Osama bin Laden operative at Fort Bragg (A old news story)

FORT BRAGG, N.C. - A former sergeant at Fort Bragg who became a close adviser to Osama bin Laden obtained sensitive documents describing how U.S. special operations units function.

Ali A. Mohamed, a trusted trainer in bin Laden's al Qaeda network, walked the halls of the U.S. military's top warfare planning center at Fort Bragg for more than two years as an Army sergeant.

From 1987 to 1989, he acquired sensitive documents describing how special operations units work and a detailed plan for a special operations training exercise, court documents say. The exercise was for an attack on Baluchistan, a part of Pakistan wedged between Afghanistan and the Arabian Sea.

From 1981 until his arrest in 1998, Mohamed was a key member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and he belonged to al Qaeda through the 1990s. He is in prison in an undisclosed location awaiting sentencing for his role in planning the 1998 car bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya, which killed 224 people and injured 4,500.

Among those who served at The John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School while Mohamed was there, there is disagreement over the quantity of the documents he obtained and over the extent to which that information may compromise the U.S. military effort in Afghanistan.

But court files make clear that Mohamed did obtain numerous documents from Fort Bragg, including some labeled "top secret."

In 1990, the FBI found Army documents that Mohamed gave to an Islamic extremist later convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing conspiracy. Included were top-secret documents identified as belonging to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Commander in Chief of the Army's Central Command, according to an FBI inventory.

"There is no doubt that his proximity, in hindsight, was very harmful," said one former Special Forces officer who spoke on the condition that he not be identified. "Does this hurt our efforts now? Absolutely."

But another officer who worked on the Baluchistan exercise said he didn't think knowledge of the late-1980s training exercise or documents used to plan it would jeopardize the U.S. military.

"We pulled that exercise out of the air," said retired Lt. Col. Lonnie R. Poole, who lives in Stockdale, Texas. "You can get more accurate information by going off post and buying a training book."

Mohamed's background made him an ideal spy for Islamic extremists at Fort Bragg. As a major in the Egyptian military's special operations forces, he took an officer training course for Green Berets at Fort Bragg in 1981. The U.S. military offered the course to dozens of foreign soldiers each year.

About the same time, he joined Egyptian Islamic Jihad, a group dedicated to overthrowing the government of Egypt and responsible for the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

In 1984, after obtaining a degree in psychology, Mohamed immigrated to the United States, joined the U.S. Army and was attached to the Fifth Special Forces - presumably because of his fluency in Arabic and familiarity with the Middle East. Though he was not a member of the Special Forces, he spent much of his time teaching Green Berets and others in special operations.

From 1981 until his arrest in September 1998, Mohamed was in contact with the U.S. government. He tried, without apparent success, to sign up as a CIA operative.

"He was an active source for the FBI, a double agent," said Larry Johnson, a former CIA agent and director of counterterrorism at the State Department during the first Bush administration.

For a military spy such as Mohamed, there would be few better places to be than the JFK School in the late 1980s.

At the time, the U.S. military was combining the special operations units from all service branches under one command. For months, planners at Fort Bragg worked to create the new command structure.

"The JFK School was the architect for the structure -how it would operate the missions it would undertake and how it would train," said retired Gen. David J. Baratto of Alexandria, Va., who was in charge of developing the command.

Several officers recalled that Mohamed showed a keen interest in the Baluchistan training exercise, called the Special Operations Staff Officer Course Command Post Exercise, or SOSOC CPX.

The exercise was designed to help Special Forces officers learn how to fight a guerrilla leader staging an insurgency in Baluchistan. The scenario had the leader taking over the region and threatening U.S. interests.

"The exercise was designed to use Special Forces, Psychological Operations and Civil Affairs," Poole said.

Baratto and others disagree on the value of the information. He said the guidelines for how the forces operate would not change, but much else would.

"I know as much about Special Forces as anyone, and I could not lay out for you a scenario with any accuracy about what is being done in Afghanistan today," he said.

Baratto acknowledged that the exercise serves as the foundation for off-the-shelf plans, and that means much of the way the military operates in them would be the same in the exercise as in the plan.

Chester Richards, a retired Air Force Reserve colonel and military strategist, said bin Laden's forces would love to get their hands on a Command Post Exercise or the documents that go into one.

"It would be out of date," Richards said, "but it would be quite valuable and give him some insight, allow him to get inside our minds and how we do battle."

Excerpts From Guilty Plea in Embassy Bombing Case
Source: New York Times

Following are excerpts from a preliminary court transcript of a hearing in Federal District Court in Manhattan in which Ali A. Mohamed pleaded guilty to five charges in connection with a broad terrorism conspiracy:

MR. MOHAMED Your honor, in the early 1980's I became involved with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organization. In the early 1990's, I was introduced to Al Qaeda — Al Qaeda is the organization headed by Osama bin Laden — through my involvement with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad.

