November 8, 1971—U.S.—On April 9, 2015, CNN reported hijacker Charlie Hill, still living in Cuba at age 65, longed to return to the U.S. He faced charges of killing New Mexico police officer Robert Rosenbloom before hijacking TWA flight 106, a B-727, to Havana in 1971. New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez asked the Obama administration to pursue Hill’s extradition. He and fellow gunmen Michael Finney and Ralph Goodwin were members of the Republic of New Afrika, a black power militant group that sought to secede Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina into a separate country for African-Americans. Cuban officials denied his request for military training to fight in Africa, assigning him to cut sugar cane, do construction and run a clothing store. Ralph Goodwin drowned in 1973 and Michael Finney died of throat cancer in 2005. Hill twice divorced in Cuba. He has 2 children in Cuba and 5 grandchildren in the U.S. He became a Santeria priest.
June 2, 1972—U.S.—Willie Roger Holder and Catherine Marie Kerkow hijacked Western Airlines flight 701 en route from Los Angeles to Seattle on June 2, 1972; he eventually wound up in Algeria. They were the subject of Brendan I. Koerner The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking New York: Crown, 2013, 336 pp.
September 5, 1972—West Germany—On December 2, 2015, AP and the New York Times reported that Ilana Romano, wife of Israeli Olympic weightlifter Yossef “Yossi” Romano, who was one of the 11 Israeli Olympians killed by Black September terrorists at the 1972 Munich Games, said that the Palestinians mutilated him after he was shot trying to resist the attackers. Black September had beaten other athletes and forced them to watch him die while refusing to allow doctors into the room. The terrorists castrated the corpse.
December 1972—Northern Ireland—On March 21, 2014, the government charged Ivor Bell, 77, in connection with the 1972 abduction, killing and secret burial of Jean McConville, 37, a widowed mother of 10 who vanished from her Catholic west Belfast home in December 1972. Bell was the superior officer to Gerry Adams in the Belfast IRA. In 1999, the IRA admitted killing her and the other 15 members of “The Disappeared” in the 1970s and early 1980s and burying them in unmarked graves after being accused by the IRA of spying for the British. Belfast IRA members Brendan Hughes and Dolours Price said they attended IRA meetings with Adams in 1972 when the decision to kill McConville was taken, according to the Associated Press. Hughes said Adams ran “The Unknowns,” an IRA team targeted against informers. Price said she drove McConville into Ireland, where an IRA hit man shot McConville in the back of the head. McConville’s skeletal remains were discovered near a Louth, Ireland, beach in 2003. In 2006, Northern Ireland’s police ombudsman said there was no evidence that she was a police informant. By 2014, Hughes and Price had died. Seven Disappeared bodies had yet to be found. Adams denied the charges. Adams in 2014 represented Louth County in the Irish Parliament. Bell was denied bail in a March 22, 2014, hearing in Belfast Magistrates Court. Prosecutors cited an oral history project at Boston College with former IRA members that indicated Bell had “played a critical role in the aiding, abetting, counsel and procurement of the murder of Jean McConville.” He was represented by attorney Peter Corrigan.
Bell was part of the IRA’s negotiating team in 1972 talks in London. He became the IRA’s chief of staff in 1982. He clashed in 1984 with Adams, who moved IRA money into Sinn Fein election efforts, and was bounced from the IRA.
On April 30, 2014, police in Northern Ireland arrested Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams, 65, for his alleged involvement in the Irish Republican Army’s 1972 abduction, killing and secret burial of Belfast widow Jean McConville, 38, a widowed mother of 10 whom the IRA “Unknowns” unit killed with a single rifle shot to the head as an alleged spy. The IRA did not admit the murder until 1999; Adams denied involvement. Her body was found near a County Louth, Republic of Ireland beach in 2003.
On September 29, 2015, AP reported that Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams, 66, and 6 other suspected IRA veterans would not be charged regarding the IRA’s 1972 abduction, murder and secret burial of a Jean McConville. Northern Ireland’s deputy director of public prosecutions, Pamela Atchison, said evidence was “insufficient to provide a reasonable prospect of obtaining a conviction against any of them.”
1974—France—On October 7, 2014, a French court ordered Venezuelan citizen Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, alias Carlos the Jackal, to stand trial over a 1974 grenade attack on Paris’s Left Bank that killed 2 people and injured more than 30. He was serving 2 life sentences for other deadly attacks in the 1970s and 1980s.
December 21, 1975—Austria—On November 12, 2013, the DPA news agency reported that Sonja Suder, 80, who was acquitted of the OPEC attack, was convicted by the Frankfurt state court of participating in 3 arson attacks in the late 1970s and sentenced to 3½ years in prison. The Revolutionary Cells conducted 2 arson attacks on German companies in 1977, and a third in 1978 on the Heidelberg Castle. She fled to France in 1978. She was extradited to Germany in 2011 to face trial.
1977—West Germany—On November 20, 2013, the Federal Criminal Court upheld the conviction of former Red Army Faction terrorist Verena Becker as an accessory to the 1977 murder of Siegfried Buback, West Germany’s chief federal prosecutor. DPA reported that the appeals court turned down her claim that the lower court made errors in convicting her in 2012 of “knowingly and deliberately” influencing other RAF members to kill Buback. She was sentenced to 4 years in prison. Authorities had arrested Becker in May 1977. She was tried and convicted of armed robbery and attempted murder stemming from the shoot-out with police that preceded her arrest. She was sentenced to life in prison, but pardoned in 1989 by West Germany’s president. She was rearrested in August 2009 when Buback’s case was reopened.
February 15, 1978—U.S.—On May 23, 2014, federal prosecutors announced the arrest of Phillip Martin Olson, 61, of Fairbanks, who was indicted for making false statements to the FBI regarding the 1978 bombing of the trans-Alaska pipeline in 1978. The attack came less than a year after it began moving crude oil 800 miles from the Prudhoe Bay to Valdez. A detention hearing was scheduled for May 29, 2014. U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler said he confessed to the bombing and to falsely accusing another person by saying the confederate was an accomplice. The 35-year statute of limitations had run out regarding the bombing. The resulting spill from a bomb placed on the 48-inch pipe wasted 12,000 to 14,000 barrels of crude. He faced 5 years and a $350,000 fine.
1979—Puerto Rico—On May 10, 2014, the Jacksonville-based Florida Times-Union reported that the Southern Field Office of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service had caught Juan Galloza Acevedo, who agreed to plead guilty to planning the ambush of a bus carrying sailors outside a U.S. Navy base in Puerto Rico. The 3 gunmen fired 41 bullets from a machine gun and assault rifles, killing 1st Class Petty Officer John R. Ball, 29, a cryptologic technician from Wisconsin; and 3rd Class Petty Officer Emil E. White, 20, a radioman from the Virgin Islands; and injuring 10 other sailors. Ball and White were posthumously awarded the Purple Heart. Galloza, now 78, admitted being in the front passenger seat of the van with the Los Macheteros (Machete Wielders) gunmen during the attack. Galloza surrendered to authorities in New York in 2013. On May 8, 2014, he was convicted of racketeering conspiracy. He was sentenced to 5 years in prison. NCIS identified 2 of the shooters in the cold case. Juan Segarra Palmer, head of the Macheteros, was earlier implicated as orchestrating the attack, and served in prison in the U.S. on other charges before his 2004 release, having received clemency from President Clinton 5 years earlier.
April 22, 1979—Israel—On December 19, 2015, Hizballah’s al-Manar reported that 4 Israeli missiles hit a residential building in Jaramana, outside Damascus, killing Samir Kuntar, a Hizballah terrorist, and several others. Israel released him in 2008 in exchange for the bodies of 2 Israeli soldiers after he spent 30 years in jail for killing 3 Israelis, including a father and his 4-year-old daughter in an attack on April 22, 1979, in Nahariya. The U.S. and Israel labeled him a terrorist. He was 16 when he and 3 other terrorists arrived in Israel by boat from Lebanon. They killed a policeman, then broke into a home and took hostage Danny Haran and Einat Haran, 4, later killing them. Haran’s wife, Smadar Haran Kaiser, accidentally smothered their daughter, Yael, 2, when they were hiding a closet and she was trying to stop Yael from crying. The U.S. Department of State labeled him a specially-designated global terrorist in September 2015, saying he also built Hizballah’s infrastructure in the Golan Heights.
November 4, 1979—Iran—On December 24, 2015, CNN and the Washington Post reported that Congress passed a budget bill that authorized each of the 53 hostages or their estates to receive $10,000 for each day they were held captive. Spouses and children would receive a separate one-time payment of $600,000. Thirty-eight of the former hostages were still alive. Approximately 150 people associated with the embassy hostage case were covered. The money came from a $9 billion penalty paid by the French bank BNP Paribas for violating sanctions against Iran, Cuba, and the Sudan. The bill also authorized payments to other victims of separate international terrorist attacks.
