tolerance. The Azharite (religious stream) books, on the other hand, also contain non-tolerant aspects of Islamic law regarding non-Muslims. Peace in general is exalted in the Egyptian school textbooks, both as a human and as an Islamic value. It is declared to be Egypt's goal. But when examined more deeply, it turns out to be a conditional value, both on the political and religious levels. On the political level peace is made conditional upon reciprocity on the part of the enemy, which is interpreted as acceptance of the Arabs' demands. On the religious level, peace is conditional upon the interests of the Muslims at any given moment. If the Muslims are stronger than the enemy, peace may be legally rejected. The meaning of peace in itself - as presented to the Egyptian students - does not exclude war, and this reaches the point, in several cases, of advocating war in the name of peace. The peace process between Egypt and Israel is discussed in the Egyptian school textbooks - beginning with President Anwar Sadat's visit to Israel in 1977, through the Camp David Accords of 1978, and ending with the peace treaty of the main articles of which are presented. But the textbooks do not endorse the spirit of the treaty, in particular Article 5 of Annex III, which stipulates that "the Parties will cooperate in promoting peace, stability and development in their region". Furthermore, Israel's sincerity regarding peace in the Middle East is doubted, especially so when peace - as has been already mentioned - is seen as conditional upon Israel's compliance with the Arabs' demands in order to continue having peace. Moreover, there are a few expressions in the Egyptian school textbooks that still advocate war against Israel, without naming it specifically. The Egyptian school textbooks present an ambivalent approach toward war. On the one hand, war is portrayed as a negative phenomenon. On the other hand, it has a bright side. Besides this ambivalence, there is much praise for the Egyptian army and its fighters - especially in language exercises. Stories of past wars are brought in which the Egyptian or Muslim side is much praised and the enemies degraded. The enemy's defeat is a recurring theme in language exercises as well. The Azharite books contribute to this issue an array of Islamic war rules which do not always conform to what are now the accepted rules of war, especially so far as the treatment of prisoners-of-war and the occupied population are concerned. Egypt's wars with Israel are discussed much more extensively than the peace process with it. The October (Yom Kippur) War of 1973 in particular is depicted as a major victory that brought about the liberation of the Sinai Peninsula - a clear distortion of reality, as most of Sinai was returned to Egypt as a result of negotiated agreements throughout the 1970s, including the peace treaty of 1979. The ideal of jihad has several interpretations in the Islamic tradition, of which some could be used in the service of peace. However, it is interpreted in the Egyptian school textbooks almost exclusively as a military endeavor. In religious terms, it is war against God's enemies, i.e., the infidels. In secular terms, it is war against the homeland's enemies and a means to strengthening the Muslim states in the world. In both cases, jihad is encouraged, and those who refrain from taking part in it are denounced. In the context of the Middle East conflict, the ongoing violence in the Holy Land is termed jihad. Also, Jerusalem is destined to be liberated by jihad. Martyrdom, side by side with jihad, is an exalted value in the Egyptian school textbooks. The books define the martyr, talk of his elevated position in God's eyes and of his reward in Heaven, provide the students with examples of heroic martyrdom, both in Islamic and modern history, and feature expressions of readiness for martyrdom. The Egyptian school textbooks reject terrorism in principle. They strive to arouse among the students feelings of disgust toward it and promote cooperation between the individual citizen and the security authorities against this phenomenon. Strict Islamic laws against banditry are also invoked in this context, in order to give the anti-terrorist campaign inside Egypt religious legitimacy against the local terrorists who are mainly extremist Muslims. But the books fail to apply these strict standards to other cases of terrorism outside Egypt, such as, for example, Palestinian terrorism against Israelis, which is described as resistance against occupation and as jihad. There are several positive elements in Egyptian textbooks, such as the positive attitude towards the Copts and the stress on tolerance and against religious extremism. However, the overall attitude of the school textbooks to other issues is either ambivalent or negative in the sense that they do not conform to most of the criteria recommended by UNESCO and CMIP and furthermore are marked by a biased, stereotyped and hostile stance toward the "other". Egypt is a leading country in the Middle East. It is in a unique position to set an example for all other Arab countries in the direction of peace and stability in the region. Education has a most important role in the establishment of the spirit of peace amongst the younger generation, and this is a crucial condition for peace to take hold. In order to achieve this jihad should be interpreted not only in military terms and serve as a conduit of war against the other; peace should not be portrayed as conditional; non-Islamic religions should be presented as independent faiths in their own right, not as extensions or precursors of Islam. Such necessary improvements could be made on the basis of the few expressions that already exist in the books, like, for instance, the two maps in which Israeli territory is referred to by the title "The Jewish State." Al-Azhar University, Cairo

Saudi Education المملكة العربيّة السّعوديّة
Islam-centric Jews and Christians Enemies of Islam The West Decadent Crusaders Zionism Terror and Jihad This slide presents the official Saudi worldview to which school students between the ages 6-16 are exposed through the medium of subject textbooks. For this purpose, 93 books taught in grades 1-10, mostly from the years , have been examined. Special emphasis is placed on the Saudi Arabian attitude to the “other”, namely, Christians, Jews and the West, as well as on: the Middle East conflict, the concept of government, women’s status in society and children’s status in the family. Following are the main findings: Education in Saudi Arabia is centered around Islam, as stated in the Education Policy document. Islamic studies constitute a major portion of the curriculum at all educational levels, and even science textbooks contain Islamic notions. Saudi Arabia is presented as a country where Islam plays the dominant role in state and society, in the judicial and educational systems, and in everyday life. Saudi Arabia assumes, in turn, a leading role in the Muslim world and sees itself as the champion of Islam. Islam is presented as the only true religion, while all other religions are presented as false. It is the only religion leading its followers to Paradise, whereas all other religions destroy their believers in Hell. The Muslims are, consequently, superior to followers of all other religions, in both this world and the next. Christians and Jews are denounced as infidels. Moreover, Christians and Jews are presented as enemies of Islam and of Muslims. Therefore, Muslims may not befriend them, nor emulate them in any way, lest that lead to love and friendship, which is forbidden. The West in particular is the source of the past and present misfortunes of the Muslim world, beginning with the Crusades, through modern Imperialism and ending in the establishment of the State of Israel. However, the West’s most dangerous effect on Muslim society nowadays is its cultural and intellectual influence in various fields such as: the spread of Western practices and habits – from Western democracy to alcoholic drinks, Western influence in the fields of literature, art, music, the media and fashion, Western-inspired ideologies such as nationalism – including its Arab version, Communism and secularism, Western influence in education and research – including research of the Muslim world (“Orientalism”), Christian missionary work, Western humanitarian and medical aid, and even Western-invented computer games. The West itself is a decaying society on its way to extinction, the symptoms of which are the absence of spirituality, the practice of adultery and sodomy that increase the number of AIDS cases in the West, and the large number of suicides in Western society. According to the Saudi textbooks, the Jews are a wicked nation, characterized by bribery, slyness, deception, betrayal, aggressiveness and haughtiness. They were a negative element in Arabia even before Islam and cooperated with Muhammad’s enemies after the emergence of Islam, for which they were punished by the Prophet with exile and, in one case – putting to death of the men and enslavement of the women and children. In spite of this they remained disloyal to Islam and created dissension within it. Their present occupation of Palestine constitutes a danger to the neighboring Muslim countries. The Jews have been a harmful element in world history, and are responsible, inter alia, for the French and Bolshevik revolutions and for the outbreak of World War I. In order to illustrate the negative role of the Jews to Saudi Arabian students, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are presented to them as an authentic historical source. They are said to have been the secret resolutions of the first Zionist Congress that was convened in Basel, Switzerland, in One textbook mentions that perdition is the desired fate for the Jews. Zionism is presented as an evil movement. It is based on ancient Jewish notions, chief among them being the idea of the “chosen people”, which is presented in the Saudi Arabian textbooks as a belief on the part of the Jews that they have been chosen to be masters of the world*. Accordingly, Zionism strives towards world domination or, at least, towards territorial expansion in the Fertile Crescent and Arabia. It uses evil means to direct world history, including some non-Jewish auxiliary organizations, like the Freemasons and the Lyons and Rotary clubs. Israel is not recognized as a sovereign state in the Saudi Arabian textbooks and its name does not appear on any map. Instead, all maps bear the name Palestine. Israeli regions – such as the Negev, and cities – such as Haifa and Acre, are presented as Palestinian. Palestine is presented as a Muslim country occupied by foreigners who defile its Muslim holy places, especially al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The occupation of Palestine is portrayed as the most crucial problem of the Arabs and the Muslims, who should all join forces for the total liberation of Palestine and for its purification from the Zionist filth. Peace between Muslims and non-Muslims is not advocated. Instead, the Saudi Arabian textbooks, even grammar books, are full of phrases exalting war, Jihad, and martyrdom. All forms of terror are rejected by the Saudi Arabian textbooks. However, it appears that such prohibitions do not apply to cases that fall in the categories of Jihad and martyrdom. Saudi Arabian textbooks use the term “Fida’i” in a positive way, which seems to indicate support for terrorist activity carried out by members of the Palestinian armed organizations who are called “Fida’is” throughout the Arab world. The Saudi Arabian textbooks reject Western democracy. Instead, they praise the type of regime Saudi Arabia has embraced, the character of which is attributed to Islamic directives. Within this framework, the subjects are expected to remain loyal to the ruler under all circumstances – even if the ruler is oppressive – so long as he does not order them to act in a way contrary to Islamic Law. On the other hand, the Saudi Arabian textbooks emphasize the “family-like” type of relationship between the ruler and the ruled. Women’s legal standing and their status vis-à-vis men, including their own husbands in matters of divorce, are elaborately dealt with in the Saudi Arabian textbooks. Specific attention is paid in the books to the various rules that prohibit direct contact between men and women, and the importance of women’s dress code. The Saudi Arabian textbooks emphasize the child’s duties towards his parents, of which first and foremost is obedience. Obedience is also demanded from the students to their teacher. It should be noted that the Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister, Prince Sa’ud al-Faisal, referred to the problem of Saudi Arabian textbooks during an interview to CBS’s 60 Minutes program in September He said that a survey of Saudi Arabian textbooks that had been carried out on his orders revealed that only 5% of the material therein was “abhorrent”, while other 10% were “questionable”, and they had been changed. It is too early to determine whether such a reform is complete, but CMIP and AJC hope that the present report contribute to any useful discussion of this important issue. King Saud University