In 1992, I conducted military and basic explosives training for Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. . . .

In 1991, I helped transport Osama bin Laden from Afghanistan to the Sudan.

When I engaged in these activities . . . I understood that I was working with Al Qaeda, bin Laden, Abu Hafs, Abu Ubaidah, and that Al Qaeda had a shura council . . .

In late 1993, I was asked by bin Laden to conduct surveillance of American, British, French and Israeli targets in Nairobi. Among the targets I did surveillance for was the American Embassy . . . These targets were selected to retaliate against the United States for its involvement in Somalia. I took pictures, drew diagrams, and wrote a report. Khalid al-Fawwaz paid for my expenses and the photo enlarging equipment. He was in Nairobi at this time.

I later went to Khartoum, where my surveillance files and photographs were reviewed by Osama bin Laden, Abu Hafs, Abu Ubaidah, and others. Bin Laden looked at the picture of the American Embassy and pointed to where a truck could go as a suicide bomber.

In 1994, bin Laden sent me to Djibouti to do surveillance on several facilities, including French military bases and the American Embassy.

In 1994, after an attempt to assassinate bin Laden, I went to the Sudan in 1994 to train bin Laden's bodyguards, security detail. I trained those conducting the security of the interior of his compound, and coordinated with the Sudanese intelligence agents who were responsible for the exterior security. . . .

I was aware of certain contacts between Al Qaeda and Al Jihad organization, on one side, and Iran and Hezbollah on the other side. I arranged security for a meeting in the Sudan between Mugniyah, Hezbollah's chief, and bin Laden. Hezbollah provided explosives training for Al Qaeda and Al Jihad. Iran supplied Egyptian Jihad with weapons. Iran also used Hezbollah to supply explosives that were disguised to look like rocks.

In late 1994, I was in Nairobi. Abu Hafs met another man and me in the back of Wadih el- Hage's house. Abu Hafs told me, along with someone else, to do surveillance for the American, British, French and Israeli targets in Senegal in West Africa.

At about this time, late 1994, I received a call from an F.B.I. agent who wanted to speak to me about the upcoming trial of United States v. Abdel Rahman. I flew back to the United States, spoke to the F.B.I., but didn't disclose everything that I knew.

I reported on my meeting with the F.B.I. to Abu Hafs and was told not to return to Nairobi.

In 1995, I obtained a copy of the co-conspirator list for the Abdel Rahman trial. I sent the list to el-Hage in Kenya, expecting that it would be forwarded to bin Laden in Khartoum.

In 1996, I learned from el-Hage that Abu Ubaidah had drowned.

In 1998, I received a letter from Ihab Ali in early January 1998. The letter said that el-Hage had been interviewed by the F.B.I. in Kenya, and gave me a contact number for el-Hage. I called the number and then called someone who would pass the message to Fawwaz for bin Laden.

After the bombing in 1998, I made plans to go to Egypt and later to Afghanistan to meet bin Laden. Before I could leave, I was subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury in the Southern District of New York. I testified, told some lies, and was then arrested.

Mr. Mohamed was then questioned by Judge Leonard B. Sand:

JUDGE SAND The overall objective of all these activities you described was, what?

MR. MOHAMED Just to — I was involved in the Islamic Jihad organization, and the Islamic Jihad organization had a very close link to Al Qaeda, the organization for bin Laden. And the objective of all this, just to attack any Western target in the Middle East, to force the government of the Western countries just to pull out from the Middle East, not to interfere in the ——

JUDGE SAND And to achieve that objective, did the conspiracy include killing nationals of the United States?

MR. MOHAMED Yes, sir. Based on the Marine explosion in Beirut . . . and the American pull- out from Beirut, they will be the same method, to force the United States to pull out from Saudi Arabia.

JUDGE SAND And it included conspiracy to murder persons who were involved in government agencies and embassies overseas?

MR. MOHAMED Yes, your honor.

JUDGE SAND And to destroy buildings and properties of the United States?

MR. MOHAMED Yes, your honor.

JUDGE SAND And to attack national-defense utilities?

MR. MOHAMED Yes, your honor.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/bomb174.htm

USA Today

05/20/99- Updated 05:15 PM ET

Ex-Army sergeant linked to bin Laden

NEW YORK (AP) - A former Army sergeant has been indicted on federal charges that he trained members of Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization and Islamic militants who were implicated in the World Trade Center bombing.

Ali Mohamed, 46, a native of Egypt who left the Army in 1989, was added to a broad conspiracy case that includes bin Laden, the suspected architect of last summer's bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Mohamed has been jailed in New York since he was arrested Sept. 11 on a sealed complaint in federal court in Manhattan. A message left Wednesday with Mohamed's lawyer, James Roth, was not immediately returned.