September 26, 1980—West Germany—On December 11, 2014, German prosecutors reopened the investigation into a far-right attack on Munich’s Oktoberfest beer festival in 1980 that killed 13 people, including 3 children and attacker Gundolf Koehler, a far-right student, and injured more than 200. A previously unknown witness surfaced regarding co-conspirators.
October 3, 1980—France—On November 13, 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear the case of Hassan Diab, 60, a Canadian university professor of sociology of Lebanese descent, who was facing extradition to France in connection with a 1980 Paris synagogue bombing that killed 4 people. He thus became eligible for immediate removal and could be extradited within days. Earlier in 2014, the Ontario Court of Appeals ruled that a lower-court judge and the federal justice minister made no legal errors in concluding that Diab should be handed over to French authorities. Canadian police arrested Diab at his Ottawa suburban home in November 2008 in response to a request from French authorities, who claimed he was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. France had charged him with murder and attempted murder in the October 3, 1980, bombing of the synagogue on rue Copernic in Paris that killed 4 people, including 3 French women and a young Israeli woman and wounded 40 people. Canada’s Justice Minister ordered him expelled to France in April 2012. He was deported from Montreal to Paris on November 14, and was scheduled to face a Paris anti-terrorism judge on November 15. He faced life in prison.
Diab obtained Canadian citizenship in 2006. He and his common-law wife had a nearly-2-year-old daughter as of November 2014.
July 20, 1982—UK—On May 22, 2013, John Anthony Downey, 61, of County Donegal, Ireland, was charged in the murders of 4 members of the Royal Household Cavalry in an IRA bombing in London. The victims were Roy John Bright, Dennis Richard Anthony Daly, Simon Andrew Tipper and Geoffrey Vernon Young. He was also charged with intending to cause an explosion likely to endanger life.
In 1987, IRA member Gilbert “Danny” McNamee was imprisoned for 25 years for making the bomb. The conviction was later overturned and he was freed.
August 9, 1982—France—On March 4, 2015, AP reported that French authorities were seeking 3 suspected Abu Nidal members believed involved in the 1982 attack in which Palestinians fired machineguns and threw grenades in the Jo Goldenberg deli in Paris’s Marais neighborhood in the old Jewish quarter, killing 6 people, including 2 Americans, and injuring 21 people. The suspects were now in their late 50s and early 60s. Paris prosecutor’s office spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre said they were believed to be in the Palestinian territories.
On June 17, 2015, AP reported that Paris prosecutor’s office spokeswoman Agnes Thibualt-Lecuivre announced the arrest in Jordan on June 1 of Souhaur Mouhamad Hassan Khalil al-Abbassi, “supervisor” of the 1982 Palestinian terrorist attack. France requested extradition. Paris was searching for 2 other suspects.
1983—U.S.—Puerto Rican nationalists conducted the largest bank robbery to date in Connecticut. Norberto Gonzalez Claudio was arrested in Puerto Rico in May 2011. He pleaded guilty in June 2012 to foreign transportation of stolen money and conspiracy to rob federally- insured bank funds. On January 15, 2015, the 69-year-old completed his prison sentence in central Florida and returned to a hero’s welcome in Puerto Rico.
1984—Costa Rica—In early December 2013, Attorney General Jorge Chavarria announced the closure of the investigation of the bombing that killed 2 Costa Rican cameramen, 4 Nicaraguan rebels and American journalist Linda Frazier and wounded more than 20 in La Penca, near the Nicaraguan border, because the only suspect, Roberto Vidal Gallini, died in 1989. Police had believed the bomb was aimed at assassinating Contra leader Eden Pastora.
1984—UK—On January 3, 2014, Britain’s National Archives declassified documents indicating that the Libyan government warned the British government that it would not be responsible for violence at a planned anti-government rally outside the Libyan People’s Bureau in London. Police officer Yvonne Fletcher was shot dead and 10 others were injured when a gunman inside the Libyan People’s Bureau fired a submachine gun on protestors the next day.
On November 19, 2015, AP reported that British police announced “the first significant arrest” in the 1984 killing of London policewoman Yvonne Fletcher, who died from shots fired from a submachine gun from inside the Libyan People’s Bureau on St. James’ Square in central London. Commander Richard Walton, head of Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism unit, said a Libyan man in his 50s was arrested in the morning on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. Authorities also arrested 2 other Libyans, a man and a woman, for money-laundering in relation to the case in which 10 others were injured during an anti–Qadhafi demonstration. Police offered a 50,000 pound ($76,000) reward for information leading to the shooters.
February 27, 1985—Mexico—On August 9, 2013, Mexico freed Sinaloa drug cartel founder Rafael Caro Quintero, 61, after he served 28 years in prison for the kidnap/murder of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camerena. A Jalisco State judge overturned his conviction, saying he should have been tried in a state, vice federal, court, and freed him after he had served 28 years of a 40-year sentence for the killings. Caro Quintero had led the now-defunct Guadalajara Cartel. He was wanted in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on felony murder, kidnapping, and other criminal charges.
On November 6, 2013, the U.S. State Department offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of accused Mexican drug trafficker Rafael Caro Quintero, 61, for the 1985 kidnap/murder of Camarena and his pilot, Alfredo Zavala Avelar.
On January 16, 2015, a Mexican court ordered the recapture of Rafael Caro Quintero.
1986—Indonesia—NOLA.com and the Times-Picayune reported on February 20, 2015, that Tsutomi Shirosaki, 67, a Japanese Red Army member convicted in 1998 for the 1986 rocket attack on the U.S. embassy in Jakarta, was freed from federal prison in Yazoo City, Mississippi on January 16, 2015, after nearly 20 years in federal prison and returned from Louisiana to Japan. On arrival, he was arrested to face charges of involvement in a similar attack on Japan’s Jakarta embassy. He was accused of arson for allegedly setting a fire to a hotel room in Jakarta, which police claimed was an effort to destroy evidence of the earlier mortar attacks on the Japanese and U.S. embassies. He was arrested for attempted bank robbery in Japan and sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1971. He and other prisoners were freed in 1977 during the hijacking of a Japan Airlines plane in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
1988—Guatemala—On July 4, 2014, a Guatemalan court sentenced rebel commander Fermin Felipe Solano Barrillas to 90 years for ordering the murder of 22 pro-government farmers in El Aguacate in 1988.
December 21, 1988—UK—On October 15, 2015, AP reported that Scottish prosecutors announced that they had identified 2 Libyans as suspects in the 1988 Pan Am 103 passenger jet bombing over Lockerbie, and wanted to interview the duo in Tripoli. The Washington Post said that the 2 were Abdullah al-Senussi, Moammar al-Qadhafi’s former intelligence chief, and alleged bombmaker Abu Agila Mas’ud.
March 1989—Northern Ireland—On December 3, 2013, Judge Peter Smithwick announced an 8-year judge-led inquiry had determined that that Irish police colluded in the ambush/murder of senior Northern Ireland police officers Harry Breen and Bob Buchanan by the Provisional IRA in 1989 as they were crossing into Northern Ireland shortly after a meeting in an Irish police station in Dundalk.
1991—Chile—On June 6, 2014, the Hamburg, Germany regional court ordered the release of Marie Emmanuelle Verhoeven, alias “Commander Anna,” 54, a French woman accused of involvement in the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front’s 1991 murder of Chilean politician Jaime Guzman, leader of the conservative Independent Democratic Union, conservative Chilean party. Chile had requested extradition so she could face charges of murder, forming a terrorist organization and grievous bodily harm resulting in death. She was arrested in January 2014 while boarding a flight from Hamburg to Dubai. She had been wanted for almost 2 decades.
May 1991—India—On February 18, 2014, India’s Supreme Court commuted the death sentences to life in prison for the Vellore Three, 3 men con-victed of playing minor roles in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991. The trio had served more than 20 years on death row in Vellore Prison in southern Tamil Nadu State. The 3 were among 26 convicted of playing minor roles in the assassination. Indian national Arivu Perarivalan was found guilty of buying a 9-volt battery used in the bomb; Sri Lankans Murugan and San-than admitted to being Tamil Tigers. Mercy peti-tions they filed in 2000 were rejected in 2011. The 23 others had earlier been released or had their sentences commuted to life. The last clemency granted was for Murugan’s wife after Gandhi’s widow, Sonia, asked in 1999 that no one be hanged. On February 20, 2014, India’s Supreme Court stopped the Tamil Nadu State government from releasing 3 of the 7 prisoners serving life sentences for the Gandhi assassination.