Salafi/Wahhabi Ideology منهاج السلف
Winners and Losers Salafists or Kafirs Return to the way of the Prophet Can be no deviation Shia’ By any means necessary Exportation The Ideology of Extremism It is difficult, indeed, impossible to successfully defeat a violent ideological movement, such as radical Islam, without understanding the ideology motivating it. And there has been no lack of scholarly attention to the subject from both the liberal Western and the Muslim perspective recently. Nonetheless, it is worth encapsulating the main doctrinal tenets of Islamic extremism here because they are regularly and consciously obfuscated by the extremists themselves and continue to be misunderstood. Islamic extremism as an ideology is hardly new with the first movement that resembles today’s phenomenon, known as the Kharijites, appearing shortly after the birth of Islam in the 7th century. Later it was expounded on by various Islamic scholars, such as Ibn Taymiiya in the 13th century, but it did not become institutionalized until the mid-18th century when the theories promulgated by the radical cleric Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab were accepted and imposed as the state religion of his realm by the founder of the House of Saud. Wahhabism, as this creed got to be known, like most other extremist movements before it, believed that traditional Islamic virtues and beliefs have been corrupted and preached a return to the ostensibly pure Islam of the time of the Prophet and his companions. In reality, Wahhab’s extreme doctrines contradicted and stood on their head major tenets of traditional Islam and in a real sense represent an outright falsification of the Muslim faith. To name just one egregious (bad) example, a key postulate of Wahhab’s teaching asserts that Muslims who do not believe in his doctrines are ipso facto non-believers and apostates against whom violence and Jihad were not only permissible, but obligatory. This postulate alone transgresses against two fundamental tenets of the Quran – that invoking Jihad against fellow-Muslims is prohibited and that a Muslim’s profession of faith should be taken at face value until God judges his/hers sincerity at judgment day. This extreme reactionary creed was then used as the religious justification for military conquest and violence against Muslim neighbors of the House of Saud. Already in 1746, just two years after Wahhabism became Saud’s religion, the new Saudi-Wahhabi state proclaimed Jihad against all neighboring Muslim tribes that refused to subscribe to it. Indeed, well into the 1920s the history of the House of Saud is replete with violent campaigns to force other Muslims to submit politically and theologically, violating yet another fundamental Quranic principle that prohibits the use of compulsion in religion. Today, the Wahhabi ideology continues to be characterized by a set of doctrinal beliefs and behavior prescriptions that are often inimical to the values and interests of the vast majority of Muslims in the world to say nothing about those of non-Muslims. Non-Wahhabi Sunni Muslims (syncretic Muslims, Sufis, Barelvis, Bahai, Ahmadis, etc) are still considered illegitimate, at best, while the Shia religion is particularly despised as a “Jewish conspiracy” against Islam. The Wahhabis continue to believe and preach violence and Jihad as a pillar of Islamic virtue, rigid conformism of religious practice, institutionalized oppression of women, wholesale rejection of modernity, secularism and democracy as antithetical to Islam and militant proselytism. This jihadist ideology par excellence, is by and large, also the worldview of radical Islam and it is not at all an exaggeration to argue that Wahhabism has become the prototype ideology of all extremist and terrorist groups, even those that despise the House of Saud. How did this obscurantist (clouded or veiled), pseudo-Islamic creed manage to become the dominant idiom not only among the extremists but increasingly the Islamic establishment? The short answer is money and an acute legitimacy crisis in the Muslim world in the last quarter of the 20th century. Regarding the latter, the progressive, centuries-long, gradual decline of Islam as a dominant force and civilization reached its nadir in 1924, when Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) simultaneously did away with the Caliphate and the Ottoman Empire by overnight transforming the latter into a secular Turkish republic. The unceremonious discarding of the symbol of the Muslim community (ummah), coupled with the establishment of European colonial rule over much of the Muslim world gave rise to revivalist movements and ideologies seeking to come to terms with Islam’s predicament and efforts to restore it to previous glories. Beginning with the Muslim Brotherhood of Hassan el-Banna in 1928, followed by the movements founded by Islamist ideologues like Abul ala Maududi, Sayyid Qutb and the extremist Deobandi creed in South Asia, radical Islam established a strong presence in the Muslim world in the second half of the 20th century. Then in the 1970s and 1980s Islamic terrorist groups (Al Jihad and Gamaa Islamiya in Egypt, Front for National Salvation (FIS) in Algeria etc.) began appearing in the Middle East and South Asia, especially after the beginning of the Soviet war in Afghanistan. While none of these groups and movements were 100% Wahhabi originally, their ideological differences were insignificant. As these movements were violently suppressed in places like Egypt and Algeria, the Saudis were quickly able to co-opt them by providing sanctuary and financial assistance to their members in both Saudi Arabia and outside of it. Thus, the economic and logistical dependence of many of these extremists on the Saudis, coupled with the ongoing radicalization of Wahhabism itself, created a highly synergistic relationship between the practitioners of terror and their Wahhabi supporters and paymasters despite the fact that many practicing jihadists like Osama bin Laden resented the Saudi regime. While this ideological affinity between the Wahhabis and modern day radical Islam is undoubtedly of key import, it was vast amounts of money more than anything else that made Wahhabism the chief enabler and dominant influence of the Islamist phenomenon. Financing Radical Islam. Saudi financing of Islamic extremism plays such a huge role in its emergence as a global phenomenon that a proper understanding of it is impossible without coming to terms with its dimensions. Simply put, without the exorbitant sums of Saudi money spent on supporting extremist networks and activities, the terrorist threat we are facing today would be nowhere as acute as it is. While the Wahhabis have always been sympathetic to Sunni Muslim extremists and evidence exists that they have supported such people financially as early as a century ago, the real Saudi offensive to spread Wahhabism aggressively and support kindred extremist groups world-wide began in the mid-1970s, when the kingdom reaped an incredible financial windfall with rocketing oil prices after Riyadh’s imposition of an oil embargo in “It was only when oil revenues began to generate real wealth,” says a government publication, that “the kingdom could fulfill its ambitions of spreading the word of Islam to every corner of the world.” There are no published Western estimates of the numbers involved, which, in itself, is evidence of our failure to address this key issue, but even the occasional tidbits provided by official Saudi sources, indicate a campaign of unprecedented magnitude. Between 1975 and 1987, the Saudis admit to having spent $48 billion or $4 billion per year on “overseas development aid,” a figure which by the end of 2002 grew to over $70 billion (281 billion Saudi Rials). These sums are reported to be Saudi state aid and almost certainly do not include private donations which are also distributed by state-controlled charities. Such staggering amounts contrast starkly with the $5 million in terrorist accounts the Saudis claim to have frozen since 9/11. In another comparison, it is instructive to put these figures side by side with the $1 billion per year said to have been spent by the Soviet Union on external propaganda at the peak of Moscow’s power in the 1970s. Though it is claimed that this is “development aid” it is clear from the Saudi media and government statements alike that the vast majority of these funds support “Islamic activities”, rather than real developmental projects. For example, a report on the yearly activities of the Al Haramain Foundation described as “keen on spreading the proper Islamic culture” are listed as follows: “it printed 13 million (Islamic) books, launched six internet sites, employed more than 3000 callers (proselytizers), founded 1100 mosques, schools and cultural Islamic centers and posted more than 350,000 letters of call invitations to convert to Islam)” while the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), another key “charity,” completed 3800 mosques, spent $45 million for Islamic education and employed 6000 proselytizers. Both of these organizations have been implicated in terrorist activities by U.S. authorities and both operate directly out of Saudi embassies in all countries in which they do not have their own offices. The Saudi money is spent according to a carefully designed plan to enhance Wahhabi influence and control at the expense of mainstream Muslims. In Muslim countries, much of the aid goes to fund religious madrassas that teach little more than hatred of the infidels, while producing barely literate Jihadi cadres. There are now tens of thousands of these madrassas run by the Wahhabis’ Deobandi allies in South Asia and also throughout Southeastern Asia. In Pakistan alone, foreign funding of these madrassas, most of which comes from Saudi Arabia, is estimated at no less than $350 million per year. The Saudis also directly support terrorist activities in places like Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Chechnya, and Bosnia and, as noticed above, most of the large Saudi foundations have been implicated in such involvement. It needs to be emphasized here that contrary to Saudi claims that charities such as Al Haramain, the World Muslim League (WML), the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) and the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) are independent and non-governmental, there is conclusive evidence from Saudi sources that they are tightly controlled by the government and more often than not run by government officials. It is also the case that as early as 1993, the kingdom passed a law stipulating that all donations to Muslim charities must be collected in a fund controlled by a Saudi Prince. Early on in the Wahhabi ideological campaign, the penetration of the Muslim communities in non-Muslim Western societies was made a key priority. The objective pursued there was slightly different and aimed to assure Wahhabi dominance in the local Muslim establishments by taking over or building new Wahhabi mosques, Islamic centers and educational institutions, including endowing Islamic chairs at various universities. Taking over a mosque, of course, means more than just the ability to impose the Wahhabi version of Islam. The imam and the leadership of the mosque are also responsible for the collection of zakat (the 2 ½ % yearly tithe Muslims must donate), which gives them the ability to contribute these funds to extremist organizations. Most Pakistani mosques in the United Kingdom, for instance, have reportedly been taken over by the Wahhabi/Deobandi group even though their members belong primarily to the moderate Barelvi creed. As a result, millions of their donations are said to be supporting terrorist groups in Pakistan. While nobody knows for sure how much the Saudis have spent on getting a foothold in non- Muslim regions and especially in Western Europe and North America, the sums are clearly huge. According to official information, the Saudis have built over 1500 mosques, 210 Islamic centers, 202 Islamic colleges and 2000 schools for educating Muslims in non-Muslim countries. Most of these institutions continue to be on the Saudi payroll for substantial yearly donations assuring that Wahhabi control is not likely to weaken any time soon. What have the Saudis been able to buy with this unprecedented Islamic largesse? Quite a bit it would seem. For starters, the Wahhabi creed which is practiced by no more than 20 million people around the world, or less than 2% of the Muslim population, has become a dominant factor in the international Islamic establishment through an elaborate network of front organizations and charities, as well as in a great number of national establishments, including the United States. In just one example, the venerable Al Azhar mosque and university in Cairo, which not too long ago was a paragon of Islamic moderation has been taken over by the Wahhabis and spews extremist propaganda on a regular basis. Two of their recent fatwas make it a religious duty for Muslims to acquire nuclear weapons to fight the infidels and justify suicide attacks against American troops in Iraq.18The Wahhabi project has contributed immeasurably to the Islamic radicalization and destabilization in a number of countries and continues to do so. Pakistan, for instance, an important U.S. ally, is facing the gradual talibanization of two of its key provinces under Wahhabi/Deobandi auspices and the prospect of large-scale sectarian strife and turmoil. Riyadh-financed extremist networks exist presently around the world providing terrorist groups and individuals with a protective environment and support and even the recent terrorist incidents in Saudi Arabia itself do not seem likely to bring about meaningful change. Already Saudi officials have stated that they do not intend to either change their anti-Western curriculum or stop their “charitable” activities. Yet the evidence of conscious Saudi subversion of our societies and values as partly detailed above is so overwhelming that to tolerate it further would be unconscionable. Failure to confront it now will assure that we will not win the war on terror anytime soon.

Summer Camps Palestinian Phenomenon 7-15 Yrs of Age Military Training
Extreme Anti-Semitism Funded by Fatah and UNICEF Islamist also Palestinian children attending some summer camps in the Gaza Strip are undergoing military training at the hands of gunmen belonging to various Palestinian factions. The children, aged 7-15, are taught, among other things, how to use automatic rifles and pistols, assemble and dismantle explosive charges, and jump through burning tires. The Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news channel on Tuesday broadcast footage of the children undergoing military training in one of the summer camps in the Gaza Strip. The report showed the children also being trained how to ambush and kidnap a Jewish settler from his white Subaru. Most of the children were seen brandishing different types of weapons and dressed in military fatigue. Most of the trainers were masked men carrying AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled launchers. Some of them belonged to Fatah's armed wing, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. It was not clear from the report on Al-Arabiya if the Palestinian Authority had sponsored the summer camp. The supervisors of the camp were quoted as saying that the purpose of the military training was to prepare the children to defend their homeland. The report also showed the children graduating from the military summer camp and receiving certificates of merit from masked gunmen. Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip confirmed that some of the summer camps were being used to train schoolchildren in guerilla warfare. They pointed out, however, that the majority of the camps in the area were ordinary ones with various social and sports activities. Hamas and other Islamic groups have also launched their own summer camps in dozens of mosques throughout the Gaza Strip. The mosque camps, which are the most popular, offer lessons in the Koran and computer, as well as various sports activities. “We hire professional captains and teachers to polish up the physical and mental skills of our children, who, God willing, will liberate Palestine, Jasser Al-Mashoukhi, the imam of Al-Farouk mosque in the southern city of Rafah told the Islam On Line Website.”

The Concept of Jihad جهاد
Central Duty of Muslims Can Mean Many Things Internal Conscience Violent Jihad is a Constant in History Never Repudiated Can/Will be Used as Justification Jihad is a central duty of every Muslim. Modern Muslim theologians have spoken of many things as jihads: defending the faith from critics, supporting its growth and defense financially, even migrating to non-Muslim lands for the purpose of spreading Islam. But in Islamic history and doctrine violent jihad is founded on numerous verses of the Qur'an — most notably, one known in Islamic theology as the "Verse of the Sword": "Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is forgiving, merciful" (Sura 9:5). Establishing "regular worship" and paying the "poor-due" (zakat) means essentially that they will become Muslim, as these are two of the central responsibilities of every Muslim. Sahih Bukhari, which Muslims regard as the most trustworthy of all the many collections of traditions of Muhammad, records this statement of the Prophet: "Allah assigns for a person who participates in (holy battles) in Allah's Cause and nothing causes him to do so except belief in Allah and in His Messengers, that he will be recompensed by Allah either with a reward, or booty (if he survives) or will be admitted to Paradise (if he is killed in the battle as a martyr)." Ibn Khaldun ( ), a pioneering historian and philosopher, was also a legal theorist. In his renowned Muqaddimah, the first work of historical theory, he notes that "in the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the Muslim mission and (the obligation to) convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force." In Islam, the person in charge of religious affairs is concerned with "power politics," because Islam is "under obligation to gain power over other nations.“ Violent jihad is a constant of Islamic history. The passages quoted above and many others like them form a major element of the motivation of radical Muslims worldwide today. No major Muslim group has ever repudiated the doctrines of armed jihad. The theology of jihad, with all its assumptions about unbelievers‚ lack of human rights and dignity, is available today as a justification for anyone with the will and the means to bring it to life.

Recruiting AQ Not Easy to Join Double-Agent Worries Standards
Highest to go to Chechnya Swear Bayat Characteristics Teens to early 30s Willing to Die Patience and Discipline Do not Take Volunteers Use of Radical Mosques Becoming a member of al-Qaeda is just as tough, in its own way, as getting into the CIA, an elite American university or even the Mafia. There are no SATs or lie-detector tests, but talent hunters for the group that carried out the Sept. 11 attacks use rigorous vetting techniques that include background checks, interviews with relatives and friends and one-on-one meetings to test a recruit's commitment. As at the CIA, al-Qaeda takes pains to make sure it is not recruiting an enemy agent. As at American universities, a letter of recommendation helps. Recruits must meet minimum standards, and they move from undergraduate to graduate levels of training and get perks along the way, from welcome ceremonies to audiences with senior leadership. And as in the Mafia, there is a signed, sworn oath of allegiance and secrecy, examples of which have been obtained by U.S. intelligence. Mobsters call it "omerta." In al-Qaeda it's called a "bayat," a signed promise to follow al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, even to martyrdom. The penalty for breaking the oath is death. U.S. intelligence and law enforcement are building a detailed picture of how a Muslim man gets into al-Qaeda — and only Muslim men are considered. Information comes from interrogation of captives from the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan, documents from al-Qaeda camps, testimony in past terrorism cases and experience gained from efforts by U.S. intelligence to penetrate the terrorist organization with human sources, according to U.S. officials. The effort is shedding light on the cases of American Jihadists John Walker Lindh, who fought for the Taliban in Afghanistan, and the six Yemeni-Americans from Lackawanna, N.Y., who allegedly went to an al-Qaeda training camp last year. It is also underscoring the difficulty the CIA and other organizations face in trying to pry into al-Qaeda in search of intelligence on the next terrorist attack. "Al-Qaeda proved an exceptionally difficult target for U.S. intelligence," concluded a staff report released Wednesday by the congressional joint investigative committee looking into intelligence failures prior to the Sept. 11 attacks. "Details of major terrorist plots were not widely shared in the al-Qaeda organization, making it hard to develop the necessary intelligence to pre-empt or disrupt such an attack. In addition, senior al-Qaeda officials were very sensitive to the need for operational security.“ Some of the characteristics al-Qaeda recruiters look for: A Muslim man from late teens to early 30s. Willingness to die. Ability to follow orders. Patience and discipline; not a hothead. Entry for Americans is harder because of concern about CIA plants. If standard vetting leaves some doubt about a recruit, al-Qaeda operatives conduct surveillance to ensure the organization is not being compromised. Law enforcement officials say that Lindh and the six from Lackawanna saw bin Laden at a morale-building appearance at an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan. But they say the Americans never reached the al-Qaeda inner circle. They cleared only the first few hurdles of membership. Al-Qaeda may have thousands of sympathizers and low-level operatives around the world. Americans, such as the group from Lackawanna, are particularly valued because their U.S. passports make travel around the world and re-entry into the United States easy for missions such as carrying messages or money to al-Qaeda cells. The core of the organization, however, is surprisingly small, possibly fewer than 200 full-fledged members. Rule No. 1 of al-Qaeda recruiting is that they don't take volunteers. Al-Qaeda finds you, not the other way around, according to a U.S. official familiar with al-Qaeda methods. Keenly sensitive to the risk of penetration agents being planted in their midst, al-Qaeda selects prospects from Islamic centers, schools and mosques around the world. A first step might be to encourage the prospect to enroll in a more conservative or militant mosque. While there, al-Qaeda would conduct background checks through employers, religious leaders, relatives and friends. Unless the person being interviewed was known and trusted, the al-Qaeda officer would conceal his affiliation. Before the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan, a typical first step for recruits was attendance at a radical Islamic school in Pakistan. From there, the next stop was an al-Qaeda guesthouse, gateway to one of at least a half dozen camps in Afghanistan. After a little pampering and a raucous welcome ceremony, replete with celebratory gunfire, a recruit was assigned to basic training that could last up to six month and lead to more advanced study. Courses included kidnapping, assassination, downing aircraft, hijacking buses, handling plastic explosives, encrypting computerized communications and moving money through secret accounts. Although al-Qaeda went through lean financial times in the mid-1990s, bin Laden paid his higher-level operatives and was always ready to finance pilot training, according to testimony from former members and interrogation of prisoners. Another al-Qaeda field of expertise is clandestine surveillance, especially useful in casing possible targets for terrorist attacks. Being able to use miniature cameras and develop film are among the skills considered basic to al-Qaeda operations. The discerning eye of al-Qaeda recruiters is not infallible. One al-Qaeda operative picked for a suicide-bombing mission against the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in 1998 lost his nerve and fled from his explosive-packed vehicle. The bomb went off, but the operative was captured, and interrogation yielded valuable information about al-Qaeda. Like the Mafia, the penalty for betraying al-Qaeda is death, and the organization is suspicious of senior members who die accidentally. In 1996, Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri, al-Qaeda's then-military commander, died in a ferry that sank in Africa's Lake Victoria. Al-Qaeda leaders, concerned that al-Banshiri was a defector, dispatched operatives to verify his death. Abu Hafs al Masri