Mohamed, a former Egyptian military officer, moved to the United States in 1985 and became a permanent resident. He was honorably discharged from the Army in 1989 after serving three years at the Special Forces base in Fort Bragg, N.C.

While in the U.S. military, Mohamed taught soldiers in the special forces about Muslim culture. Prosecutors say he later lent his military expertise to terrorists intent on destroying the United States to retaliate for its support of Israel and involvement in the Middle East.

The indictment said Mohamed trained members of bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist organization and helped move bin Laden from Pakistan to Sudan in 1991. He also allegedly discussed as early as 1993 with other members of al Qaeda how to attack the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi and other Israeli, British and French targets in Kenya.

Mohamed also allegedly provided training to a group of Islamic militants who were later implicated in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and in a plot to blow up New York City landmarks.

Court records say that while Mohamed was in the Army, he gave tapes and books on military techniques and weapons to a group of young men who wanted to help Afghan rebels.

Some of the materials were later recovered from the apartment of El Sayyid Nosair, the Egyptian immigrant convicted of conspiracy in the killing of Jewish Defense League founder Rabbi Meir Kahane in 1990.

The Kahane killing was once believed to be an isolated attack, but investigators now see it as the start of a U.S. terrorism campaign by Islamic fundamentalists.

15 May 2001

Ali Mohamed: The Defendant Who Did Not Go to Trial
Pled guilty to conspiracy in African embassy bombing case

By Judy Aita
Washington File Staff Correspondent

New York -- As a jury deciding the fate of four men charged in the bombing of two U.S. embassies in East Africa completed its third full day of deliberations May 15, another member of the group waited in an undisclosed location for his sentencing later this year.

Ali A. Mohamed was charged in the almost simultaneous bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam on August 7, 1998, and with conspiring to kill Americans, along with Wadih El Hage, Mohamed Sadeek Odeh, Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-'Owhali, and Khalfan Khamis Mohamed. However, just months before their trial was to begin in Federal District Court in Manhattan on October 20, 2000, Mohamed pled guilty to five counts of conspiracy to kill nationals of the United States and officers or employees of the U.S. government on account of their official duties, to murder and kidnap, and to destroy U.S. property.

In his plea before Judge Leonard Sand, Mohamed linked Usama bin Laden with the embassy bombings and said he worked with El Hage and others indicted in the bomb plot.

Mohamed, 48, is a former Egyptian intelligence officer who became a United States citizen and a U.S. Army sergeant assigned to a Special Forces unit at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He left the U.S. Army in 1989 and in the early 1990s became involved in the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organization, which also worked with al Qaeda. He then trained fighters in surveillance techniques at al Qaeda camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Observers had expected Mohamed to be a key government witness against the four defendants during the trial, which began in January 2001. However, while his name was mentioned during testimony on contacts with El Hage and documents taken from his California home were entered into evidence, the former surveillance instructor never took the stand.

Mohamed's plea agreement with the government remains secret. In his October court appearance, Mohamed told the judge that the objective of his activities with Islamic Jihad and al Qaeda was "to attack any Western target in the Middle East, to force the governments of the Western countries just to pull out from the Middle East."

Mohamed explained to Judge Sand that that "based on the Marine [barracks] explosion in Beirut in 1984 and the American pull-out from Beirut," the group planned to use the same method to force the United States to leave Saudi Arabia. Was it true that the plans "included conspiracy to murder persons who were involved in government agencies and embassies overseas?" the judge asked. "Yes, your honor," Mohamed said. "And to destroy buildings and properties of the United States?" the judge said. "Yes, your honor," Mohamed answered.

Detailing his activities with the alleged terrorist organizations in the Middle East and Africa, Mohamed said that during those activities he "understood that I was working with al Qaeda, [Usama] bin Laden, Abu Hafs [and] Abu Ubaidah, and that al Qaeda had a shura council which included Abu Hajer al Iraqui." Mohamed told the judge that in the early 1980s he became involved with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organization and in the 1990s was introduced to al Qaeda through the Egyptian organization. In the early 1990s Ayman Al Zawihiri made two visits to the United States to raise funds for Islamic Jihad, Mohamed said, and he helped Zawihiri do that. Zawihiri was also indicted in the bombing but remains at large, as does bin Laden.

"In 1991 I helped transport Usama bin Laden from Afghanistan to the Sudan," Mohamed said. "In 1992 I conducted military and basic explosives training for al Qaeda in Afghanistan," training among others Harum Fadhl and Abu Jihad, and also conducted intelligence training for al Qaeda, teaching trainees how to "create cell structures that could be used for operations." He described his work in helping al Qaeda set up "a presence in Nairobi" and enumerated work done by different individuals.

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