August 9, 1991—Peru—AP reported on Decem-ber 5, 2015, that Italian Cardinal Angelos Amato beatified martyred priests Michael Tomaszek and Zbigniew Strazalkowski of Poland and Alessandro Dordi of Italy in Chimbote in front of 30,000 people. The Shining Path killed the 3 in 1991. The killers shot the 2 Poles in the head following a night Mass in the rural district of Pariacoto. They hung signs around their necks calling them “imperialist lackeys.” They intercepted Dordi a few miles away on a rural road as he returned from Mass a few weeks later, shooting him in the head and chest.
1992—Peru—On January 20, 2014, Peruvian prosecutors in the Callao military prison began the trial of Shining Path founder Abimael Guzman, 79, and 10 other members of the group for a 1992 car bombing on Tarata Street that killed 25 and wounded 155. Guzman was captured 2 months after the attack. Guzman was serving life without parole for a 2006 terrorism conviction. He was represented by attorney Alfredo Crespo, who said he did not order the bombing. Five people had been convicted for the attack. On January 24, 2014, Guzman was tried for a Shining Path attack on an interprovincial bus in 1984 in Ayacucho State and killing 104 people.
1993—South Africa—On May 29, 2015, AP reported that Judge Selby Baqwa in a Pretoria court granted medical parole to Clive Derby-Lewis, 79, who had been convicted for the 1993 assassination of Chris Hani, leader of the South African Communist Party and head of the military wing of the African National Congress. Derby-Lewis had cancer.
March 12, 1993—India—On July 22, 2015, UPI reported that India’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentence against Yakub Abdul Razak Memon, an accountant who was convicted in 2007 of financing a series of bombings in Mumbai on March 12, 1993, that killed 257 people and wounded 713. Targets had included the Bombay Stock Exchange, Air India offices, a state transport office, 3 hotels, a gas station and a movie theater. The bombers were avenging the demolition of a medieval mosque in northern India by Hindu nationalists. Riots following the demolition killed more than 800 people. Eight family members were accused of involvement; 3 were acquitted. The accused masterminds, Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon, Yakub’s older brother, went underground. At least 100 people were convicted in the case; 10 death sentences were commuted to life in prison. Yakub Memon was in jail in Nagpur, in Maharashtra State. The government had earlier scheduled his hanging for July 30, 2015, according to the BBC. On July 30, 2015, AP reported that he was hanged on his 53rd birthday at the prison where he had been held since 1994.
June 14, 1993—Israel—Muqdad Salah, 47, a Palestinian resident of Burqa, West Bank, was freed in 2013 after being held in Israeli prisons for 20 years for the June 14, 1993, murder of Holocaust survivor Israel Tenenbaum, 72, and a security guard at the Sironit, a Netanya beach hotel. He married Kefaya Abu Omar in Nablus in November 2013. He was the subject of a New York Times profile on March 30, 2014, on returning to a normal life. He was one of 78 longtime prisoners freed as part of peace negotiations. His life sentence had earlier been shortened to 32 years.
July 18, 1994—Argentina—Among the dead was Paola Czyzewski, 21, who was visiting the city’s main Jewish community center with her mother, Ana Maria Blugerman, who survived.
On August 6, 2015, AP reported that the trial began of 13 men, including ex–President Carlos Menem, 85—president between 1989 and 1999—a former top judge, 2 former prosecutors, a former top intelligence official, former police officers, a Jewish community leader and a mechanic who owned the truck carrying the explosives, for allegedly hampering the investigation into the AIMA bombing. The charges carried sentences of 3 to 15 years. Prosecutor Sabrina Namer was expected to claim that Menem ordered former Judge Juan Jose Galeano to end investigating a “Syrian trail” that involved Syrian-born Alberto Kanoore Edul.
1995—India—On January 16, 2015, Reuters reported that Thai authorities extradited Gurmeet Singh, one of 6 Sikhs convicted of involvement in a bomb attack in India in 1995 that killed 18 people, including Beant Singh, the then-chief minister of the northern state of Punjab. He fled a high-security prison in India in 2004 before being sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment in 2007. He entered Thailand in October 2014. Thai police arrested him on January 5, 2015. He was sent to India at 8:30 p.m.
March 20, 1995—Japan—On December 31, 2011, Makoto Hirata, a former Aum Shin Rikyo member, turned himself in to Japanese police. His trial began on January 16, 2014; he was not charged in the sarin subway attack. He was charged with involvement in the murder of Kiyoshi Kariya, who had rescued his sister from Aum. Prosecutors said Hirata, 48, was a driver and lookout during Kariya’s kidnapping. Kiriya died from an overdose of anesthetic Aum used on him. Hirata also denied involvement in the placing of a bomb at the home of a pro–Aum academic in an attempt to mislead authorities. He faced the death penalty. Sentencing was expected in March 2014.
On June 3, 2012, MSNBC and Kyodo reported the arrest in Sagamihara of Aum member Naoko Kikuchi, 40, who was suspected of having released sarin in the Tokyo subway attack. She was held on charges of murder and attempted murder. Still at large in the attack was Katsuya Takahashi, 54.
November 9, 1995—Greece—An Ethiopian man trying to avoid going home grabbed a knife from a food tray and took over an Olympic Airlines flight carrying 114 people from Australia, which had deported him, just before it landed in Athens, Greece. He held the knife against a stewardess during a news conference, but was overpowered by Greek police. He requested that he not be deported to Ethiopia. He faced 20 years in prison in Greece. 95110902
June 25, 1996—Saudi Arabia—On August 26, 2015, Fox News quoted Saudi paper Asharq al-Awsat that authorities in Beirut had arrested Ahmed al-Mughassil, Abu Omran, 48, described by the FBI in 2001 as the head of the military wing of Saudi Hizballah, who was suspected in the Khobar Towers attack that killed 19 U.S. service personnel and wounded almost 500 people. He was transferred to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
1998—Turkey—On June 11, 2014, the Supreme Court overturned the 2013 appeals court conviction and life sentence of Pinar Selek, 41, a Turkish sociologist found guilty of involvement in a deadly 1998 blast after being acquitted 3 times in 2006, 2007, and 2011. She now lives in France. She was earlier accused of aiding Kurdistan Workers’ Party rebels by planting a bomb in Istanbul’s 17th-century spice market that killed 7 and wounded more than 120. She faced yet another possible retrial. She served 2 years in jail before leaving Turkey.
August 7, 1998—Tanzania/Kenya—On October 5, 2013, U.S. Navy SEALS captured senior al-Qaeda figure Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, variant Nazih al-Ragye, alias Abu Anas al-Libi, 49, from his car at his family home as he returned from morning prayers in the Noflieen neighborhood of Tripoli, Libya and took him onto the USS San Antonio, an amphibious transport dock ship in the Mediterranean Sea. The U.S. had offered $5 million for his capture. He was questioned by the U.S. inter-agency High Value Detainee Interrogation Group. He was a suspect in the bombings. On October 14, the Navy brought him to New York, where he was transferred to law enforcement custody. He was indicted in 2001 by the federal court in the Southern District of New York. His wife claimed he had retired from al-Qaeda and was seeking a job with Libya’s oil ministry.
On January 3, 2015, AP reported that Um Abdullah, the wife of Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, alias Abu Anas al-Libi, 50, said he had died of complications from surgery for liver cancer. She learned of his death from the Libyan Embassy in Washington. He was indicted more than a decade earlier in federal court for conspiracy to commit murder for planning the August 7, 1998, truck bombings at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people, including a dozen Americans. His attorney, Bernard Kleinman, said al-Ruqai died at a hospital in the New York area. A Manhattan federal judge had scheduled jury selection to begin January 12, 2015, and refused to separate al-Ruqai from the other remaining defendant in the case. Khalid al-Fawwaz, a Saudi, and Adel Abdel Bary, an Egyptian, were also accused. They were sent from the UK in 2012. In 2014, Bary pleaded guilty to terrorism charges and faced 25 years in prison.
On December 16, 2014, UPI reported that Kenya’s NGO Coordination Board de-registered 15 charities suspected of funding terrorism activities, including 4 suspected of ties to the bombings of U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998. Board Executive Director Fazul Mahamed Yusuf said “The board has de-registered these organizations, frozen their accounts and forwarded information on them to relevant government security agencies for appropriate actions.”
On February 6, 2015, AP reported that Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan in New York sentenced Adel Abdul Bary, an Egyptian attorney, to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to kill Americans. Bary had been in prison since 1999. He admitted spreading claims of responsibility and future terrorist threats after the embassy bombings.
On February 26, 2015, Reuters reported that a federal jury in Manhattan convicted Khalid al-Fawwaz, 52, on all 4 conspiracy counts in the bombing. He faced life in prison. He was represented by defense attorney Bobbi Sternheim.