Madrassas Islamic Religious School A Network of Seminaries
Generally Espouse Wahhabism Established Along AF/PK Border Soviet Jihad Military Training Differ from Tradition Madrassas. A madrassa is an Islamic religious school. Many of the Taliban were educated in Saudi-financed madrassas in Pakistan that teach Wahhabism, a particularly austere and rigid form of Islam which is rooted in Saudi Arabia. Around the world, Saudi wealth and charities contributed to an explosive growth of madrassas during the Afghan jihad against the Soviets. During that war ( ), a new kind of madrassa emerged in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region -- not so much concerned about scholarship as making war on infidels. The enemy then was the Soviet Union, today it's America. All of these groups are rooted in a network of seminaries, or as the term is called in the local vernacular, "madrassa.” The main source of funding for these groups is Saudi Arabia. In fact, this whole phenomenon that we are confronting, which Al Qaeda is a part of, is very closely associated with Saudi Arabia's financial and religious projects for the Muslim world as a whole. In order to have terrorists, in order to have supporters for terrorists, in order to have people who are willing to interpret religion in violent ways, in order to have people who are willing to legitimate crashing yourself into a building and killing 5,000 innocent people, you need particular interpretations of Islam. Those interpretations of Islam are being propagated out of schools that receive organizational and financial funding from Saudi Arabia. In fact, these schools would not have existed without Saudi funding. They would not have proliferated across Pakistan and India and Afghanistan without Saudi funding. They would not have had the kind of prowess that they have without Saudi funding, and they would not have trained as many people without Saudi funding. A Madrassa is a seminary. It's where students of different ages, as young as nine or ten, go to learn religious education and to be schooled first of all in reading and then in religious studies. In the old times, it substituted for regular elementary education and higher education, and ultimately produces quote, unquote, clerics, in other words, scholars, preachers, and religious community leaders who conduct the religious affairs of a community. Because of the Afghan war, we have a new kind of madrassa emerging in Pakistan-Afghanistan area. They've been spreading throughout Central Asia, but there have been Central Asian students, Filipino students, Indonesian students, Nigerian students, Arab students, thanks to scholarship funding provided from Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia, that have been going to these schools. Now these Afghan madrassas, how they differ from the traditional madrassas is that they were not really so much concerned about scholarship. They were more concerned about training religious fighters who would go into the Afghan field and fight. The phenomenon of Taliban itself means religious seminary students. So you have the whole rise of, if you would, Islamic West Points, or Islamic military camps, Islamic guerilla camps along the border, which mix a dosage of Islam with a lot of military training. Then they also train a new generation of mosque leaders and clerics who go open their own madrassas or go populate mosques from Jakarta to Rabat. The students are recruited from among the lower classes and lower-middle classes. In the Afghan-Pakistan arena, there are members of Pashtun tribes who enroll in these madrassas. There are peasant children from the peasant backgrounds. And occasionally there are also lower middle-class children they are very able to recruit among people in Pakistan particularly who don't have any access to any other kind of schooling. That is why the ideology that's propagated by these schools is so significant in shaping minds in the Muslim world. So, if regular schooling is not schooling people, and schools that propagate fanaticism are schooling people, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out what would be the impact on society.

Madafas The Guest House Used to Receive Foreign Fighters
Facilitate Entry into Proper Training Camp Beit al Ansar – Most Famous Origin of al Qaeda Limited Military & Militant Religious Training By 1984, bin Laden and Azzam had rented a house in the Peshawar suburb of University Town and established a logistics base for the thousands of Arab fighters arriving in the city. It was called Beit-al-Ansar (the House of the Faithful). "Bin Laden ... would receive the Arab volunteers, vet them and then send them on to the various Afghan factions," said one former associate. The venture was condoned by the CIA, the powerful Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, and the Saudi agency, the Istakhbarat, soon to be headed by his old friend Prince Turki. None, though, gave bin Laden any American aid. Beit-al-Ansar was on Syed Jalaluddin Afghani Road, a quiet backstreet full of bougainvillea and large houses built for the local elite. By the mid-'80s the area had become a center for the Afghan resistance. All the leaders of the various groups had offices there. There were two newspapers -- one published by Abdullah Azzam and bin Laden. There was even a "neutral" office, in a building rented by bin Laden, where Mujahideen groups could thrash out their differences. Conditions were spartan -- almost deliberately so. The volunteers, and bin Laden too, used to sleep a dozen to a room on thin pallets laid out on the hard floor of their offices. According to former associates, bin Laden used to sit up late into the night discussing Islam and Middle Eastern history. The young Saudi was yet to develop his radical ideology. Instead his views were a mixture of half-remembered history and heavily skewed, and often ill-informed, analyses of current affairs. Bin Laden was particularly angry about what he called the betrayal of the Arabs by the British after the First World War. He also criticized the Saudi royal family, saying they had exploited the Wahhabi to gain power. At other times bin Laden would lead religious debates among the volunteers. Many centered on Sura Yasin -- the key passage known as "the heart" or "the source" of the Koran, when Muhammad the prophet reveals the message and the task that God has entrusted him with. "He used to talk a lot about the warriors of Islamic history such as Salauddin [Saladin]," said one associate. "It was as if he was preparing himself."

Training Camps The Big 3 Farouq Khalden Darunta Near Kandahar
Basic Training Wealthy Khalden Paktia Province Abu Zubaydah Hard Core 93 WTC, Millenium, Shoe Bombers…etc Darunta Near Tora Bora More Advanced Training Explosives Chemical/Bio Weapons Killing Puppies in Darunta Training Camps Surrounded by mud walls and hidden in the rugged mountains of eastern Afghanistan, the Khalden camp was the birthplace of deadly terrorist attacks and plots against the United States for nearly a decade. With 50 to 100 recruits at a time, studying everything from small arms to heavy explosives, the hardscrabble boot camp provided basic terror and guerrilla training to a generation of Al Qaeda suicide bombers, hijackers and saboteurs from around the world. Although Khalden now has been bombed to rubble, its grim legacy lives on. Indeed, U.S. officials fear that many of the Muslim militants who trained and were indoctrinated there remain at large outside Afghanistan and may be planning further terrorist strikes against the United States or its allies. Khalden was publicly cited when a federal grand jury in Virginia indicted Zacarias Moussaoui for his alleged role in the Sept. 11 hijackings. The indictment charges that Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, was a camp alumnus. But he is not the first to face charges of terrorism. Other Khalden graduates were involved in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the suicide truck bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa five years later and an aborted millennium plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport and other civilian targets. Khalden--located in Paktia, a small, cave-filled province not far from Tora Bora--is one of at least two dozen guerrilla and terrorist training camps that the CIA and FBI had identified over the years in Afghanistan. Some had classrooms and communication systems for intelligence training, as well as firing and demolition ranges, tunnels and bunkers. A hospitality section welcomed new recruits. On visits, Osama bin Laden exhorted his acolytes with fiery sermons against America. The camps' role as proving ground and networking center for Al Qaeda has become evident in recent searches of their ruins, interrogations, court records and the Moussaoui indictment. The indictment alleges that training camps helped Bin Laden create a far-flung terrorist army. "Since at least 1989, until the filing of this indictment, Osama bin Laden and the terrorist group Al Qaeda sponsored, managed and/or financially supported training camps in Afghanistan, which were used to instruct members and associates of Al Qaeda and its affiliated terrorist groups in the use of firearms, explosives, chemical weapons and other weapons of mass destruction," the indictment charges. "These camps were used to conduct operational planning against United States targets around the world and experiments in the use of chemical and biological weapons." All the known camps, including Khalden and four others named in the Moussaoui indictment, have been abandoned or destroyed by bombs, U.S. officials say. One camp, Darunta, named for the Darunta Dam over a river in the Tora Bora region, was an early target because it had been used by Al Qaeda to test crude chemical weapons. But the camps survive in an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 zealots who spent anywhere from two weeks to six months training with arms, explosives, terrorism tactics and prayer. Although some undoubtedly have been killed in the current war, others have scattered to the 60 or so nations where Al Qaeda has built cells or helped support local terrorist affiliates. The Afghan camps came into widespread public view on Aug. 20, 1998, when the United States fired more than 70 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a training complex near the eastern city of Khost. President Clinton authorized the attack after Bin Laden followers bombed two U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The U.S. attack had minimal lasting effect, however. Although U.S. intelligence had indicated Bin Laden and his top aides were supposed to be attending a meeting at the camp, he was not there. Indeed, the camps were nearly deserted, and most of the two dozen or so casualties were Pakistanis training to fight Indian forces in the disputed territory of Kashmir. Moreover, two of the camps identified --Siddiq and Jihad Wal--were rebuilt on the site of two camps bombed in 1998, according to U.S. intelligence reports. Other parts of the Khost site also were reestablished after Experts say some sites, like Siddiq and Farouk, mostly drew wealthy Middle Easterners who could pay their own way. Such camps were relatively posh, almost touristy in nature, used to glean much-needed funds from those less committed to suicide attacks. "If you're a rich Saudi, you go to a camp with bunks and showers and for bragging rights back home," said an FBI counter-terrorism agent who has spent years investigating Al Qaeda. "You go back to a comfortable life. You don't have the edge of these dispossessed people who have no life and no job to go back to." Khalden was for the dispossessed--and the hardest of the hard core. By most accounts it was a spartan mountain camp that drew the poorest and most aggressive of Al Qaeda's foot soldiers. Many came on a kind of terrorist scholarship, "sponsored" by Al Qaeda or its allies, then returned to their home countries to participate in the jihad. "They feel more responsible," the FBI agent said. "They want to do bigger things." Many have done so. Kuwaiti-born Palestinian Ramzi Yousef finished his studies at Khalden just months before he detonated a truck bomb under the World Trade Center on Feb. 26, The blast killed six people, injured more than 1,000 and caused $550 million in damage. A Jordanian co-conspirator, Ahmad Mohammad Ajaj, also attended Khalden. Details of their training came out at Yousef's trial in New York in August Ajaj had flown into New York from Pakistan with Yousef but was detained after his suitcases were searched at the airport. Inside the bags, prosecutors said, federal agents found a trove of bomb recipes from Afghan training camps: how to make nitroglycerin from urea and nitric acid, the explosive properties of glycerol trinitrate and a how-to guide to nitro-methane liquid explosives, according to testimony. Ajaj also carried a letter of introduction addressed to "the valiant brother leader of Camp Khalden." "Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings who carries this paper, without mentioning his name," the letter stated, according to a translation read in court. "For you know him well from before, [Ajaj] is among those who was expelled from Palestine because of the intensity, passion, voraciousness and his resistance to the perfidious Zionist enemy." Ajaj later was sentenced to more than 100 years in prison. Yousef, who had fled New York after the bombing, resurfaced in the Philippines a year later. There, a U.S. court later found, he plotted with at least two other Afghanistan-trained terrorists to plant bombs on a dozen U.S. jumbo jets over the Pacific in January After he was captured in Pakistan later that year, Yousef told Secret Service agent Brian Parr that he had received extensive training in explosives at a camp in Afghanistan. He refused to give its name or location but acknowledged that he'd met Ajaj there. Authorities determined that it was Khalden. The Saudi and Egyptian suicide truck bombers who killed 224 people in synchronized attacks on the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on Aug. 7, 1998, also attended Khalden. One of them was Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-'Owhali, who jumped from the truck before the blast and survived. His trial in New York with other embassy bombers earlier this year provided further details of Khalden camp life. When Al-'Owhali arrived at Khalden in 1996, he was "met by the person who was in charge of the hospitality section," a federal agent would later testify. Al-'Owhali told the FBI that his first order from the Khalden commander, Abu Sayyid al Kirdi, was that he and his fellow recruits "could never use their true names again." "Al-'Owhali described the courses that followed as basic types of military training to include light weapons, some demolition, some artillery, some communication, things of that nature, but he has also received a period of instruction in religious ideology," FBI agent Stephen Gaudin testified. Gaudin said Al-'Owhali and other recruits met Bin Laden at the Khalden camp, where Bin Laden "impressed upon them the need to fight the Americans and to cast them out of the Arabian Peninsula." Bin Laden's pitch "further solidified [Al-'Owhali's] religious feelings and his religious thoughts," Gaudin said. Bin Laden also urged the recruits to seek further training, Gaudin stated. Many apparently did so. Gaudin said Al-'Owhali went on to advanced terrorism studies at two other camps. His courses included "security and intelligence, how to gather information, how to protect information from being divulged, how to conduct hijackings of buses or planes, how to do kidnappings, how to seize and hold buildings, things of that sort," Gaudin said. "Mr. Al-'Owhali explained to me that during and at the end of this training he had met with Mr. Bin Laden several times and had expressed to him interest in missions he would like to do," Gaudin added. "And Mr. Bin Laden told him that, 'Take your time. Your mission will come in time.' " Within two years, he and two other Khalden graduates would drive truck bombs into the U.S. embassies in Africa. Ahmed Ressam, who was convicted of conspiring to smuggle a bomb into the United States to damage or destroy LAX, had been a petty thief in Montreal, working on the fringes of an Al Qaeda cell there. Members told him the Afghan camps were a way to prove himself and his credibility. He arrived at Khalden in April 1998 for a six-month course followed by "graduate" camp in explosives. When he returned home the next year, Ressam became leader of the Montreal cell, with authority to direct a high-profile bombing operation. He also made contacts with other North African Al Qaeda members in Afghanistan and England. Now cooperating with federal authorities, Ressam testified in New York earlier this year that Khalden had 50 to 100 recruits on any given day, "people from all nationalities." Specifically, he then named Jordanians, Algerians, Yemenis, Saudis, Swedes, Germans, French, Turks and Chechens. "I belonged to the Algerian group." Ressam said he was taught to use a broad range of explosives, including dynamite and C-4 plastic explosives. He said he and other recruits were trained to destroy such targets as "electric plants, airports, railroads, large corporations, gas installations, military installations hotels where conferences are held." "I also got training in urban warfare," he added. "How to carry out operations in cities, how to block roads, how to assault buildings how to assassinate someone in an operation." As for Ressam's eventual target: "The discussion was about an airport, a consulate." Then Ressam graduated to Darunta camp and a course in manufacturing explosives and electronic detonators. Ressam said he witnessed chemical weapon experiments at Darunta: Dogs were placed in boxes and poisoned with cyanide to measure its effects. Recruits, he said, were taught to place chemical weapons near intake vents of buildings to poison entire corporations. And it was at Darunta, Ressam told the jury, that he was given his instructions to bomb an airport--or several airports--in and around Los Angeles. Ressam named Abu Zubeida, a Palestinian, as the Khalden camp's chief. When he was leaving Afghanistan, Ressam said, Zubeida told him to send back stolen Canadian passports "to give to other people to carry out operations in the U.S." Ressam said Zubeida also gave him vials of hexamine and glycol, accelerants for explosives detonators, and $12,000 in cash to complete his mission in America. Ressam flew to Los Angeles with those gifts, then to Montreal, where he set about building his bomb. He was caught two weeks before New Year's 2000, but only because U.S. customs agents at the border post in Port Angeles, Wash., suspected he might be smuggling drugs. When they began questioning Ressam in his car, he appeared extremely nervous and then tried to flee on foot. Agents found detonators and explosives in his trunk. In custody ever since, Ressam is likely to testify at the trial of Moussaoui, the Frenchman indicted August 2004 in Alexandria, Va. The reason: Ressam has told authorities that Moussaoui was a classmate at Khalden in April 1998. Abu Zubaydah ran Khalden Camp

