I am going to tell you a story. It is about one of the most remarkable and most suppressed intelligence failures in American history. I’ll be surprised if anyone you ask tells you they know about this.
There was this former Egyptian Army Special Operations intelligence officer by day, and an Islamist by night, Major Ali Mohamed, whose audacity and betrayal is the stuff of movies. He was a full pledged member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), when he participated in a U.S. Army officer training course at Fort Bragg, in 1981.
Here’s where the story gets really crazy. Mohamed actually walked into the CIA Cairo Station in 1984 and volunteered his services. The agency hired him on the spot. Then, without wasting any time, they sent him to Hamburg, Germany, to infiltrate a mosque known for Islamic radicalism. And what does Mohamed do? He outed himself to the Imam of the mosque as a CIA plant to offer his services as a double agent. The CIA got wind of it and fired him.
They also tried to prevent him from ever entering the United States, but the ban was not enforced. He not only entered the US, but he joined the US Army. At 34, the former Egyptian special forces soldier physically outperformed every 18-year-old recruit in his basic training unit. His knowledge and skill also impressed his Army instructors.
He was eventually assigned to the special operations command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and while stationed there, he quickly picked up unconventional warfare techniques. He even reached the rank of Sergeant, and used his position to travel back and forth to Afghanistan, where he trained the first Al-Qaeda volunteers on these tactics and, according to FBI records, among his first students was none other than Osama bin Laden.
He taught Bin Laden and other founders of Al-Qaeda, such as Bin Laden’s second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, American special operations doctrine, strategy, escape and evasion techniques, and intelligence, all while on active duty in the US Army!
In his own words, entered into the court record: “I conducted military and basic explosive training for Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. I also conducted intelligence training for Al-Qaeda. I taught my trainees how to create cell structures that could be used for operations.”
He also wrote the actual multi-volume Al-Qaeda training manual, drawing on what he had learned from the United States Army special operations. In 1993, Mohammed used his military expertise to scout targets and photograph the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, playing a foundational role in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings to follow in East Africa.
Following the 1998 East Africa embassy bombings, Mohamed, who was now under surveillance, was arrested and indicted by U.S. federal authorities. In October 2000, he pleaded guilty to five counts of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals and destroy U.S. property and was convicted.
Think about this. Ali Muhammad, a U.S. soldier, was working simultaneously as a U.S. Army Special Forces advisor, CIA informant, and FBI asset, all while acting as a master spy and trainer for Al Qaeda. You can’t make this stuff up.