On May 15, 2015, Reuters reported that U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan sentenced Khalid al-Fawwaz to life in prison. He had been convicted in February 2015 of 4 counts of conspiracy in a New York federal court in connection with the August 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
August 15, 1998—Northern Ireland—On April 7, 2014, police in Newry, Northern Ireland arrested Real IRA member and Republic of Ireland resident Seamus Daly, 43, for the August 15, 1998, Omagh car bombing that killed 29 people. He was charged on April 10, 2014, in a court in Dungannon, west of Belfast, with the 29 murders and with attempting to bomb the Northern Ireland town of Lisburn 4 months before the Omagh attack. He had earlier pleaded guilty to membership in the IRA in 2004, and served 3 years in prison. He was deemed behind the Omagh bombing in a civil lawsuit by a Belfast jury that said he and 3 other Real IRA members should pay families of the victims more than $2.5 million. He was refused bail on April 11, 2014.
Two men earlier charged in connection with the Omagh bombing were acquitted. A Northern Ireland electrician charged with making the bomb was released when the judge ruled that the forensic evidence was flawed and police officers offered misleading testimony. Another man convicted in the Republic of Ireland of supplying the phones used by the bombers, including a phone provided to Daly, was freed on appeal when a judge determined that police had rewritten some of their notes from the man’s interrogation.
1999—Jordan—On June 26, 2014, the military’s State Security Court in Amman acquitted Omar Mahmoud Mohammed Othman, alias Abu Qatada, 53, of terrorism charges over a foiled 1999 plot to attack an American school in Amman for lack of evidence. The military court postponed its ruling on a second set of terrorism charges involving plots in 2000 to attack Israelis, Americans and other Westerners in Jordan, and said it would deliver its verdict in that case on September 7, 2014. Years earlier, he was convicted in absentia and sentenced to life in prison. He was represented by attorney Ghazi Thneibat.
December 22, 2000—Mali—On November 28, 2013, French soldiers in northern Mali arrested 4 people, including Cheibani Ould Hamaa, true name Alhassane Ould Mohamed, a low-ranking Malian member of AQIM wanted in a carjacking and shooting death of William Bultemeier, a U.S. Department of Defense attaché in Niger on December 22, 2000. Hamaa was among 22 prisoners who escaped in June from the Niamey central prison during an attack by the Nigerian Boko Haram. In March 2013, a Niger court sentenced Hamaa to 20 years in prison for involvement in the killing of 4 Saudi tourists in 2009. In September 2013, a federal court in Brooklyn unsealed an indictment against Hamaa for murdering Bultemeier an internationally protected person. Bultemeier was scheduled to return home to North Carolina. He dined at La Cloche restaurant with Marine Staff Sgt. Christopher McNeely and other embassy employees. Bultemeier was driving a Toyota Land Cruiser with diplomatic license plates at midnight when Hamaa and another gunman assaulted him with a pistol and an AK-47 assault rifle. Hamaa demanded the SUV’s keys, then shot Bultemeier in the chest with the pistol. The second gunman shot the AK-47 into Bultemeier and McNeely, according to the indictment. The gunmen escaped in the SUV. Hamaa was arrested in Mali on December 24, 2000. He escaped from custody in 2002. The U.S. had offered $20,000 for information leading to his capture. 00122201
April 2001—Bangladesh—On June 23, 2014, Bangladeshi Judge Ruhul Amin in a court in Dhaka sentenced 8 people, including the leader of the banned group Harkatul Jihad, Mufti Abdul Hannan, to death for their roles in a bombing at a Bengali New Year’s celebration concert in a Dhaka park in April 2001 that killed 10 people and injured dozens. A younger brother of a Cabinet member of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia was also sentenced to death. Six others were sentenced to life. Four defendants were tried in absentia. Defense attorney Faruque Ahmed planned to appeal.
April 26, 2001—Ethiopia—Five military trainees who had flunked flight school hijacked a plane en route from Bahir Dar to Addis Ababa and demanded to go to Saudi Arabia. The plane lacked enough fuel, so the hijackers settled for a flight to Sudan. 01042602
December 13, 2001—India—On February 8, 2013, India hanged in New Delhi’s Tihar prison Afzal Guru, alias Muhammad Afzal, a Kashmiri man convicted in the Lashkar attack on the Indian parliament that killed 6 security troops and a gardener. He was 43 years old. He had been sentenced to death by a special court in 2002. The Indian Supreme Court upheld the death sentence in 2004.
2002—Netherlands—On October 2, 2013, a Dutch criminal justice agency ruled that Volkert van der Graaf, 44, the animal rights activist who assassinated populist politician Pim Fortuyn, was eligible for early parole. Van der Graaf was serving an 18-year sentence.
January 23, 2002—Pakistan—Around March 17, 2013, a Pakistan Rangers paramilitary team arrested Qari Abdul Hayee, alias Asadullah, a former leader of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in southern Sindh Province, believed to be a facilitator of the Pearl kidnapping who guarded Pearl during his kidnapping. The arrest took place north of Karachi international airport. Authorities said Hayee was arrested in 2003 in eastern Punjab Province on suspicion of killing 6 Shi’ites, but was later released due to lack of evidence. He had been involved with the group since its mid–1990s founding. His organization tried to bomb a hotel near Karachi airport where U.S. soldiers were staying in 2002, but the explosives went off prematurely. The same year, he sent parcel bombs to senior Pakistani police officers.
April 21, 2002—Philippines—On November 28, 2014, AP reported that Philippines Judge Leili Cruz-Suarez convicted Indonesian militant Jul Kifli and 2 Filipino Abu Sayyaf militants Ahmad Jekeron and Yacob Basug for their role in the April 21, 2002, Fitmart shopping mall bombing in the southern port city of General Santos that killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens of people. Former Abu Sayyaf member and key witness Abu Hamdie said that the bombing was the first joint attack by the Abu Sayyaf and the Indonesia-based terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah.
May 6, 2002—Netherlands—On May 2, 2014, Volkert van der Graaf, animal rights activist and assassin of Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn, was freed after serving less than 12 years in prison. He was ordered to wear a tracking ankle band and not visit areas related to his crime or Fortuyn’s family.
June 9, 2002—Ethiopia—At 5:15 p.m., 2 men armed with knives and a bomb attempted to hijack an Ethiopian Airlines Fokker-50 plane carrying 42 passengers from Bahir Dar to Addis Ababa. Skymarshals shot the hijackers to death. A crew member sustained a minor injury. No passengers were hurt. 02060901
February 14, 2003—Colombia—On August 27, 2015, AFP reported that former FARC rebel Diego Alfonso Navarrete Beltran, 42, who was extradited from Colombia to the United States in 2014, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia to taking 3 U.S. defense contractors—Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell—hostage in Colombia in 2003. Their plane had made an emergency landing during an anti-drug mission. They were held for 5 years. Navarrete Beltran had served as a guard for the FARC kidnappers for 2 of those years. He had earlier pleaded not guilty. He pleaded guilty in August 2015 to 3 counts of hostage-taking. He faced a life sentence. A sentencing hearing was scheduled for November 2015. The Department of Justice said fellow FARC rebel Alexander Beltran Herrera pleaded guilty in U.S. court in March 2015 to participating in the kidnapping.
On November 10, 2015, UPI reported that U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth sentenced Navarrete Beltran, 43, to 27 years for kidnapping the trio.
May 2003—Saudi Arabia—On April 20, 2014, Riyadh’s Specialized Criminal Court sentenced 8 people to death and 77 others to prison terms ranging from 2 to 35 years for taking part or abetting in the attacks against 3 expatriate residential compounds in Riyadh in May 2003 that killed 35 people, including 8 Americans and 9 terrorists.
2004, 2007—Saudi Arabia—On January 15, 2014, a special criminal court sentenced 2 Chadians to death for killing a French man in 2004. The Saudi Press Agency announced the court sentenced 2 Saudi gunmen for killing 4 French nationals in 2007. The victims lived in Saudi Arabia; 2 worked for an electrical equipment manufacturer, another taught at a French school, the fourth was a teen. The drive-by gunmen killed the 4 who were resting at a road side 10 miles north of Medina. The killers were mem-bers of a group of terrorists that included 10 others, including Saudis and a Yemeni, who were sentenced to 4 to 22 years for membership in an extremist group. A dozen other men were sentenced to 3 to 23 years.
June 2004—Saudi Arabia—On November 18, 2014, the Saudi Arab News website reported that a Saudi court convicted 8 men for several lethal attacks against foreigners in 2003 in Riyadh and in Eastern Province in 2004 that killed nearly 40 people, including a June 2004 assault near Riyadh that killed 36 year-old BBC cameraman Simon Cumbers and paralyzed BBC correspondent Frank Gardner. The group also murdered an Italian hostage. Three terrorists were sentenced to death; 5 to 25–30 years. They were part of an 86-member cell that recruited for al-Qaeda.