Return of the Afghan Arabs
Exporting the War Hero Worship Unquestioned Legitimacy Militant Recruiting Afghanistan to Bosnia to Chechnya/Afghanistan World Wide Unable to Re-Integrate into Society Targeted by Governments Return of the Afghan Arabs It was in the southern Afghanistan town of Kandahar that the authoritarian religious regime took root in 1994 before coming to dominate most of a country already traumatized by 15 years of war. What it brought was a government almost unimaginable in modern times and a base for bin Laden's al-Qaeda movement, now fanatically, even boastfully, devoted to waging "holy war" on governments and peoples across the globe. Yet, in its early stages, the rise of the al-Qaeda terror network went largely unnoticed - certainly unheeded - except by the more astute Arab intelligence services. It took the cataclysmic events of September 11 for the rest of the world to realize that it had a global threat on its hands. But by then more than 50 countries had been playing host for years to scores of men bent on killing ordinary people on an undreamed of scale. And there are almost certainly some still there. It was the capture of Kabul, the Afghan capital, by the Taliban in 1996 that opened the door for the government of that hapless country eventually to become almost indistinguishable from a terrorist organization. As families fled, their belongings bundled into colorful blankets and lashed to buses, and Taliban troops moved north towards the white peaks of the Hindu Kush to confront the Northern Alliance, a Taliban commander yelled: "It is the way to Allah." Yet it was 12 years earlier that the al-Qaeda terror network began to form. In the 1980s Mujahideen resistance fighters were trying to expel the Soviet invaders that kept their cold war hold over much of the country. A modest villa in Peshawar in northern Pakistan served as the staging post for Arabs volunteering to help their Muslim brothers in the struggle against the communists. One of those Arabs was 26-year-old Osama bin Laden, who met up again with Abdul-Aziz Azzam, the teacher who had instructed him in Islamic studies at the King Abdul-Aziz university in his native Saudi Arabia. "Azzam was a revolutionary. He went often to the United States to speak on behalf of the cause. And Osama bin Laden did the same in Saudi Arabia," Omar Abdel Hakim, a Syrian who had fought in Afghanistan and knew both men. Also present in those days in the Peshawar house was the young head of a small mosque in the Pakistani city of Karachi, Mohammed Omar. A year earlier, in 1983, bin Laden, who came from a billionaire Saudi construction family, invested money in Omar's mosque, and bought him a house. The two men's lives became inextricably tied over the next decade. US special forces are today tracking them both in southern Afghanistan, intent on making them pay for the worst single act of terror ever - the suicide airliner attacks in the US on September 11. In the 1980s, bin Laden and Azzam visited mosques in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, encouraging Arabs to go to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Afghan Mujahideen and telling them how to get there. The guesthouse they used in Peshawar developed into the "Services Office", known by the initials of its Arabic name, the MaK, organizing the Arabs' travel to and from Afghanistan. The wealthy bin Laden paid for both the guesthouse and the MaK office, which became the centre for recruiting offices in 35 countries, formed under the name al-Kemah. Al-Kemah offices opened in every country in the Middle East, in the UK, France, Germany and throughout Scandinavia, as well as in 30 US cities. The Brooklyn office at 566 Atlantic Avenue was at the heart of the US recruitment drive. They were tolerated by the authorities because at the time they were allies, however unsavory, against Soviet communism. Bin Laden's network was thus well in place before al-Qaeda (The Base) was formally created in Bin Laden had become increasingly concerned about Arab governments infiltrating the Mujahideen in search of people who might oppose them back home. So al-Qaeda became a secure inner circle, with the guesthouse in Peshawar accessible only to members who had been vetted. Abdel Hakim says 30,000 Arabs fought with the Mujahideen against Soviet forces between 1983 and They were greatly assisted by a massive airlift of weaponry supplied by the US and financed by $2bn of Saudi and US funds. What also helped were the 75 per cent discounts offered by Saudi Arabian airlines on its Riyadh-Peshawar route. "Some came [to Afghanistan] with the intention of staying one month. Quite a lot of Saudis would come for their holidays. If you had spent some time with a whore in Bangkok, you would come to fight the jihad to purify yourself," said Abdel Hakim. "For the Arabs, Afghanistan was like a university which introduced a new ideology and school of thought: the ideology of jihad resistance. It was a gathering point for all the armed resistance. All the Islamic schools met each other for the first time in Afghanistan," he said. By 1989 the Soviet Union, its communism collapsing at home, withdrew its 105,000 defeated troops north across the rickety wood and steel bridge at the Afghan-Uzbek border town of Termez. In the west, many cold war strategists believed that their support for Afghanistan's Mujahideen and their Arab fellow-travelers had helped bring down Communism. The victorious Arabs drifted back to the Middle East and North Africa where they were greeted as Islamic heroes. But the military dictators and royal families who ruled their countries regarded their religious zeal and military experience with deep hostility and suspicion. There was much to be suspicious about. Not long after they got home, the "Afghan Arabs" joined such radical Islamist organizations as the Islamic Salvation Front (Fis) and Armed Islamic Group (GIA) in Algeria and the Islamic Group and Jihad in Egypt, which regarded the governments of their countries as godless bedfellows of the ultimate enemies, the US and Israel, the "Crusaders" and the Jews. They were swiftly dealt with. By the mid-1990s, thousands were dead or in jail as the region's security forces launched bloody campaigns to prevent them gaining influence or taking power. Those who were left turned again to bin Laden, who had meanwhile also returned home in When Saddam Hussein's forces invaded Kuwait, bin Laden offered his armed militants to the Saudi royal family to defend the kingdom if Iraq invaded his homeland. His offer was turned down, while Islam's holy soil, the land of the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina, became the base for US and other, mostly western, non-Muslim forces. "The Gulf war made American interference in the country much clearer, and it showed the shortcomings of the Saudi armed forces," Khaled al-Fauwaz, a close associate of bin Laden, told the FT before his arrest for alleged involvement in the 1998 East Africa embassy bombings. Thus emerged al-Qaeda's new, post-Afghan cause. It was to rid Saudi Arabia of US troops on behalf of all Muslims, a million of whom annually perform the haj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. This cause, with a call to impose Islamic sharia law worldwide and confront the enemies of Islam, "internationalized" the Islamist movement to include all Muslims, extending its global reach under the al-Qaeda umbrella and transforming bin Laden into the figurehead of Islamic militancy. Bin Laden's message was potent. The Afghan Arab veterans were lured back to al-Qaeda's cause and joined the global jihad. Their numbers were swelled by younger militants from up to 50 nations who less than a decade before barely had ambitions across their own borders. "The next generation of Afghan Arabs had been born," said Abdel Hakim Omar, bin Laden's long-time acquaintance. What was vital in this phase of al-Qaeda's evolution was the period, when bin Laden lived in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital. A military coup in 1989 had brought an alliance of religious radicals and army officers to power. The regime opened its doors to an array of militant Islamist groups, offering them military training and the freedom to discuss and plan the worldwide expansion of the Islamic movement. "After the Afghan war against the Soviet Union, there were a lot of people charged with a lot of Islamic zeal," Gutbi al-Mahdi, then head of Sudan's external security service. "Their governments were skeptical about them. Some who arrived back home were arrested. The rest hesitated to go home. We were sympathetic to Muslims who went to Afghanistan. We weren't necessarily conspiring with them against their governments. But certainly we understood them, and shared many of their ideological views." Bin Laden's commitment, his funds, his deep religious faith, and his determination to take the fight to all forces seeming to confront Islam were the resources he employed to gather support. The international financial system, charity work, legitimate businesses and criminal activities from credit card fraud to bank robbery were the means used to transform faith into action and give al-Qaeda its global reach. Al-Qaeda prospered through the readiness of members of national Islamist movements to join. One such person was Ayman al-Zawahiri, a surgeon from a rich Egyptian family in Alexandria. He had fought in Afghanistan, and had become leader of Jihad, the Egyptian Islamist group which in 1981 assassinated Anwar al-Sadat, Egypt's president, who had made peace with Israel. Al-Zawahiri allied his supporters with al-Qaeda to form the "World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders". He boosted al-Qaeda's organization by seconding two militants - Muhammad Atef and Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri - from Jihad to al-Qaeda. They became the respective heads of terrorist training and financial affairs. Atef was killed by a US bomb in Afghanistan two weeks ago. Jihad had established a network of charities, document-forging facilities and safe houses during the 1990s in countries ranging from Albania and Bulgaria to Yemen, the United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan. Al-Qaeda tapped into this network, while bin Laden, who operated between 1991 to 1996 out of Sudan after being disowned by his family and his country, fed his considerable personal funds into the Jihad cells, financing much of its charity work in the Balkans. The dispersal of the Arab Afghans and the upsurge of militancy among Muslims in the early 1990s, gave bin Laden a network of contacts throughout the Islamic world. New, younger recruits to Islamic political causes also emerged among Muslims in Europe and the US. From his base in Sudan at the time, bin Laden retained old ties and forged new links, notably with Algeria's Islamists who had a well-developed European network among Algerians in France. Bin Laden's supporters remain numerous throughout western Europe, particularly in Italy. August 2001, Frankfurt police and Germany's GSG9 anti-terrorism unit arrested two Iraqis, an Algerian and a French Muslim, all suspected members of the Milan-based "Meliani Commando", accused by French prosecutors of being trained by al-Qaeda and of planning terrorist attacks in France. Strewn today across the floors of numerous villas in the eerie ruins of Kabul, heaps of official al-Qaeda headed stationery are a poignant sign of its flight from the city. Aside from a well-thumbed copy of "On War" by the 19th Century Prussian general Karl Clausewitz who - rather like Bin Laden - advocated "total war", al-Qaeda's safe houses contained extensive technical drawings and analytical literature relating to basic Russian weaponry. Al-Qaeda educated its adherents assiduously. These empty classrooms cannot be safely viewed as the last vestiges of Bin Laden's 20-year story of religious zeal and terror. With so many people having sought his inspiration, bin Laden's influence will not go away, even if he is killed or brought to justice. As his old associate Omar Abdel Hakim says: "Osama represents the method." Around the world, thousands of young Muslims are laying low, members of autonomous, largely self-financing cells, and they know exactly what that method is.

Fatwas فتوى Legal Pronouncement in Islam Must be a Mufti
Religious Scholar Multiple, Conflicting Judgments Compromise or Religious Belief? Al Qaeda 1996 Declaration of War 1998 Against US Citizens 1998 Islam Bomb Fatwas A fatwa is a legal pronouncement in Islam, issued by a religious law specialist on a specific issue. Usually a fatwa is issued at the request of an individual or a judge to settle a question where fiqh, Islamic jurisprudence, is unclear. A scholar capable of issuing fataawa is known as a Mufti. B ecause there is no central Islamic priesthood, there is also no unanimously accepted method to determine who can issue a fatwa and who cannot, leading some Islamic scholars to complain that too many people feel qualified to issue fatwas. In both theory and practice, different Islamic clerics can issue contradictory fatwas. What happens then depends on whether one lives in a nation where Islamic law (sharia) is the basis of civil law, or if one lives where Islamic law has no legal status. It should be noted that many nations in which Muslims make up a majority of the population do not recognize Islamic law as the basis of civil law. In nations based on Islamic law, fatwas by the national religious leadership are debated before being issued and are decided upon by consensus. In such cases, they are rarely contradictory, and they carry the status of enforceable law. If two fatwas are contradictory, the ruling bodies (which combine civil and religious law) effect a compromise interpretation which is followed as law. In nations that do not recognize Islamic law, religious Muslims are often confronted with two competing fatwas. In such a case, they would follow the fatwa of the leader in the same religious tradition as themselves. Thus, for example, Sunni Muslims would not hold to the fatwa of a Shiite cleric. AUGUST 1996 DECLARATION OF WAR On or about August 23, 1996, Osama bin Laden signed and issued a Declaration of jihad (holy war) from Afghanistan entitled, "Message from Osama bin Laden to his Muslim Brothers in the Whole World and Especially in the Arabian Peninsula: Declaration of Jihad Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Mosques; Expel the Heretics from the Arabian Peninsula." FEBRUARY 1998 FATWA AGAINST AMERICAN CITIZENS In February 1998, Osama bin Laden and his close associate, Ayman al Zawahiri, endorsed a fatwa under the banner of the "International Islamic Front for Jihad on the Jews and Crusaders." This fatwa, published in the newspaper, Al-Quds Al-Arabi, on February 23, 1998, stated that Muslims should kill Americans - including civilians - anywhere in the world where they can be found. MAY 1998 FATWA On or about May 7, 1998, bin Laden associate Mohammed Atef sent Khaled al Fawwaz a letter discussing the endorsement by bin Laden of a fatwa issued by the "Ulema Union of Afghanistan" which termed the U.S. army the "enemies of Islam" and declared jihad against the U.S. and its followers. The fatwa was subsequently published in Al-Quds Al-Arabi. BIN LADEN ENDORSES THE NUCLEAR BOMB OF ISLAM On or about May 29, 1998, bin Laden issued a statement entitled "The Nuclear Bomb of Islam," under the banner of the "International Islamic Front for Fighting the Jews and Crusaders," in which he stated that "it is the duty of Muslims to prepare as much force as possible to terrorize the enemies of God."