December 2004—Philippines—On December 10, 2013, Philippine judge Eleuterio Bathan acquitted 3 Indonesians suspected of membership in Jemmah Islamiyah and ordered their deportation, saying they were illegally arrested without warrants for carrying TNT, a grenade and a pistol in December 2004 after arriving by ferry in Zamboanga city. He said the arms could not be used as evidence because they were part of an illegal search. Mohammad Yusuf Karim Faiz, Mohammad Nasir Hamid and Ted Yolanda had pleaded innocent in 2008.
February 12, 2005—Brazil—On July 2, 2013, Para State Judge Claudio Henrique Rendeiro ruled that Rayfran das Neves Sales, the confessed killer of U.S. nun Dorothy Stang in 2005, was entitled to serve the rest of his 27-year sentence under house arrest and ordered him released from jail. He was prohibited from visiting bars, must sleep at home, and get a job. Neves had served less than 9 years of his 27-year sentence.
On September 20, 2013, Brazilian rancher Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura, 43, who had been tried 3 times before and sentenced to up to 30 years in prison for ordering the 2005 slaying of American nun and Amazon defender Dorothy Stang, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for homicide. His lawyers had appealed and the Supreme Court annulled his latest conviction, saying he was not given sufficient time to prepare his defense for the 2010 trial. His lawyers planned yet another appeal.
Fellow rancher Regivaldo Galvao, also charged with planning Stang’s murder, was sentenced to 30 years in 2010. In 2012, the Supreme Court ordered his release, pending his appeal process.
February 14, 2005—Lebanon—On October 13, 2013, the United Nations-sponsored Special Tribunal for Lebanon indicted a fifth suspect in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Hassan Merhi was charged with terrorism and intentional homicide.
On January 16, 2014, the trial began of the 4 Hizballah suspects accused of setting the truck bomb that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 22 others. The defendants, who were charged with terrorism and intentional homicide, remained at large. One Hizballah suspect, Mustafa Badreddine, was also believed to have made the bomb that hit the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 that killed 241 Americans. The other suspects were Salim Ayyah, alias Abu Salim; Assad Sabra; and Hassan Oneissi, alias Hassan Issa. Also indicted in the bombing but not tried in this case was Habib Merhi.
June 20, 2005—Israel—Dr. Arieh Eldad, founder of the Israeli National Skin Bank who directed the Hadassah Hospital’s Ein Kerem Department of Plastic Surgery from 2000–2003 and served as a member of the Israeli Knesset, was quoted in the Florida Times-Union on August 6, 2014, from an interview he gave to the New English Review in 2008 as indicating that a former burn patient, Wafa Samir Ibrahim al-Biss, 21, became a would-be suicide terrorist. Israeli guards arrested her when she was walking suspiciously, and found 22 pounds of explosives strapped to her body. She was going to a follow-up appointment at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva, where she had received treatment 5 months earlier for severe burns suffered when a gas canister exploded while she was cooking.
July 21, 2005—UK—On December 16, 2014, Muktar Said Ibrahim, Ramzi Mohammed and Yassin Omar lost their appeal of their earlier convictions of plotting to bomb the London subway system.
2006—Russia—On June 9, 2014, a jury in Moscow City Court sentenced to life Lom-Ali Gaitukayev and his nephew, Rustam Makhmudov, of the 2006 murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, 48, in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building. The Moscow City Court sentenced 3 accomplices—2 of Makhmudov’s brothers received 12 and 14 years and a former Moscow policeman, Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, was given 20 years. She had criticized government policies in Chechnya and of human rights violations there. The Makhmudovs and Gaitukayev are of Chechen origin.
July 11, 2006—India—On September 11, 2015, the Associated Press reported that a dozen suspected Islamic terrorists were convicted for the 2006 bombings of 7 Mumbai commuter trains that killed 188 people and wounded more than 800. The trial lasted more than 7 years and concluded in August 2014, but Judge Yatin D. Shinde took a year to write the verdict in which he found 12 defendants guilty of murder and criminal conspiracy charges and acquitted one person for lack of evidence. Prosecutors said the conspiracy originated in Pakistan’s Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and was carried out by Lashkar-e-Tayyaba operatives with help from the Students’ Islamic Movement of India, a banned militant organization. A defense attorney said he would appeal. On September 30, Judge Y.D. Shinde imposed death sentences on 5 of the men who the prosecution said had planted the explosives on the trains and sentenced 7 others to life.
October 21, 2006—Iraq—Al-Qaeda in Iraq conducted a series of chlorine bomb attacks, setting off a car containing mortars and chlorine tanks in Ramadi, wounding 3 Iraqi police officers and a civilian. Hundreds of Iraqis were sickened during the campaign. Those who died in the attacks were killed by the bomb blast, rather than by inhaling chlorine.
2007—Pakistan—On August 20, 2013, a Rawalpindi court indicted former president and army chief Pervez Musharraf, 70, on charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, facilitation for murder, clearing the scene of a crime and destroying evidence in the 2007 assassination of ex–Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. He pleaded not guilty.
March 9, 2007—Iran—On March 9, 2015, the FBI increased to $5 million the reward for the safe return of kidnapped former FBI agent Robert Levinson, according to ABC News.
September 27, 2007—Iraq—On April 28, 2015, AP reported that British citizen Anis Abid Sardar, 38, went on trial in London’s Woolwich Crown Court for making a roadside bomb in Syria that killed U.S. Sgt. 1st Class Randy Johnson of 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment and injured 4 other soldiers when their armored vehicle hit a bomb on the western outskirts of Baghdad on September 27, 2007. Sardar was arrested in 2014 when his fingerprints were found on bombs recovered in Iraq by U.S. forces. He denied murder, conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause an explosion. Police found a bomb-making manual in his London home. The prosecution said his fingerprints were found on 2 bombs, along with those of Sajjad Adnan. The bomb that killed Johnson had only Adnan’s prints. He was arrested after the bombings and handed over to Iraqi authorities. His current whereabouts were unknown. Prosecutors alleged that Adnan and Sardar worked together. On May 22, 2015, a London court sentenced Sardar to life in prison for assembling bombs in Syria. Sardar was to serve a minimum of 38 years.
December 24, 2007—Mauritania—On May 12, 2014, the Nouakchott Information Agency reported that local al-Qaeda–linked prisoner Maarouf Ould Haiba had died following a hunger strike. He and 2 other AQIM terrorists were sentenced to death by a Mauritanian court in May 2010 for taking part in the December 24, 2007, killing of 4 French tourists who were picnicking on the side of a highway in eastern Mauritania.
January 1, 2008—Sudan—On December 11, 2015, 2 IS-affiliated websites accused al-Shabaab leaders of ordering the killing and detention of dozens of jihadis who expressed their willingness to join IS. They include Mohamed Makawi, a Sudanese who took part in the drive-by shooting of American citizen John Ganville and his driver in Khartoum on January 1, 2008. Makawi and Abdelbasit Haj Hamad were among 4 sentenced to death in Sudan for killing Granville but escaped from prison in 2010. The U.S. offered up to $10 million for information leading to their capture.
March 6, 2008—U.S.—On June 18, 2013, the FBI released surveillance footage suggesting that the bomber of the recruiting station in Times Square might have had help. The video showed 3 people approaching the station as the bomber set the device. The Bureau said “Although the suspect appears to be working alone, he or she may have had a lookout or surveillance team of as many as 5 other individuals in Times Square at the time of the attack.” The bombing remained unsolved. The Bureau offered a $65,000 reward for information about the bombing. Authorities suggested the bombing was related to 2 others in New York City: the 2005 bombing of the British Consulate and the 2007 bombing of the Mexican Consulate. All 3 bombings involved a bicyclist who set the bombs, which all went off between 3 and 4 a.m.