The Declaration of War World Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders Presence of non-Muslim Military in Arabia “Stormed by Crusader armies.” “Great Devastation” in Iraq Zionist/Crusader Alliance US Actions Equal a Declaration of War on Islam Kill Americans Around the World Liberate al Aqsa and Mecca The following is a direct translation of Osama Bin Laden’s call for war against Jews and Christians The Declaration of War Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders World Islamic Front Statement 23 February 1998 Shaykh Usamah Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin Ayman al-Zawahiri, amir of the Jihad Group in Egypt Abu-Yasir Rifa'i Ahmad Taha, Egyptian Islamic Group Shaykh Mir Hamzah, secretary of the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan Fazlur Rahman, amir of the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh Praise be to Allah, who revealed the Book, controls the clouds, defeats factionalism, and says in His Book: "But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)"; and peace be upon our Prophet, Muhammad Bin-'Abdallah, who said: “I have been sent with the sword between my hands to ensure that no one but Allah is worshipped, Allah who put my livelihood under the shadow of my spear and who inflicts humiliation and scorn on those who disobey my orders.” The Arabian Peninsula has never -- since Allah made it flat, created its desert, and encircled it with seas -- been stormed by any forces like the crusader armies spreading in it like locusts, eating its riches and wiping out its plantations. All this is happening at a time in which nations are attacking Muslims like people fighting over a plate of food. In the light of the grave situation and the lack of support, we and you are obliged to discuss current events, and we should all agree on how to settle the matter. No one argues today about three facts that are known to everyone; we will list them, in order to remind everyone: First, for over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples. If some people have in the past argued about the fact of the occupation, all the people of the Peninsula have now acknowledged it. The best proof of this is the Americans' continuing aggression against the Iraqi people using the Peninsula as a staging post, even though all its rulers are against their territories being used to that end, but they are helpless. Second, despite the great devastation inflicted on the Iraqi people by the crusader-Zionist alliance, and despite the huge number of those killed, which has exceeded 1 million... despite all this, the Americans are once against trying to repeat the horrific massacres, as though they are not content with the protracted blockade imposed after the ferocious war or the fragmentation and devastation. So here they come to annihilate what is left of this people and to humiliate their Muslim neighbors. Third, if the Americans' aims behind these wars are religious and economic, the aim is also to serve the Jews' petty state and divert attention from its occupation of Jerusalem and murder of Muslims there. The best proof of this is their eagerness to destroy Iraq, the strongest neighboring Arab state, and their endeavor to fragment all the states of the region such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Sudan into paper statelets and through their disunion and weakness to guarantee Israel's survival and the continuation of the brutal crusade occupation of the Peninsula. All these crimes and sins committed by the Americans are a clear declaration of war on Allah, his messenger, and Muslims. And ulema have throughout Islamic history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an individual duty if the enemy destroys the Muslim countries. This was revealed by Imam Bin-Qadamah in "Al- Mughni," Imam al-Kisa'i in "Al-Bada'i," al-Qurtubi in his interpretation, and the shaykh of al-Islam in his books, where he said: "As for the fighting to repulse [an enemy], it is aimed at defending sanctity and religion, and it is a duty as agreed [by the ulema]. Nothing is more sacred than belief except repulsing an enemy who is attacking religion and life." On that basis, and in compliance with Allah's order, we issue the following fatwa to all Muslims: The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty Allah, "and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together," and "fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah." This is in addition to the words of Almighty Allah: "And why should ye not fight in the cause of Allah and of those who, being weak, are ill-treated (and oppressed)? -- women and children, whose cry is: 'Our Lord, rescue us from this town, whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from thee one who will help!'" We -- with Allah's help -- call on every Muslim who believes in Allah and wishes to be rewarded to comply with Allah's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We also call on Muslim ulema, leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan's U.S. troops and the devil's supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a lesson. Almighty Allah said: "O ye who believe, give your response to Allah and His Apostle, when He calleth you to that which will give you life. And know that Allah cometh between a man and his heart, and that it is He to whom ye shall all be gathered." Almighty Allah also says: "O ye who believe, what is the matter with you, that when ye are asked to go forth in the cause of Allah, ye cling so heavily to the earth! Do ye prefer the life of this world to the hereafter? But little is the comfort of this life, as compared with the hereafter. Unless ye go forth, He will punish you with a grievous penalty, and put others in your place; but Him ye would not harm in the least. For Allah hath power over all things." Almighty Allah also says: "So lose no heart, nor fall into despair. For ye must gain mastery if ye are true in faith."

Mohammed Mansour Jabarah
A Case Study in Terror Mohammed Mansour Jabarah, a young Canadian of Iraqi descent, is a reed-thin, tall boy with a moustache who moved to Canada from Kuwait on August 16, 1994, but continued to maintain an Iraqi passport. At the time he was twelve years old, with three brothers: the eldest, fifteen-year-old Abdullah, thirteen-year-old Abdul Rahman, and the youngest, Yussef. Mohammed would not be the only brother to join al-Qaeda; Abdul Rahman, just a year older, would actually go to the training camps in Afghanistan first -- less than a month before Mohammed did, in July (Eventually Abdul Rahman would hit the radar screen of law enforcement agencies around the world, implicated in the Saudi Arabia bombings of Western housing compounds in Riyadh on May 12, 2003.) Although the two middle brothers would turn to al-Qaeda, eldest brother Abdullah would not. He is considered the black sheep of the family, corrupted by Western values. When a student at university, Abdullah did not get the chance to say good-bye to his brothers when they left for Afghanistan, because he was ostracized for choosing to live with his girlfriend. Today, he freely admits that he likes his alcohol and is surrounded by many women. Rakish and relaxed, he and his friends often smoke pot in the garage of his family home in Canada. "They made their choices," said Abdullah Jabarah, "I made mine." He ended up with the women, "and they got to pray at the mosque." He said maybe they couldn't adjust to Canada, although "you'd think I would be the one with the hard time adjusting being the oldest. I was fifteen." Now because it's widely known that his two brothers are international terrorists, he is thinking of changing his family name. "They didn't think about me and the impact it would have on me and my parents," he said, refusing to speak specifically about each brother except that "between Abdul Rahman and Mohammed, Mohammed is a crazy bastard. Fucking mad." It is through Mohammed Jabarah that we get the clearest sense of how al-Qaeda's University of Terror works -- partly because he is young. He has an impressionable mind and a great memory, and he is cooperating with authorities. Through him, you see -- much like in large university campuses -- how classmates meet each other, how they identify faces by whom they hang out with and what class they graduated with, how getting their first assignments is much like getting a first job, and how the alumni network remains ready to be activated for future attacks. To his interrogators at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, he provided one of the most comprehensive portraits of al-Qaeda's manipulative recruitment process, training, and deployment.

The Appeal of al Qaeda Elitism Early Indoctrination
A Better Vision Early Indoctrination Disillusions Self-Sacrifice for a Greater Cause Loyalty & Honor The Franchise That feeling of exclusivity, of self-discipline, of being part of an elite who see a vision for a better world, of a tradition for excellence you must maintain: all that is exactly what al-Qaeda creates in its global network: from the schools known as pesantrens and madrassas, which begin to train young minds of four or five year olds, to the training camps hidden around the world, to the terrorist cells that carry out its plots. Certainly, al-Qaeda members want to change the world. Young Muslim men dream of joining al-Qaeda, of being trained to think and act like al-Qaeda, of standing up to oppression. Malaysia's prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, understands the appeal: "The reason why Osama Bin Laden has been able to recruit people to his movement is because there is a lot of disillusionment on the part of Muslims because their governments seem to be pussy-footing and not doing anything to defend the Muslims, to stop this oppression of Muslims, the massacre of Muslims, the attack against so many Muslim countries." Al-Qaeda has been compared to a corporation that franchises terrorism, but it operates at a far deeper level than that by molding young minds at extremely formative stages and providing an ideological cause that includes something Princeton never demanded from its students: self-sacrifice for a greater cause and a guaranteed place in heaven. Instead of an Honor Code, al-Qaeda demanded the ba'yat -- the Oath of Loyalty. It gives scholarships for students who can't afford to attend, and it creates fellowships and grants for other like-minded groups that have special projects they need help with. "Any group who has the ability and the people will send a representative to Afghanistan to meet Osama Bin Laden and pitch a plan for Osama Bin Laden to support," describes an FBI document. In the process, it co-opts those groups into its global agenda -- like the Jemaah Islamiyah cell that pulled off the Bali bombing.

Recruitment Canadian Émigré Kuwait Summers Religious School
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith Jihad in Bosnia One of the Most Common Recruiting Techniques Abdullah Azzam Return to Canada to Raise Money Approx $10,500 Mohammed Mansour Jabarah's recruitment began during his high school summers, in the Middle East. After the family moved to Canada in 1994, both brothers returned to Kuwait during their summer vacations. While there, Mohammed often visited his Islamic teacher, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, a plump, full-bearded man with a white turban, who later, after the September 11 attacks, became al-Qaeda's spokesman, saying things like, "The Americans must know that the storm of Airplanes will not stop, God willing, and there are thousands of young people who are as keen about death as Americans are about life." Back in the mid-1990s, he was doing his part to find young recruits, paying more attention to the Jabarah brothers as they grew older, in particular, fanning young Mohammed's anger by showing him training videos from what he called "the jihad in Bosnia" and videotaped speeches of Abdullah Azzam, Osama bin Laden's mentor. In 1999, Mohammed fastened on the violence in Chechnya, surfing websites and poring over videotapes of the fighting there, most propaganda tapes created by al-Qaeda and given to him by Abu Ghaith. When he returned to Canada after that summer, age sixteen, Mohammed raised money from friends and neighbors on at least three occasions and transferred more than $3,500 to Abu Ghaith. Abu Ghaith: Al Qaeda Spokesman

Training Afghanistan Abu Ghaith Financed Thaziri (Basic Training)
Weapons Explosives Land Navigation, Map Reading The Typical Day 60 Days Long Practical Military Training & Religion Indoctrination Spotting and Assessing The next summer in July 2000, Mohammed's brother Abdul Rahman left for Afghanistan. About a month later, Mohammed met Abu Ghaith in Kuwait, who then paid the younger Jabarah's fare to Karachi, Pakistan. Using a series of guides, Mohammed went from Karachi to Peshawar and then on to a five-hour hike through the mountains to wind up at the town of Torkham, on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. There the two brothers met and waited about a week. Since the camp wasn't ready yet, they joined a group of eighteen men at the Sheik Shaheed Abu Yahya training camp, about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) north of Kabul, Afghanistan. This was Tahziri, meaning the "beginning" or the "preparation" -- the first course for every Muslim student who wants to go on a jihad. Weapons training included handling antitank and antiaircraft weapons like the Sam-7 and stinger missiles. The brothers were taught how to set explosives and use grenades and mines. The course had a bonus: a two-week program on topography and navigation. The days were long and grueling. Trainees woke up before sunrise to pray, followed by two hours of physical training: one hour of jogging and an hour of calisthenics. After that, they showered and had breakfast. Then they were divided into training groups for classroom work, which lasted about an hour, before a ten-minute break. They came back to class for another hour, after which they could take a forty-five-minute nap. They woke up for noon prayers, followed by an hour's lecture on the Koran. Then it was time for lunch, after which each group did its assigned chores for the maintenance of the camp until afternoon prayers. The rest of the afternoon was spent on "practical military training" -- weapons training, live fire exercises, and explosives training. After dinner came a lecture on the virtues of jihad and its finer points, which lasted until around 8:00 to 8:30 P.M., the time for evening prayers. Only after that could they rest, but even sleep was interrupted by shifts on guard duty for the camp. It was and is a rigorous schedule that instills discipline and the ideology of radical Islam in an environment of brotherly camaraderie. The course lasts for sixty continuous days, during which students are given an entire philosophy of living life and are challenged mentally, spiritually, and physically. David Hicks w/ RPG

The Pitch & The Choice Front Line, Train, or Go Home?
Urban Guerilla Training Terrorism 101 Mountain Warfare Training Al Farouq Camp Observes Westerners Islamic Institute, Kandahar Do you want to join al Qaeda? After trainees finished the introductory course, at least in 2000 and 2001, they were given a choice: volunteer and fight with the Taliban against the Northern Alliance, go through more training, or return home. The American students arrested in Lackawanna, New York, for example, had decided to go back home. The Jabarah brothers chose to get more training, open to only the "top-rated candidates on the Basic course" in urban guerrilla warfare. Lasting two and a half months, the course teaches students how to organize cells and gives them advanced weapons training and physical combat techniques, as well as honing their analysis of the risks involved in attacking a building. When Mohammed and Abdul Rahman finished this course, they decided it was time to try out their newly acquired skills by fighting with the Taliban. Mohammed spent two weeks at the front before returning to Kabul for a course on the Koran, but in early 2001, he was diagnosed with hepatitis by al-Qaeda's second in command, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, and was bedridden for about a month. That January, his brother left Afghanistan to see their parents in Canada and then attend the hajj in Saudi Arabia. He returned to Canada in the spring of 2001. By that time, Mohammed was taking another advanced course with about forty men -- the guerrilla mountain warfare course, lasting another two and a half months. Recruits were taught theories of guerrilla warfare, ambush, and communications skills. The training took place at the Al-Farouq training camp, about 75 kilometers from Kandahar. Mohammed noticed several "white guys" -- Westerners -- taking his course: two blond Australians about twenty-five and thirty years old, a black twenty-year-old Brit named Abbas, a thirty-year-old Jamaican named Khalid, and a black Frenchman. These recruits, like the Jabarah brothers, were becoming increasingly valuable to al-Qaeda because they defied the expectations and profiles of international law enforcement agencies. After he finished this course, Mohammed returned to Kandahar and stayed at a guesthouse next to the Arabic Islamic Institute. His brother Abdul Rahman returned to Afghanistan, staying with Mohammed briefly at the guest house. Around the end of June 2001, Abu Ghaith came to visit Mohammed and "popped the question:" Did he want to become a member of al-Qaeda? Abu Ghaith told him "this decision could only be made by him, but that it might be a good idea to join." It was much like becoming a "made man" in the mafia. Only the best recruits were invited. At that point, Mohammed had already met twice with Osama bin Laden. (He would meet him two more times.) The first meeting Mohammed arranged through personal connections, finagling to get close to bin Laden's secretary, a Yemeni named Bashir. Most of their conversation that first time centered on developments in Kuwait. The second meeting happened just a short while before Abu Ghaith recommended Mohammed join al-Qaeda. At the end of Mohammed's mountain warfare course, Abu Ghaith and Osama bin Laden came to the camp "to congratulate the course graduates." Abu Ghaith asked the graduates to support Osama bin Laden, who then gave a graduation speech and attempted to rally new recruits by telling them "hits" would be coming soon against the United States, " 'hits' severe enough to make the United States forget about Vietnam." It was just two months before 9/11. Mohammed, who had originally wanted to get training so he could fight the jihad in Chechnya or in the Middle East, began to rethink his plans. When he heard bin Laden speak that June, he was tempted to join al-Qaeda and focus on a broader set of enemies. It was a momentous decision, and Mohammed did not make it quickly. In July, Abu Ghaith visited him in the guest house in Kandahar and talked further about it. In mid-July, Mohammed took an additional one-week advanced course for snipers at the al-Qaeda camp at the Kandahar airport. Jabarah excelled at the course, placing first at the competition held at its conclusion. After that, Osama bin Laden invited Mohammed and the other trainees to his house in Kandahar. In their third meeting, Mohammed watched as bin Laden showed videotapes from the Arabic network Al-Jazeera, which conducted a poll that showed Osama bin Laden was more popular than the United States. Bin Laden looked proud while he was screening the tape. Feroz Abassi

Body Guards Body Guard Training Offered Training Spot Weeding Out
Attended w/ Abu Ghaith A Great Honor Offered Training Spot Came to Fight not Teach Weeding Out Counterintelligence By that point, both Abu Ghaith and Mohammed had been selected to take part in an elite course for potential bodyguards for bin Laden. The fact they were asked to attend the course is considered a great honor among the Muslim fighters in the camps. The course teaches precision shooting with limited ammunition and tests and hones the student's reaction times. Both men took the course, but neither got the job. Mohammed was offered a spot as a trainer at the Al-Farouq camp, but he turned it down because "he wanted to fight, not train." Not everyone who attended al-Qaeda's camps became a member. The camps were part of a weeding-out process, and only the best of the best were invited to join. Mohammed estimated al-Qaeda had about 3,000 to 4,000 members, of whom perhaps 300 to 400 were leaders, each handling up to six cell members. As a student, Mohammed spent much time reading books about his passion (jihad and al-Qaeda), asking questions, identifying who did what and who was calling the shots, what happened when -- trying to piece together the history of the organization. He devoured its folklore, the gossip about the men, and their dealings and sometimes double-dealings around the camps. Al-Qaeda was constantly vigilant and paranoid about double agents and had a continuous screening process. During the time Mohammed was there, several people were being interrogated on suspicions they were spies: an Omani, an Afghan, three Kurds, and a Jordanian. After one particularly grueling interrogation session, the Jordanian committed suicide. It is little wonder that intelligence agencies have struggled to infiltrate bin Laden's organization.

Jihad University Dormitories Guest Houses Media Department
Training Camps Numerous Key AQ Members Learns about 9/11 Plan Others Ramzi Yousef’s Legacy KSM in SE Asia Casio Watches Al-Qaeda's Afghan camp was a perfect jihad university, complete with student dorms, a guest house, a media house to get information out, and its training camps. Mohammed met several second-generation al-Qaeda members: Asad, one of the sons of blind Egyptian sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, and three of Osama bin Laden's sons, including Saad, rumored to be in training to follow in his father's footsteps. Saad took the mountain warfare training course with Mohammed, who asked the younger bin Laden many questions about common acquaintances. Through Saad, Mohammed learned a man he met at a Libyan guest house in Kabul was Anas al-Liby, who was teaching courses on "surveillance, interception and internal security." A member of al-Qaeda from the days it was based in Sudan, he had one other special task. Because he was tall and bore a resemblance to bin Laden, Saad told Mohammed that Anas al-Liby was sometimes used as a decoy when bin Laden was traveling. At the Islamic Institute in Kandahar, Mohammed ran twice into a wild-haired man he was told was a member of al-Qaeda. Known as Abd al-Jabbar, he was good friends with a black al-Qaeda member Mohammed knew as Sawari. Much later, Mohammed would find out Abd al-Jabbar was actually Richard Reid, the shoe bomber who tried to ignite explosives while on a transatlantic flight, and that his friend Sawari was none other than Zacarias Moussaoui, linked to the JI cell in Southeast Asia, now on trial in the United States for September 11-related charges. Mohammed also met four of the September 11 hijackers in a guest house in Kandahar around March What impressed him most was that one of the men, Ahmed al-Haznawi, "was very devout and could recite the entire Koran from memory." Al-Haznawi would hijack Flight 93, the plane that crash-landed in Pennsylvania. Mohammed said he was later told by an al-Qaeda member who trained with the hijackers that the plane was headed for the White House. (One of the 9/11 planners, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, however, told authorities it was headed for Capitol Hill.) Another hijacker was Abdulaziz Alomari, who would be on the plane that crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center; the others were Khalid al-Midhar and Salem al-Hazmi, who would be on Flight 77 when it crashed into the Pentagon. Al-Haznawi and Alomari gave motivational speeches in Kandahar, while al-Hazmi often rode a motorcycle around town. In a sign of how al-Qaeda maintains security, Mohammed knew these men under their aliases and didn't find out their real names until after he saw their pictures on the news. Mohammed learned more details about the planning for 9/11 from an al-Qaeda operative named Ahmed Sahagi, a twenty-five-year-old Saudi national and former bodyguard of Osama bin Laden, later assigned to work with Mohammed. Sahagi told Mohammed he attended an "operational training course" with about twenty to thirty people, a group trained for two years to carry out the September 11 attacks. Ahmed said no one knew exactly what they were training for, only that it was an operation in the United States and that the training included hand-to-hand combat. To show how small and interconnected al-Qaeda's operations were, one of their two trainers, Egyptian Hamza Zubair, taught Mohammed his mountain warfare course. Two of the hijackers, as well as Moussaoui, subsequently stayed in an apartment in Malaysia owned by Hambali's deputy, Yazid Sufaat. The key link of the Southeast Asian JI cell to the September 11 hijackers was Mohammed's agent-handler, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, KSM. Mohammed pieced together much of the history and interpersonal connections of the men who ran al-Qaeda. For example, Mohammed asked about Ramzi Yousef and found out from one of al-Qaeda's top leaders that KSM was "very close to Ramzi Yousef and a person named Azmurai" who was described by KSM as "extremely tough and brave." Osama Azmurai -- spelled by Philippine authorities as "Osmurai" in intelligence documents -- was the pseudonym used by Afghan Wali Khan Amin Shah, one of the operatives from the al-Qaeda cell busted in Manila in Mohammed said KSM told him that "Yousef and Azmarai were good with explosives, and they were both arrested by the US." KSM admitted he "was in Asia with Yousef and Azmarai during a plot to bomb airliners." Yousef left another legacy: Mohammed told his interrogators that students at the Darunta camp in Afghanistan were taught how to deal with explosives, poisons, and electronics, including how to use a Casio watch as a timer for a bomb -- the technique created and perfected by Ramzi Yousef to avoid airport security, which he used effectively on a Philippine Airlines plane in Years after he was arrested and imprisoned, Yousef's terrorist tricks were still being taught in al-Qaeda's university of terror. Abd al-Jabbar: Shoebomber

Lessons Learned Relations w/ Jemaah Islamiyah
Understanding anti-Americanism The Plan for Global Jihad Reviewing Previous Operations President Clinton President Mubarak East Africa Embassies Mohammed knew KSM's brother, Zahid Sheikh Mohammed, who worked with Islamic charities in Peshawar. Mohammed also said he often saw KSM and Abdul Rasul Sayyaf together and that they were good friends. Again, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf was another link between the dozens of JI leaders in Southeast Asia, including Abu Sayyaf, founder Abdurajak Janjalani, and most of the JI leaders from Indonesia, who were trained in Afghanistan under Sayyaf's tutelage and patronage. Although Sayyaf has never been labeled a member of al-Qaeda, these personal links are clear. In fact, two days before the 9/11 attacks, it was his connections as a part of the Northern Alliance that assisted two Arabs pretending to be journalists to cut through the security of Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud and successfully assassinate the sole moderate leader who had long fought the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Sayyaf is still dogged by suspicions he helped assassinate Massoud, with the support of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, a charge Sayyaf has consistently denied. These were the events that interested Mohammed, and he asked questions of nearly everyone he came into contact with -- like one of his first trainers, Abu Omar, who was in Sudan with Osama bin Laden, and helped explain al-Qaeda's early years. After the Soviet occupation ended, bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia, where he continued to try to refine the global connections they had formed. When Iraq invaded Kuwait and Saudi Arabia needed help, bin Laden offered the support of his "Afghan Arabs." Yet instead of relying on Muslims, the Saudis turned to the Americans. After the Gulf War, bin Laden was furious at the continued presence of American troops. He asked Muslim scholars to issue a fatwah, but they were afraid, and he felt marginalized. Eventually, he left Saudi Arabia and settled in the Sudan. That was when Mohammed believed bin Laden started actively targeting America and crafting his plan for a global jihad. Bin Laden began urging Muslims not just to concentrate on their own domestic problems with individual governments, stating, "Like an octopus with many arms, hitting the arms is not productive. The only effective way to kill the octopus is to attack its head" -- which bin Laden identified as the United States. Mohammed heard talk about early operations and the lessons they taught: like al-Qaeda's failed assassination plots against U.S. president Bill Clinton, Philippine president Fidel Ramos, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak -- all of which helped create a special course on assassination techniques taught to advanced members. Another operation that was dissected in front of Mohammed was the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Mohammed had met an al-Qaeda member named Osama al Kini in one of the guest houses in Kandahar. Later, he was told al Kini had taught the truck driver in the Nairobi bombing, a Saudi named Azzam, how to drive. Abdullah Azzam drove the truck in the actual operation, but something went wrong because there were supposed to be two "martyrs." Later, bin Laden himself would tell Mohammed in a one-on-one meeting that the other bomber was supposed to be Mohammed Rashed al-'Owhali, who was also riding in the truck. "He was supposed to fight with a guard and open the gate and have Azzam drive into the compound," bin Laden said. Al-'Owhali forgot his pistol inside the truck, and when he realized the bomb was going to explode away from its target, he ran. Later, Mohammed said he heard the "guy who did not die was arrested by the U.S." as, in fact, happened on August 12, 1998.

Understanding the Inside
The Shura Council The Egyptian Role Abu Hafs Dispersal In Event of Future US Attack Core to Remain in AF Leadership to Neighboring Countries Others Return to Home Mohammed learned al-Qaeda was run by a "Shura Council" -- a leadership council that has been replicated by al-Qaeda-linked groups like Jemaah Islamiyah. While Mohammed was in the training camps, al-Qaeda's Shura Council was made up of Osama bin Laden; his deputy, the Egyptian Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri; Saif al-Adel, in charge of the security committee; Mohammed Atef, head of the military committee; Abu Mohammed al-Masri; Sheikh Sayid and Abu Hafs al-Mauritania, both in charge of religious teaching; and KSM, who ran the Media House. After the death of Atef, KSM would become the head of the military committee. There were internal problems, as there are in all organizations. Mohammed learned about rivalry within al-Qaeda. "The Egyptians were the ones who started al-Qaeda with Osama bin Laden, and Osama bin Laden was extremely loyal to them....Many were jealous of the Egyptians' important and expanding role in al-Qaeda," Mohammed told the FBI. He told stories of bin Laden's loyalty: how in 1998 when bin Laden heard criticism against his military chief, Atef (a.k.a. Abu Hafs), he called operatives together and began speaking about the Prophet Mohammed, explaining that the only person who stayed with the Prophet during the most challenging times was Abu Bakr. Bin Laden then went on to compare Abu Hafs to Abu Bakr. "Abu Hafs [Atef] knew of Jihad," said bin Laden, "before most of you were even born." Atef began to cry, Mohammed said. Then bin Laden told his fighters he no longer wanted to hear "negative talk about Abu Hafs." Abu Hafs was an Egyptian military commander. Mohammed learned that after 9/11, the camp where he took the guerrilla mountain warfare course was completely destroyed, but he was also told that al-Qaeda had evacuated all its people by the time the U.S. air strikes began less than a month after 9/11. Mohammed told his interrogators that al-Qaeda had planned to reorganize after the air strikes in Afghanistan. "The plan was for al-Qaeda people to stay in Afghanistan," Mohammed said, "go to Tajikistan, Iran or Pakistan to regroup, or to return to their home countries and wait for a call." Saif al Adel

Bayat and Bali Private Meeting with UBL “I want to join al Qaeda.”
Emphasis on Passport Bayat Go Meet with KSM Mohammed's own terrorism work and the roots of the Bali plot began shortly after he finished his last course -- about the time al-Qaeda was putting together the last touches of 9/11. In July 2001, Mohammed asked for a private meeting with bin Laden. "I want to join al-Qaeda," Mohammed told bin Laden. "Well. What courses did you take, and how did you do in them?" bin Laden asked. Mohammed reviewed his record, noting that he ranked first in competitions like the one for his sniper course. "You've done well," said bin Laden. "It's an impressive record." "But I bring more advantages for al-Qaeda," Mohammed said. "I speak excellent English, and I have a clean Canadian passport. I can travel anywhere, and merge into Western cities better than others who work for you." "But are you ready to fight the enemies of Allah wherever they are? Are you ready to strike fear into the heart of infidels? Can you declare war on Americans and Jews everywhere?" "Yes." "Are you ready to swear a bay'at to me?" "Yes," he told bin Laden. Immediately, he swore the oath. As they finished, bin Laden said, "By God's will, the coming hits will change all the borders, and all the borders will be redrawn." Then he told Mohammed to go meet with "Mohammed the Pakistani" for instructions and money for an operation. Mohammed had graduated and was being sent to none other than KSM.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Meet in Karachi Met Ahmed Sahagi Establish the Plan Immigration Mass Transit Avoid Islamic/Cultural Centers Local Customs Changing Hotels Contacting the Cell In the first week of August 2001, Mohammed traveled to Karachi, Pakistan, to meet his agent-handler. Mohammed checked into the Embassy Hotel and called KSM, who came to the hotel and picked him up. They drove to KSM's Karachi apartment. KSM had been expecting him and immediately asked about his English-speaking skills. When they got to the apartment, there was another al-Qaeda agent already there, introduced to him as Ahmed. Ahmed seemed to be about twenty-five or twenty-six years old. He carried a Saudi passport and spoke with a Saudi accent. Ahmed said he was married and had three children, and his family was with him in Afghanistan. From the way he behaved, Mohammed deduced that Ahmed grew up in wealthy surroundings. A veteran al-Qaeda member, Ahmed Sahagi would become Mohammed's partner, but at that point, no explanation was given for his presence. The two men lived with KSM in his Karachi apartment for three weeks. During that time, KSM taught them "how to travel on trains and buses, how to book travel tickets, and how to conform to local customs when traveling." "When you first travel to a city, on the immigration form -- the arrival documents, list a five-star hotel. When you get there, spend only one night at this hotel, then switch to a cheaper one," KSM told them. "You can use a telephone book to find your second hotel, and you should walk outside, and call from a public telephone to make your reservations. Also, when you leave that five-star hotel, make sure you don't take a taxi so there is no record of your trip." "In fact," KSM added, "use mass transit -- buses and trains -- particularly when crossing borders. Security is not as vigilant as in airports. But you should never take taxis from your hotel because what we've found is that taxi drivers are often working for intelligence services. Avoid areas like mosques and Islamic centers -- the places authorities would be watching looking for people like us. We must break the stereotypes they have. "When you get to your next hotel, get a tourist guide book. It will have information on how to get around, and it will list potential targets. The guide book will have the addresses of the United States and Israeli embassies, which you should note down as target potentials. Take down the addresses of the American and Israeli airlines in that city." They too were potential targets for terrorist attacks. KSM explained how to contact other cell members: "The safest way possible. Try not to use cell phones. Public phones are safer. Once you're in place, find a business center in a hotel or Internet café. You contact the other members of the group by and wait for a response. Use the code words for whatever cell you're working with, but after that first contact, arrange to have your meetings in public places, like shopping malls. Be careful to understand and merge with local customs. Look at how others dress, whether they wear a beard or not, and imitate what they are doing. Above all, don't call attention to yourselves."