August 23, 2008—Somalia—On June 14, 2015, AP reported that Canadian freelance journalist Amanda Lindhout and Australian photojournalist Nigel Brennan were kidnapped by gunmen on August 23, 2008. They were released on November 25, 2009, after a $600,000-$700,000 ransom was paid, some of it by Australian entrepreneur Dick Smith. Lindhout told news services in mid–June 2015 that Ali Omar Ader, who was arrested on June 11, 2015, in Ottawa, had terrorized her mother with phoned ransom demands. Police said Ader was one of the kidnappers’ main negotiators. Ader was represented by attorney Samir Adam. Lindhout said, “There were 2 sides to him. He would call her and sometimes very sweetly refer to her as mommy and speak about and how he … dreamed about coming to Canada and maybe he would see her here. And then he would switch and he would threaten my life. I was threatened in captivity by him and by all the leaders that if the money wasn’t paid we would be beheaded.” During their captivity, the hostages were kept apart, beaten, and tortured. Lindhout said she was raped. She said Ader “never touched me or abused me but one day he did come into the room that I was being held in and he sat with me and he told me he had decided that he was going to make me his wife. He proceeded to tell me what my life would look like as his wife, what it would be like to be a good Muslim woman and to raise his children. This was really terrifying to me. He spoke in great detail about this. He left that day and then he called my mother and told her. This was also terrifying for my mother.” Lindhout co-authored a book about her experience called A House in the Sky. She founded a nonprofit organization that supports development, aid and education in Somalia and Kenya.
November 26, 2008—India—On December 18, 2014, Reuters reported that judge Kausar Abbas of a Pakistani anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi granted bail to Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi, the chief suspect in the Mumbai attack trial. He had been held in the top-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi since 2009. Defense lawyer Rizwan Abbasi said “the court has issued Lakhvi’s bail orders today, against a surety amount of one million rupees ($10,000).” On December 29, 2014, AFP reported that a Pakistani court suspended a detention order on Lakhvi. Police arrested him on another case on December 30, 2014, based on a complaint filed at a suburban Islamabad police station on the Islamabad outskirts saying that Lakhvi had abducted his brother-in-law to wage jihad 6½ years earlier.
On March 13, 2015, AP reported that the Islamabad High Court ordered the release of Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi, cancelling the government order under which he was detained for the previous 3 months, regarding the Mumbai attack. However, he still faced charges in a separate kidnapping case.
On April 10, 2015, AP reported that attorney Rizwan Abbasi said his client, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, suspected Pakistani mastermind in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, had been freed from jail pending trial. A Pakistani court first ordered Lakhvi’s release March 13; he was ordered released for a second time on April 9. He was first granted bail in December 2014.
2009—Lithuania—Egle Kusaite, a Lithuanian woman, was arrested on suspicion of having ties to jihadi groups, including Chechens. In 2013, she was sentenced to 10 months for engaging in terrorist activities by plotting a suicide bombing against a Russian military target. On April 4, 2014, an appeals court acquitted her, ruling that although she admitted intending to commit terrorist acts, she had no concrete plan. Prosecutors said the 24-year-old had been told to conduct a suicide bombing at a military location in Russia.
2009—Yemen—On September 23, 2014, AP quoted a report from the German DPA news agency that a spokesman for a German family kidnapped in Yemen 5 years ago says the German Foreign Ministry said in a letter that the couple and their young son—Johannes, Sabine and Simon Hentschel—were dead. Family spokesman Reinhard Poetschke said it appeared the parents were killed while the boy, an infant at the time of kidnapping, died of an infection. The Hentschels were working for a small Christian aid organization when they were kidnapped with their 3 children in northern Yemen. Their 2 daughters, Lydia, 10 and Anna, 8, were freed in 2010 with Saudi Arabia’s help and today live with relatives in Germany. The kidnappers were never identified. 09999901
2009—Russia—October 7, 2014, Greek police announced the arrest on September 5, 2014, of a 35-year-old Chechen man who was wanted in Russia for a 2009 grenade attack that killed 5 police officers. He was grabbed after a boat illegally carrying 46 people, many of them Syrian migrants, from Turkey was stopped off the Greek island of Chios. Police told the media that he had been living in Turkey since 2012.
2009—Pakistan—On June 25, 2015, police in Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Airport arrested a Pakistani male al-Qaeda member suspected of helping organize the 2009 attack on a Peshawar market that killed more than 100 people. The suspect had arrived on a flight from Islamabad.
June 30, 2009—Afghanistan—The family of U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl of Hailey, Idaho, said it had received a handwritten letter from him on June 6, 2013. It was delivered via the Red Cross. Bergdahl turned 27 on March 28, 2013. He had been held for over 4 years, probably by the Taliban. In mid–June 2013, the Taliban offered to free him in exchange for 5 Gitmo prisoners. On January 15, 2014, CNN reported that the U.S. military had received another “proof of life” video of U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, believed to be held in Pakistan by the Haqqani Network. The video mentioned Decem-ber 14, 2013. It was the first video of him in 3 years.
On May 31, 2014, the Taliban released Bowe Bergdahl, now 28, in exchange for Guantanamo prisoners Khair Ulla Said Wali Khairkhwa, Mullah Mohammad Fazl, Mullah Norullah Nori, Abdul Haq Wasiq and Mohammad Nabi Omari, who were to remain in Qatar for a year.
• Khair Ulla Said Wali Khairkhwa joined the Taliban in 1994, serving as Interior Minister for the Taliban government. He was also governor of Herat Province from 1999 to 2001. He was directly associated with Osama bin Laden and possibly with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He was believed to be a senior narcotics trafficker. Khairkhwa was captured in January 2002 in Pakistan and sent to Guantanamo in May 2002.
• Mullah Mohammad Fazl led Taliban forces against the Northern Alliance in 2001, becoming chief of army staff under the Taliban regime. He was detained after surrendering to Abdul Rashid Dostam, the leader of Afghanistan’s Uzbek community, in November 2001. He was handed over to the U.S. in December 2001 and was an early Gitmo arrival. He was linked to al-Qaeda.
• Mullah Norullah Noori was the Taliban governor of Balkh Province involved in the battle with the Northern Alliance. He surrendered to Abdul Rashid Dostam in late 2001. Upon his release, he told his family that he would return to the fight against the U.S..
• Abdul Haq Wasiq served as deputy chief of the Taliban regime’s intelligence service; his cousin led the service. The Pentagon said he was also a member of al-Qaeda intelligence and had links with Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin.
• Mohammad Nabi Omari was a minor Taliban official in Khost Province who became the Taliban’s chief of communications. He was linked to al-Qaeda and Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin and helped al-Qaeda members escape from Afghanistan to Pakistan.
Members of Congress, the media, and members of Bergdahl’s unit criticized the swap, saying that it amounted to negotiating with terrorists and that Bergdahl had walked away from his unit in disillusion with the war and collaborated with the enemy. Several soldiers said at least 6 of their colleagues died in the search for what they considered a deserter. The administration said it had upheld the principle of never leaving a soldier behind.
On June 8, 2014, a senior U.S. official told the media that Bergdahl said he was tortured, beaten and held in a cage by the Taliban after he tried to escape. Bergdahl arrived back in the U.S. on June 13, 2014.
The Government Accountability Office released a review on August 24, 2014, charging that exchangehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2014/08/21/gao-pentagon-broke-law-with-guantanamo-transfer-for-bowe-bergdahl/ broke a law mandating that Congress be informed of prisoner transfers from Guantanamo.
On March 26, 2015, CNN reported that the Pentagon charged Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. Bergdahl’s attorney, Eugene R. Fidell, released a 2-page letter from Bergdahl describing the torture he endured, including months spent chained to a bed and years spent chained on all fours or locked in a cage. Bergdahl had been held by the Haqqani network for 5 years. One of the 5 prisoners released for Bergdahl’s freedom had since contacted the Taliban.
On December 14, 2015, the Washington Post reported that Bergdahl was scheduled for a general court-martial for desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. The Army chose a type of trial that could yield a more severe sentence—life—than what Army Lt. Col. Mark Visger recommended after overseeing a 2-day hearing for Bergdahl’s case in September 2015. He was represented by attorneys and Lt. Col. Franklin D. Rosenblatt Eugene Fidell. CNN reported on December 22, 2015, that Bergdahl did not enter a plea at his 11-minute arraignment at a hearing preceding his court-martial at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He did not indicate a preference for a jury or bench trial in the hearing before Judge Colonel Christopher Frederikson. The next hearing was scheduled for January 12, 2016, at Fort Bragg. A news release indicated that Col. Jeffery Nance, another judge, “has been detailed for all future judicial hearings in this case.”
September 2009—U.S.—On August 25, 2013, Naqib Jaji, Najibullah Zazi’s uncle, was sentenced to 3 years probation. He had admitted not reporting that he had found homemade bomb materials hidden in his Colorado home. Zazi earlier pleaded guilty to terrorism charges that he traveled with 2 childhood friends to Pakistan to receive al-Qaeda terror training. Zazi returned from Pakistan to his uncle’s home to build bombs in a suburban Denver hotel room before driving to New York.