Moving to Target Malaysia Act as Liaison Between al Qaeda and JI
Local Plans against US and Israeli Embassies, Philippines Act as Liaison Between al Qaeda and JI Hambali KSM Advised to Travel Before Tuesday 9/11/01 Use of Saw PENTTBOM in Hong Kong Locate the Cell in Kuala Lumpur After about three weeks, within days of 9/11, KSM told Mohammed to get ready to go to Malaysia to meet with local members "who were planning an operation against the U.S. and Israeli Embassies in the Philippines." Mohammed would "be the go-between for the local Southeast Asian operatives and al-Qaeda," and his "job would be to provide money for a suicide operation in the Philippines." "Work with them," KSM told Mohammed. "If they need anything, especially money, advise me, and I'll make sure you get what they ask for." Before leaving Pakistan, KSM brought Mohammed to Hambali's apartment in Karachi. It was time for the two to meet. Mohammed had seen Hambali once before at the Islamic Institute in Kandahar, and he also remembered seeing Hambali driving a white Toyota Corolla. He knew Hambali was a senior member of the group operating in Asia. At his apartment, Hambali began giving him more details about the planned operations. He told Mohammed he would meet with three men -- Mahmoud, Azzam, and Saad -- and he gave him a phone number to call once he arrived in Kuala Lumpur. The three men would turn out to be Hambali's deputy for Mantiqi 1: Faiz bin Abu Bakar Bafana (Mahmoud); Jemaah Islamiyah's finance chief, Zulkifli Marzuki (Azzam); and Indonesian Fathur Roman al-Ghozi (Saad), in charge of the actual bombing operations. One day after that meeting, KSM told Mohammed to make sure he left Pakistan by Tuesday, September 11. Given the secrecy shrouding much of the al-Qaeda leaders' movements and the repeated messages from bin Laden warning of more attacks, Mohammed deduced that something big would happen on 9/11. KSM and Mohammed bought a ticket on a plane leaving Karachi for Hong Kong and on to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, after the layover. KSM told Mohammed someone else would join him in Kuala Lumpur and that more details would be ed to him after his arrival. The address used by Mohammed and KSM was using the password "hotmail." Both men knew the password so both could access it. Mohammed set up another account for communication with Hambali: with the password "frfoosh." After these details were worked out, KSM and Mohammed went to a bank in Karachi and withdrew $40,000. He gave Mohammed $10,000 for his expenses. Mohammed arrived in Hong Kong in time to watch the airplanes crashing into the World Trade Center. He suspected KSM was behind the attacks, and he was right. (KSM, in his apartment in Pakistan, had several video machines set to record the coverage in anticipation of the attacks.) Mohammed was simultaneously elated and daunted, but he went on to his designated meeting point in Malaysia. When he landed at the capital, Mohammed went to a hotel in the Masjid India section of the city, which is where Hambali told him to stay. When he opened his at an Internet café, he found a message from KSM telling him his "friend" was already there. Confused, Mohammed sent back a reply asking KSM whom he was referring to, but before he could receive a response, he thought it might be the Ahmed he had just spent three weeks with. Curious, Mohammed checked nearby hotels and found Ahmed Sahagi, now designated a suicide bomber in the operation. Ahmed had just arrived from Pakistan and told Mohammed the 9/11 attacks were carried out by al-Qaeda; indeed, he was with KSM when the attacks actually happened. KSM was at first disappointed, but soon turned happy when the buildings finally "came down." Mosque, Kuala Lumpur

The Cell Comes Together
Money Received Explosive Requisition To Manila After a week together, Mohammed called Zulkifli Marzuki and set a time to meet. Zulkifli was about thirty-five years old and owned a home security outfit, where the meeting was held. Mohammed asked about Faiz, who was on a business trip, and al-Ghozi, who "was in the mountains training with the rebels." "I'm here to help you," Mohammed told Zulkifli. "If you need anything, let me know." "Thank you. We're glad you're here. We'll meet with Faiz as soon as he returns," said Zulkifli. After another week, the meeting was set -- this time at a McDonald's in Kuala Lumpur. "I received the $10,000," Faiz said, leaving Mohammed to surmise its source. "How is Mukhtar [KSM] doing?" KSM had told Mohammed that money had already been sent to their local members. It was obvious that Faiz knew KSM personally and the $10,000 must have come from him. "In order to get this operation going," Faiz continued, "we need to get in touch with Saad [Fathur Roman al-Ghozi] because he is the one who will find the explosives. May Allah protect him." Faiz then told Mohammed and Ahmed to go to the Philippines to meet with al-Ghozi. "I'll ask him to you after you arrive in Manila."

Casing the 7 Targets Have 300 kg TNT Philippines Targets Too Hard
Plan to Videotape Targets in Singapore Activated JI Sleeper Cell US, UK, IS Embassies UK Consulate America Club, Bank of America, US Naval Yard Require 17 tons of Explosives At the beginning of October 2001, Mohammed and Ahmed traveled to Manila and checked in at the Horizon Hotel. Overlooking Manila Bay, it sits at a key juncture between Manila and the financial capital, Makati. After a few days, Mohammed received an from al-Ghozi giving a phone number for Mohammed to call. Within two days, al-Ghozi, acting like a tourist, came to the hotel to meet the two al-Qaeda operatives. Mohammed said al-Ghozi spoke fluent Arabic, and he noted al-Ghozi's al-Qaeda training in explosives. "I have three hundred kilograms of TNT," said al-Ghozi. "I need a little more time and money before I can figure out exactly how much we need. I know I want at least four tons of explosives." Al-Ghozi took Mohammed and Ahmed to see the potential targets: the U.S. embassy on Roxas Boulevard in Manila and the Israeli embassy in Makati. "We have a problem with the U.S. embassy," al-Ghozi explained. "It's not a good target. It's set back too far from the road so a truck bomb wouldn't be enough. Maybe we could get a plane to crash into the building. In order to make sure we succeed, we would need at least two operations, but even then I'm still not sure it would be successful. Can we go to Malaysia" -- the leadership base -- "and talk about what this means?" Ten days later, Mohammed and Ahmed returned to Kuala Lumpur. Separately, al-Ghozi traveled to the Malaysian capital. Again through , Zulkifli arranged for a meeting between the plotters. They met at McDonald's at the Pertama Complex mall and then drove around in a van. Using a combination of Arabic, English, and Malay, al-Ghozi explained that the Philippine targets "were not good." Faiz suggested an alternative plan, asking Mohammed and al-Ghozi to travel to Singapore "to videotape targets." Mohammed and al-Ghozi left Kuala Lumpur and made their way to Singapore separately. Ahmed stayed behind. Mohammed boarded a bus two days after the meeting, and when he arrived in front of the Royale Hotel, al-Ghozi met him there with three Singaporean JI cell members using the pseudonyms Simpson, Max, and Alex. The arrival of the al-Qaeda operative the Singaporeans knew as "Sammy" and the Indonesian known as "Mike the bomb-maker" activated Jemaah Islamiyah's sleeper cell in Singapore. Targets were videotaped and, later in Kuala Lumpur, the leaders of the plot chose seven targets: "the American Embassy, the British Embassy, the British Consulate, the Israeli Embassy, The American Club, the Bank of America and the U.S. Naval Ship Yards." Al-Ghozi estimated they would need an additional 17 tons of explosives, costing approximately $160,000. Al-Ghozi returned to Manila to try to find a source for the explosives.

Money Matters Malaysia is Economic Base Contacted KSM for Funding
$50,000 KSM Went to Afghanistan AQ Money Man in Malaysia $30,000 In the meantime, Mohammed returned to Malaysia where, to save money, he and Ahmed rented an apartment in November. Faiz had told him Malaysia "was their economic base" and so should not be considered a target. Then Mohammed called KSM to ask for money, but his home phone was answered by KSM's secretary, who told him KSM had returned to Afghanistan. Mohammed asked for $50,000 for the Singapore operation. After a week, he received an telling him to call a phone number in Malaysia and tell the person who answered that he "was from the side of Iqbal." The phone number in Malaysia was answered by a man named Yousef, who met with Mohammed at City One Plaza on November 7, Yousef came in traditional Afghan tunic and pants, and Mohammed thought he looked Pakistani and was worried because he seemed unconcerned about security. Mohammed said he believed Yousef was al-Qaeda's money man in Malaysia. Yousef said he had received $30,000 for Mohammed. At the mall that day, he gave $10,000 to Mohammed. Two days later, they met again and exchanged another $10,000, followed a couple of days later by another exchange of the final $10,000. Each time, the money was handed to Mohammed in an envelope: $100 bills tied by a rubber band. Mohammed received the money the Jemaah Islamiyah asked for and immediately contacted Zulkifli and handed him the money.

Plan A, Plan B, and the Police
Smuggle Explosives by Ship Spring 2003 B Death of Abu Hafs Hambali Met Prior Push Timetable Forward Attack Something Where Explosives Were ie Philippines Post 9/11 Crack Down Faiz Captured in Singapore Plans Compromised Flee to Thailand Jabarah Arrested in March 2002 The plan "was to smuggle explosives from the Philippines by ship to Indonesia and then from Indonesia to Singapore for the operation," but this could take up to a year and a half if they were to do it safely. In short, Plan A, as devised by KSM well in advance of 9/11, at least in general terms, would not have come to pass until roughly spring 2003, if it had stayed on track. But then came Plan B. Sometime in mid-December, Hambali returned to Kuala Lumpur from Afghanistan with news that Mohammed Atef, al-Qaeda's military chief, had been killed in the U.S. air strikes. Furthermore, two days before his death, Atef had told Hambali to push the timetable forward for the Asian attacks. If the explosives are in the Philippines, he said, then attack targets there. Hambali told Mohammed to contact al-Ghozi and "cancel the Singapore operation and pick targets in the Philippines." "If the U.S. and Israeli embassies are not good targets," Hambali said, "then pick better ones, but let's do this in the Philippines." A week later, Mohammed opened his in box to find an from Zulkifli titled "problem." Hambali's deputy, Faiz, had been arrested in Singapore while he was visiting his mother. The Singapore plans, already abandoned, would very likely have been compromised anyway. Zulkifli told Mohammed to get out of Malaysia and flee to Bangkok. The crackdown had begun in Singapore and Malaysia. The word among the operatives in the area was get to Thailand as quickly as possible. Mohammed and Ahmed were among the first to do so. After about two weeks, Mohammed received another from Zulkifli giving him a phone number to call in Bangkok. When Mohammed called, he found himself speaking with Hambali. When they met at the Chaleena Hotel in Bangkok the next morning, Hambali told Mohammed to leave Southeast Asia "before his picture showed up in the news." The last time Mohammed saw Hambali was in mid-January 2002, in southern Thailand: "At that time, Hambali discussed carrying out attacks with his group. His plan was to conduct small bombings in bars, cafés or nightclubs frequented by Westerners in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Indonesia. Hambali also stated that he had one ton of PETN explosive in Indonesia." It was a switch to so-called soft targets. Mohammed Jabarah was arrested in March 2002, part of the post-9/11 crackdown. The Bali plot went forward without him. Hambali