September 29, 2009—Philippines—On June 1, 2014, Philippine police arrested Miraji Bairulla, alias Mahang, a suspected Moro National Liberation Front bomb expert believed behind a 2009 land mine attack that killed 2 U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers and a Filipino marine and wounded 2 Filipino marines in Indanan, Sulu Province. He did not resist policemen and Philippine marines who served an arrest warrant in Indanan. The victims were en route to deliver food and supplies to U.S. Seabees building a school and digging a water well for poor villagers in Kagay in Indanan. 09092901
November 5, 2009—U.S.—On June 4, 2013, Major Nidal Hasan said he attacked because the troops posed an imminent danger to the Taliban. On August 23, 2013, Hasan was convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder, and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. A conviction on at least 2 counts of premeditated murder made him eligible for the death penalty. He claimed he was battling against an American war against Islam. Some victims tried to fight back. Spc. Frederick Greene of Mountain City, Tenn., tried to charge Hasan, who shot him 12 times. A retired chief warrant officer picked up a chair to hit Hasan, who fired 3 bullets into his neck. On August 28, 2013, the court sentenced Hasan to death. He could become the first U.S. soldier executed since 1961. The court martial cost nearly $5 million.
Those he killed were identified as Michael Grant Cahill, 62, of Cameron, Texas; Major Libardo Eduardo Caraveo, 52, of Woodbridge, Virginia; Staff Sergeant Justin M. DeCrow, 32, of Evans, Georgia; Captain John Gaffaney, 56, of San Diego, California; Spc. Frederick Greene, 29, of Mountain City, Tennessee; Sergeant Amy Krueger, 29, of Kiel, Wisconsin; Pfc. Aaron Thomas Nemelka, 19, of West Jordan, Utah; Spc. Jason Dean Hunt, 22, of Frederick, Oklahoma; Pfc. Michael Pearson, 22, of Bolingbrook, Illinois; Captain Russell Seager, 51, of Racine, Wisconsin; Pvt. Francheska Velez, 21, of Chicago; Lieutenant Colonel Juanita Warman, 55, of Havre de Grace, Maryland; and Pfc. Kham Xiong, 23, of St. Paul, Minnesota.
On January 28, 2014, Army Sergeant Alonzo Lunsford, accompanied by his K9s for Warriors service dog, Bomber, attended the State of the Union Address. Lunsford was shot 7 times in the Fort Hood attack. He was the guest of Rep. Roger Williams (R–Texas).
On August 28, 2014, Nidal Hasan wrote a letter to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, requesting citizenship in the Islamic State’s caliphate. He was represented by attorney John Galligan. Fox News reported that he wrote, “I formally and humbly request to be made a citizen of the Islamic State. It would be an honor for any believers to be an obedient citizen soldier to a people and its leader who don’t compromise the religion of All-Mighty Allah to get along with the disbelievers.”
November 23, 2009—Philippines—On July 18, 2015, AP reported that former Philippine governor Andal Ampatuan, Sr., 74, one of the main suspects among 103 people accused of ordering the killings of 58 people in Maguindanao in 2009, died of a heart attack in a government hospital. He and his relatives were accused of killing 58 people, including the family of Esmael Mangudadatu, their political rival, and 32 journalists, at a roadblock.
December 30, 2009—Afghanistan—On May 29, 2013, a drone strike killed Wali-ur Rehman Mehsud, deputy chief and chief military strategist of the Pakistani Taliban, along with his aide Fakhar-ul-Islam and 2 unnamed Uzbeks in a drone strike at Chashma, near Miranshah, North Waziristan District, in Pakistan. Pakistani officials said 7 were killed and one person was injured. He was wanted in the U.S. on suspicion of involvement in the December 30, 2009, bombing in Khost, Afghanistan that killed 7 CIA employees.
2010—Vatican—On April 24, 2015, AP reported that jihadis suspected in an October 2009 bomb attack that killed more than 100 people in a Peshawar, Pakistan market had planned an attack in the Vatican in 2010 that was not carried out, according to Italian prosecutor Mauro Mura. Italian police arrested 9 people in a decade-long investigation of a terrorist network that aimed to foil Pakistani actions against the Taliban. Authorities were seeking another 9 people, including 2 who might still be in Italy and 7 in Pakistan. Mura said wiretaps included “signals of some preparation for a possible attack,” including arrival in Rome of a Pakistani suicide bomber. ANSA reported that there were 2 suicide bombers who were warned off by their associates in Italy. One of the suspects arrested had a construction business in Sardinia that participated in work for a G-8 summit planned for Sardinia. Mura said some suspects had very close ties to Osama bin Laden. Some 18 arrest warrants had been issued across 7 provinces for cell members.
February 3, 2010—Pakistan—A Pakistani Taliban suicide bomber set off a bomb at the opening of a girls’ school in the village of Shahi Koto in the Lower Dir district of northwestern Pakistan. It was being reopened after being rebuilt after being blown up earlier by terrorists. The 11 a.m. bomb went off when a U.S. Army vehicle carrying 5 Army Special Forces soldiers approached a convoy of Pakistani security vans. The bomb killed 3 schoolgirls and 3 U.S. soldiers, and wounded more than 100 students and teachers and the other 2 Special Forces soldiers. The dead included Army Staff Sergeant Mark Stets, Jr., 39; Sergeant 1st Class Matthew S. Sluss-Tiller, 35; and Sergeant 1st Class David J. Hartman, 27. Authorities attributed the attack to Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah. 10020301
June 27, 2010—Bosnia-Herzegovina—On December 20, 2013, the Council of Judges sentenced Islamic extremist Haris Causevic to a record 45 years in prison for planting and setting off a powerful improvised bomb behind a police station in Bugojno on June 27, 2010, that killed a police officer, injured several others, and seriously damaged nearby buildings and vehicles. He was also found guilty of plotting to kidnap police officers and their children to force the government to introduce sharia. Alleged accomplice Naser Palismanovic, variant Palislamovic, was acquitted. Both are Wahhabis.
August 26, 2010—Canada—Authorities arrested Canadian citizen Misbahuddin Ahmed, who pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges. On July 11, 2014, a jury convicted him of conspiring to knowingly facilitate a terrorist activity and participate in activities of a terrorist group in Canada and abroad. He faced 14 years for the conspiracy charge and life for the explosive device count. Prosecutors said he and 2 Canadian co-conspirators were charged with trying to raise money to support a violent uprising and to make and use explosives against targets in Canada. Police stopped them from sending money to terror groups in Afghanistan.
September 2010—UK—On April 13, 2015, AFP reported that Karachi authorities arrested Muazam Ali in connection with the murder of Imran Farooq, 50, a founding member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party, who was stabbed and beaten to death in Edgware, northwest London, as he returned home from work in September 2010. The local media reported that Ali, an immigration consultant, was accused of making travel arrangements for Farooq’s killers. UK police arrested and later freed on bail 2 suspects.
September 16, 2010—Niger—On February 7, 2013, former U.S. Ambassador to Mali Victor Huddleston said that France had paid a $17 million ransom to free the hostages who had been taken from the Arlit mining site. French officials denied the charge. On September 16, 2013, the Mauritanian ANI website said it received an AQIM video showing proof of life for 7 foreign hostages in kidnapped 2–3 years earlier. Four French hostages were kidnapped on September 16, 2010, from the French-operated Areva uranium mine in Arlit, Niger. ANI said messages from the French captives were made in June. Three other hostages—Sjaak Rijke from the Netherlands, South Africa-UK dual national Stephen Malcolm and Johan Gustafsson from Sweden—were kidnapped from Timbuktu, Mali in November 2011. French hostage Daniel Larribe, 61, said that French military intervention was endangering his life. ANI quoted him as saying, “I am in good health but threatened with death.” The 3 other French hostages are Pierre Legrand, Thierry Dol and Marc Feret. On October 29, 2013, the 4 French hostages were released by AQIM. French President Francois Hollande thanked Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou for their release. The former hostages—Daniel Larribe, Pierre Legrand, Thierry Dol, and Marc Feret—arrived in France the next day. Pascal Lupart, who led a group representing friends and families of the hostages, told the media that Areva paid a ransom. Areva press officer Julien Duperray said no ransom was paid.
October 10, 2010—Nigeria—On October 6, 2015, Charles Okah, who allegedly organized 2 car bombings that killed 12 people on October 10, 2010, in Abuja, tried to jump through a third-floor courtroom window. He claimed he was despondent over the slow pace of his trial. “I have been incarcerated for about 5 years now…. My children would grow up without feeling the warmth of their father and I am tired of this endless trial…. Is it not better to die?” Okah said to the court. Nigerian prison officials announced that he survived. South Africa convicted Henry Okah, his brother, in 2013 of the 2010 bombing and other terrorism acts and sentenced him to 24 years in prison.