“Where are Your Brains and Your Conscience?” The Bali Attack
Bali Plan Moved Forward Mantiqi 1 Expert Terrorist Cell Recruited 5 Suicide Bombers 12 Filing Cabinets in a Cargo Van Black Powder, PETN, Detonators Redundant Firing Mechanisms 12 OCT 02, Bomb at US Consulate Sari Club, Bali Lone Suicide Bomber Detonated Inside Drove People Outside to the Car Bomb Approx 200 Died Bombers Rejoiced Thanks to Indonesian police work in the wake of the Bali bombing, the rest of the story can now be told in considerable detail. Before fleeing to Thailand, Hambali had had a meeting with the leaders of Mantiqi 1 in Johor Bahru. Covering Malaysia, Singapore, and southern Thailand, Mantiqi 1 was the most ambitious of Jemaah Islamiyah's cells in terms of terror plots. Jemaah Islamiyah developed plans on its own, and when Hambali felt his team was ready, he asked al-Qaeda for help, as he had done for Jabarah. Four days after the arrest of Faiz, Hambali was furious and told his leaders to go ahead and push forward despite these setbacks. Then he took his key leaders and went to Thailand to work out Plan B. In February 2002, Hambali gathered Mantiqi 1's top six leaders and pushed the plan forward. Al-Qaeda had already transferred the money, and explosives had been bought. It was a matter of adapting the plan so they could finish the job. At that meeting were Hambali, Mukhlas, Noordin Mohamed Top, Wan Min Wan Mat, Zulkifli Marzuki, and Dr. Azahari Husin. Specific jobs were handed out by Hambali. Noordin Mohamed Top, a teacher at Jemaah Islamiyah's Lukmanul Hakim school since 1998, was told "to plan bombing" logistics. Wan Min Wan Mat, a lecturer at Malaysia's University Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Jemaah Islamiyah's treasurer, was named the plot's bagman. Dr. Azahari Husin, another lecturer at UTM and an engineer who studied in Britain, was Jemaah Islamiyah's top bomb expert and is the author of Jemaah Islamiyah's manuals on explosives and building bombs. Azahari was told "to arrange and execute" the explosives for the attack. Mukhlas, who replaced Hambali as the head of Mantiqi 1 in April 2001, was tasked with implementing the actual attack. Mukhlas was a charter member of Jemaah Islamiyah and a veteran of the original jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan. He has known Abu Bakar Ba'asyir and Abdullah Sungkar since 1982, when he became a teacher at the Ngruki school in Solo that they founded. "I know the two vanished from the Ngruki boarding school around 1985 when the security forces came to the boarding school," said Mukhlas. In 1986, he left for Malaysia, where he again met up with the two clerics. That was when he said he swore allegiance to Abdullah Sungkar. Later that year, filled with the zeal of jihad, he left for Pakistan. "Jihad is the utmost form of religious service," he later told the Indonesian police. "After I decided to go, I performed the ritual prayer Istikharoh. In that prayer, I dreamt I met with the Prophet -- may Allah bless him and give him peace -- and he gave me some advice including an encouragement for me to depart because the journey was following the journey of the prophets, so I left at my own expense for Pakistan. And because I was able to speak Arabic I was able to talk with them and had the opportunity to meet with Islamic clerics," he said. In 1987, he met Osama bin Laden in Joji, Afghanistan. "The Joji territory was under fierce attack by Russian soldiers," said Mukhlas. "The snow was very thick up to two meters. When the mujahideen prepared to hold an attack on Joji, I joined them. The leader of the mujahideen at Joji and also the camp owner was Sheik Osama bin Laden." In that same year, he also met a fellow Indonesian who would later rise up al-Qaeda's ranks: Hambali. Mukhlas returned from Afghanistan when the war ended in He went to Malaysia and worked as a laborer and as an Islamic teacher. After about five or six months, he married Faridah bin Abbas, the sister of another JI member from Singapore, Hashim bin Abbas, whose voice would be heard narrating a JI plot on a videotape found in Afghanistan at the end of 2001. In 1991, at the urging of the JI leaders, Mukhlas founded a JI school. Sungkar told him he should do this because he "had experienced living at the Islamic boarding school Ngruki, and in Malaysia, an Islamic boarding school teaching the Koran and Sunna was badly needed." The land was paid for by Sungkar. The school's maintenance and electricity bills were paid by Wan Min Wan Mat. Ba'asyir, Sungkar, Hambali, and Mukhlas used the school to preach their radical message and recruit their earliest disciples, including Imam Samudra, the Bali blast coordinator, and Mukhlas's younger brothers -- Amrozi, who bought the van and explosives for Bali, and Ali Imron, who confessed to helping make and set off the bombs. The men who carried out the Bali bombings were no novices. This was not the first time they had worked together on a terrorist plot. They had planned and carried out the Christmas bombings in December 2000 in Indonesia and in Ambon -- nearly twenty bombs killed at least nineteen people. The same hierarchy, the same team: Hambali calling the shots; Mukhlas below him coordinating financial and logistical requirements; Imam Samudra as the field commander on the ground; Dr. Azahari advising Dulmatin the bomb maker; and Mukhlas's brothers Ali Imron, who built the bombs and triggered them, and Amrozi, who admitted using the same explosives supplier for the church bombings and the Ambon bombs. Field commander Imam Samudra was the one who got the job done. An Afghan war veteran who had named his son Osama, he was trained as an engineer and computer expert. He developed his radical views by reading books and using the Internet. He became more radical, he admits, than even the Asian Osama bin Laden, Ba'asyir. "Ustad Abu Bakar Ba'asyir leans towards dakwah [missionary work] and the socialization of Islam while I realize that the society's needs go beyond that. Dakwah no longer suffices for the people. They also need a defense," says Samudra. "That is why I call to fellow Muslims through the Internet by summoning them to jihad in Ambon as well as Poso....For those not able, jihad can also be performed through infaq [donations]. The means which I use to call fellow Muslims to jihad is through the chatting channel on the Internet, by sending out URLs for websites I know." (After he was arrested, prosecutors found a great deal of communication with Ba'asyir on his laptop -- along with pornographic photographs of Anglo-Saxon women. Samudra insisted those files had been planted. At one point he lived in the Southeast Asian neighborhood known in intelligence communities as "Terror HQ" -- Sungai Manggis, Malaysia. There, Samudra lived next door to Hambali, Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, and Abu Jibril. Soon after, he attended the school set up by Mukhlas. During the Christmas bombings, Samudra reported to Hambali and Mukhlas, and in turn, he managed Hashim bin Abbas, Mukhlas's brother-in-law. In 2001, he would field Malaysian Taufik Abdul Halim, a member of Malaysia's KMM terror group, in several church bombings, until one exploded prematurely, blowing off his leg and leading to his arrest. Samudra not only used the Internet to coordinate his operatives; he also added an Asian twist: text messaging on cellular phones. According to law enforcement officials in the region, this is one of the hardest forms of communication to trace. Samudra ran various operatives on the ground: Idris was in charge of handling the money that came through Hambali, Wan Min Wan Mat, and Mukhlas and putting it to use in setting up accommodations and logistics; Dulmatin worked with Dr. Azahari above him and Ali Imron below him to make the bombs; Amrozi, Mukhlas's brother, bought the explosives from the same supplier as the Christmas Eve bombings. "I was given the job of finding the chemicals -- chlorate, aluminum powder and sulfur -- and of buying a car, any type of car but, if possible, try to get a car with Bali number plates," he later explained to police investigators. Samudra also recruited a separate cell of five young men -- the suicide bombers for the plot. It would be the first time Indonesians would volunteer and carry out suicide bombings. "I asked them, 'Brothers, are you or are you not capable of going on a jihad on behalf of Muslims, even if it means a suicide bombing?' I noted that they shouldn't do it if they felt pressured or to be seen as courageous or to be popular or for any other bad reasons. They should do it only for Allah," said Samudra. Samudra's operatives kept their targets at Kuta Beach in Bali under surveillance for three weeks. On October 9, 2002, just two nights before the bombing, Mukhlas arrived in Bali to take a look at the targets they chose: the Sari Club and Paddy's Bar. The Sari Club is a well-known hangout in Kuta that has earned the ire of many Indonesians. Patronized largely by foreigners, it's known as bule land -- the land of whites. A well-known pickup place, it often refused entry to single Indonesian women unless they were accompanied by white men. One Western-educated, pretty Indonesian woman complained to me that she and her friends were not allowed inside. It was a good target, for it had symbolic importance that reverberated through all of Indonesian society. For three straight nights, Imam Samudra and two of his cell members positioned themselves outside, watching and feeding their hatred. "When we got to Jalan Legian," Imam Samudra later said, "we sat in the car in front of the Sari Club. I saw lots of whiteys dancing, and lots of whiteys drinking there. That place -- Kuta and especially Paddy's Bar and the Sari Club -- was a meeting place for U.S. terrorists and their allies, who the whole world knows to be the monsters." A white L-300 Mitsubishi van and three chemicals for the explosives were brought to a house on Jalan Pulau Mejangan in Denpasar, Bali, on the morning of October 12, and the cell assembled the bombs. The seats had been taken out of the van, and twelve filing cabinets, full of chemicals -- potassium chlorate, sulfur, and aluminum powder -- were placed inside. "They put the three ingredients together, and there was a connecting cable and a detonator. Dulmatin knows about that," explains Colonel Zainuri Lubis, a member of the police investigating team. "He is the one who made the detonator, helped by Ali Imron. When everything was ready...they loaded [the cabinets] on gradually and then took the car to the scene of the crime." There was some strain among the Bali bombers, particularly between Ali Imron and Imam Samudra. Ali Imron seemed to have felt marginalized during the planning stages, and during a bizarre press conference after his capture, where he acted more like a talk-show host than a prisoner, Imron portrayed himself as the key link: the man who built the bombs and pulled everything together at the last minute. "The capability of our group as one of the Indonesian nation [sic] should make people proud," Ali Imron told journalists, drawing stunned laughter from his implication that Indonesians should be proud of what his group accomplished. Imron said they used 1.2 tons of black powder connected to a cable detonator with PETN explosives. They also used 94 detonators that each had 3 grams of plastic explosive RDX and a booster that contained TNT. He said the detonators had been brought to Indonesia from the Philippines. Samudra had chosen two suicide bombers to bring the van to the Sari Club, but at the last minute, the plotters discovered that one, Iqbal (an alias for Arnasan), who was supposed to drive the car, could drive only a short distance in a straight line -- he didn't know how to shift gears or turn corners. Samudra ordered a displeased Imron to drive the van to a T-junction close to the targets with Iqbal and the second suicide bomber, Jimi (wearing a vest full of explosives), alongside. At the intersection, Ali Imron got out, and Iqbal drove the remaining short distance. At the Sari Club, Jimi got out of the van and entered the club, while Iqbal stayed in the van. The plotters set up four separate ways of detonating the bomb, providing three different backup systems in case of failure. The first attempt would be by mobile phone; then a direct trigger switch to be pulled by Iqbal, then a timer in case Iqbal was incapacitated, and finally a trigger in one of the filing cabinet drawers set to go off if it was opened. Ali Imron said that the first method must not have been used because they had forgotten to attach the cell phone. "The remote, the hand phone, is still in the pocket of my friend, Idris." On October 12, 2002, at 9:00 P.M., Ali Imron placed a box-shaped bomb on the sidewalk outside the U.S. consular office in Bali. He then rode a Yamaha motorcycle back to the house to get the van. At 10:00 P.M., Ali Imron drove the van to the T-junction near the Sari Club. At 11:08 P.M., Idris used his cell phone to make a call to trigger an explosion outside the U.S. consular office. By that time, Jimi, with the vestful of explosives, was inside Paddy's bar and detonated his bomb. That smaller explosion was designed to funnel people to the exit, closer to the site of the van's largest and deadliest blast, so fierce it ruptured the internal organs of the people in the area. The fires that followed burned others alive. The roofs of surrounding buildings were made of thatched material, which magnified the explosions, tearing down a whole city block. More than two hundred people died, and hundreds more were injured in a scene of chaos, destruction, and death. The bombers rejoiced. Some of them went to pray. Like the 9/11 attacks, the result surpassed what they had imagined would happen. "Firstly, I was shocked because the explosion was extremely intense, beyond expectations," said Mukhlas. "I had estimated that only Sari Club and Paddy's would be destroyed. Secondly, I felt grateful because in my opinion, the planned mission and objectives had been achieved because there were many casualties from amongst American allies including Australian citizens. Thirdly, I sought Allah's forgiveness because apparently there were some victims from the Muslim side." Amrozi, who by that time had returned to his hometown of Tenggulun, but was nonetheless caught by authorities on November 5, 2002, said he believed foreigners threatened the future of Indonesia. "Because the evil plan of the United States, the Jews and their allies is to colonize," he said. "They want to destroy religions. They destroy by creating challenges to religions, that is, dens of vices" -- referring to the Sari Club and Paddy's Bar. Indonesia's moral fabric was collapsing, said Amrozi, because "foreigners have colonized late night television. What would happen to Bali in ten years if I hadn't bombed it?" he asked the court. "For sure, the morals of Indonesians would be severely ruined because most people would not be going to mosques, churches and temples. The Jews, the Americans and their puppets know very well how to destroy the lives of Indonesians. Destroying our morals is very important to them." Another phrase I heard repeatedly from the Bali bombers was that "there was no other choice but violence." Imam Samudra stayed in Bali for two days after the bombing and revisited the site to survey the destruction. "I felt that I feared only Allah," he said, "and that my efforts, which had been so small, had caused the deaths of so many people. But if those killed were not Muslims but Americans and Christians, then I was grateful." Later, Samudra created his own website, to justify the Bali bombings. His words are strong and passionate. "This site is not intended as a forum for debate," he wrote. "This site has been created so that Muslims understand that -- quite apart from whether they agree or not, are opposed or not -- there are a handful of Muslims who feel called to revenge the barbarity of the Coalition army of the Cross and its allies (America, England, Australia, Germany, Belgium, Japan, almost all members of NATO, and so on) toward the Islamic State of Afghanistan, which resulted in tens of thousands of casualties in September, 2001. "It is as if one believer and another have the same body -- if one feels the pain, the other also feels it. For all you Christian infidels! If you say that this killing was barbarous and cruel, and happened to 'innocent civilians' from your countries, then you should know that you do crueler things than that. Do you think that 600 thousand babies in Iraq and half a million Afghan children and their mothers are soldiers and sinful people who should have to endure thousands of tons of your bombs?!?!? "Where are your brains and your consciences? "The cries of babies and the screams of Muslim women, which are then conveyed by the diplomatic efforts of a handful of Muslims trying to stop your brutality have not been successful, and there is no way they will ever be able to stop your barbarity. "So here we are, Muslims!!! "Our hearts have been wounded and are filled with pain at the deaths of our brothers and sisters. We cannot allow unjust and barbarous actions against our Muslim brothers and sisters in any corner of the world. "We hereby state that we were responsible for the MARTYRS (SUICIDE BOMBING) that took place in Jalan Legian, Kuta, Bali, on the evening of Saturday, October 12, 2002, and in the vicinity of the American embassy in Jalan Hayam Wuruk, Denpasar, Bali, on the same night." Samudra threatened to continue the attacks unless three conditions are met: first, for Coalition Forces to leave Afghanistan: "As long as Coalition forces do not leave Afghanistan, there will continue to be casualties from your countries, wherever they may be." Second was the release of all Muslims held as terrorists: "As long as you regard our brothers and sisters as terrorists and torture them in your prisons, especially in Guantanamo Bay, citizens from your countries will receive the same treatment." Finally, he asked all Muslims to stop helping and supporting the "American infidels who spread slander in Muslim circles" and threatened to treat them "the same way we treat your master, America, oppressor and mastermind of world terrorism." In a separate website about three weeks after the blasts, al-Qaeda claimed credit for Samudra's and his terror network's handiwork, including the Bali blasts, in its list of global attacks against America and its allies. "By attempting to strike a U.S. plane in Saudi Arabia and by bombing a Jewish synagogue in Tunisia, destroying two ships in Yemen, attacking the Fialka base in Kuwait, and bombing nightclubs and whorehouses in Indonesia, Al-Qaeda has shown it has no qualms about attacking inside Arab and Islamic lands," said the statement on the website. "This is provided that the target belongs to the Jewish-Crusader alliance." Practically speaking, there is no difference between al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah, as the latter operates as a subsidiary of the former. The Bali bombing was indeed the work of al-Qaeda, which provided funds, training, and some of the personnel to supplement Jemaah Islamiyah's home-grown recruiting. It was on orders from Mohammed Atef, al-Qaeda's number two (while he was still alive), that Jemaah Islamiyah switched from Plan A in Singapore to Plan B in Bali. The ease with which massive explosives were obtained -- enough to kill over 200 people -- and the relative simplicity of the plan make it a virtual certainty that something like it will happen again.

Culture of Islamic Terror Summary
Education The Concept of Jihad Recruiting Madrassas Guest Houses Training Camps Return of the Afghan Arabs Fatwas The Declaration of War Case Study: Mohammed Mansour Jabarah We have talked about The Culture of Islamic Terror and addressed the subjects listed on this slide. The total concept of this class is to portray the completeness of the all encompassing education and focusing of the terrorist into an extremist that is prepared to do anything to destroy all things that do not conform to the radical way of thinking. Particularly the case study show how far reaching the coordination of the terrorists can be. We have discussed: Education Madrassas Guest Houses The Concept of Jihad Return of the Afghan Arabs Fatwas The Declaration of War Case Study: Mohammed Mansour Jabarah Questions

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The Culture of Muslim Terrorism

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