November 26, 2010—U.S.—On June 4, 2014, defense attorneys argued that Mohamed Mohamud, a Portland, Oregon, man convicted of attempting to detonate a bomb at Portland’s Christmas 2010 tree-lighting ceremony, should be acquitted or granted a new trial, complaining of the government’s reli-ance on surveillance obtained through extrajudicial means and not providing them with information derived under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act until Mohamud had already been convicted. On October 2, 2014, U.S. District Court Judge Garr King sentenced Mohamed Mohamud, 23, to 30 years in prison. Prosecutors had asked for a 40-year sentence.
2011—Egypt—On February 10, 2014, Egyptian state TV announced that the presidency ratified the death sentences of 14 men convicted in connection to jihadi attacks in the Sinai Peninsula in 2011. Eight fugitives were tried in absentia. The Monotheism and Jihad group was blamed for attacks on police, soldiers, and a bank near al-Arish, North Sinai. Four other defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment.
2011—U.S.—Kathryn Cohen Allen threatened Florida’s 2 U.S. Senators—Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson—with anthrax. She sent envelopes filled with cornstarch and mailed them to the senators, using the names and addresses of a black neighbor and a white woman whom she believed were having an affair. She was arrested a year after conducting the 4-month campaign—which began in February 2011—against the couple. On May 20, 2014, she pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to sending the letters. She faced 10 years and a fine of $500,000.
2011—Bosnia-Herzegovina—On November 13, 2013, AP reported that Mevlid Jasarevic, 25, a Bosnian Muslim sentenced to 18 years for shooting at the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo and wounding a local policeman in 2011, asked an appeals court to reduce his sentence because he was brainwashed by Wahhabi jihadi videos. The court reduced the sentence to 15 years after he told the court that he regretted his “tragic, dangerous, incredibly sad and stupid act.” He said the jihadis were “sitting home with their wives and children … while I can see my son only every 2 or 3 months…. I wish I had worried more about my wife and child than about Afghanistan, which I can’t even find on the map.”
2011—Pakistan—On March 2, 2014, a Pakistani anti-terrorism court in Shikarpur convicted 6 people on charges related to the shooting death in Karachi of TV Geo reporter Wali Khan Babar in 2011. Two who were tried in absentia were sentenced to death. The other 4 were sentenced to life in prison. One person was acquitted. Police had arrested the 5 suspects in 2013.
2011—Pakistan—On March 5, 2015, the Swiss Federal Tribunal, Switzerland’s highest court, threw out a police officer’s claim to an insurance payout for post-traumatic stress suffered after he was kidnapped by the Taliban while driving with his partner through Pakistan en route from India. The duo were kidnapped and held for 8 months. They did not have an armed escort. 11999901
2011—Moldova—On December 9, 2014, AP reported that authorities in Chisinau detained 5 people in June 2011 who were attempting to sell a kilogram of uranium for 32 million euros to buyers believed to be in North Africa. The suspects were convicted and sentenced to 3–5 years in prison.
2011—Philippines—On June 16, 2014, Philippines security forces captured Abu Sayyaf terrorists Jimmy Nurilla and Bakrin Haris in a raid on their hideout in Sangali village in the port city of Zamboanga. One terrorist escaped. One detainee allegedly was involved in the kidnappings of an American teenage boy and an Australian man. Authorities seized explosives and rebel documents. Authorities believed Nurilla was involved in several kidnappings, including the 2011 kidnappings of U.S. citizen Kevin Lunsmann, then 14, and Warren Richard Rodwell, a former Australian soldier who was freed near southern Pagadian city in March 2013 after 15 months of jungle captivity.
January 2011—Russia—On November 11, 2013, a Russian court sentenced 3 Ingushetia men to life in the 2011 bombing of Moscow’s Domodedovo airport that killed 37 people and wounded 180. The trio was found guilty of helping the bomber get to Moscow and giving him explosives, according to Interfax. His brother received a 10-year sentence.
April 8, 2011—Nigeria—On July 9, 2013, Nigerian Judge Billisu Aliyu sentenced 4 Boko Haram members—Shuaibu Abubakar, Salisu Ahmed, Umar Babagana-Umar and Mohamed Ali—to life in prison for 3 bombings on April 8, 2011, that killed 19 people in Abuja. They were found responsible for the April 8, 2011, bombing of the electoral commission offices in Suleja, an Abuja suburb, killing 16 people a week before presidential elections; a bombing at a political rally on March 3, 2011, in Suleja that killed 3; and a bombing at a Suleja church 4 months later that killed 3. Umar Ibrahim was sentenced to 10 years. A sixth was freed for lack of evidence. The fate of 2 other defendants in the case was not announced.
May 1, 2011—Pakistan—On November 6, 2014, the Washington Post reported that Robert O’Neill, 38, said in a recent interview that he fired the shot that killed Osama bin Laden.
July 12, 2011—Philippines—On July 24, 2014, Philippine soldiers raided an Abu Sayyaf hideout in Ungkaya Pukan township on Basilan island, killing 3 Abu Sayyaf members believed to have been involved in the July 12, 2011, kidnapping of American citizen Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann and her then 14-year-old son. Two government militiamen were killed and 2 others were wounded in the raid, which targeted Abu Sayyaf sub-leader Sulaiman Ajanti, who was allegedly behind atrocities in Basilan and Zamboanga City. Ajanti and 2 of his followers were killed. Five gunmen were wounded.
On December 4, 2014, the Washington Post reported that Filipino men Furuji Indama, Radzmil Jannatul, Muadz and Abu Basim were indicted for Abu Sayyaf’s 2001 kidnapping for ransom of American citizens Gerfa Lunsman and her 14-year-old son Kevin. The indictment said the terrorists several times threatened to behead the boy. She was freed on October 3, 2011, after a ransom payment 2 months later; he escaped on December 10, 2011. Ronald C. Machen Jr., U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said “We remain focused on apprehending and extraditing these men.” In mid–November 2015, a regional court convicted and sentenced to life in prison 3 Abu Sayyaf terrorists for the July 2011 kidnappings of Gerfa Lunsmann, her American son Kevin and her Filipino relative Romnick Jakaria from an island beach cottage off Zamboanga city. In 2014, a U.S. jury indicted 4 Filipinos for the kidnappings. The gunmen demanded $10 million for the captives’ release and received more than $21,000 in ransom. 11071202
August 13, 2011—Pakistan—On December 26, 2013, al-Qaeda kidnappers released a 13-minute as-Sahab–produced video of Warren Weinstein, now 72, who asked President Obama to obtain his release, saying he was “totally abandoned and forgotten.” It was the first video release since September 2012. “Nine years ago I came to Pakistan to help my government, and I did so at a time when most Americans would not come here, and now when I need my government it seems that I have been totally abandoned and forgotten. And so I again appeal to you to instruct your appropriate officials to negotiate my release.” An accompanying letter to the media from as-Sahab was dated October 3, 2013.
On August 14, 2014, al-Qaeda called on Weinstein’s family to demand that the U.S. negotiate a prisoner exchange, saying it was “not interested in keeping” him. “We are not interested in retaining the prisoner in our protection. We are only seeking to exchange him in return for the fulfilment of our demands. We will not spare any efforts for the release of our prisoners.”
On April 23, 2015, President Barack Obama announced that a January 2015 counterterrorism operation (CNN called it a drone strike) against an al-Qaeda-associated compound in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan inadvertently killed hostages Warren Weinstein, an American held by al-Qaeda since August 2011, and Giovanni Lo Porto, an Italian aid worker held since 2012. The airstrike killed Ahmed Farouq, an American who the White House said was deputy emir of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent. U.S. officials also believed that Adam Gadahn, an American who had served as an al-Qaeda spokesman, was killed in a separate operation in January 2015.
September 19, 2011—UK—Police arrested 6 people in Birmingham and another in West Midlands for suspicion of the “commission, preparation or instigation” of an act of terrorism. A woman was held for failing to disclose information that might prevent an act of terror. The suspected Islamic extremists were aged from 22 to 32; all were British residents. Police raided more than a dozen homes and businesses in the sweep. Police said the plot was in its early stages, but was significant. On September 26, the government charged the 6 men from Birmingham. Irfan Nasser, 30, and Irfan Khalid, 26, faced 12 counts, including planning a suicide bombing campaign/event, making a martyrdom film, traveling to Pakistan for training in terrorism, including bomb making, weapons, and poison making. Four were charged with preparing for an act of terrorism in the UK. Two were charged with failing to disclose information. The 6 were denied bail at their court hearing. The Midlands man was still being questioned.
On October 22, 2012, the trial in London’s Woolwich Crown Court began of Irfan Khalid, 27; Ashik Ali, 27; and Irfan Naseer, 31, who were inspired by the sermons of Anwar al-Aulaqi. Authorities said they were planning to set off 8 knapsack bombs in a suicide attack or to set off time-delay bombs in crowded areas “in order to cause mass deaths and casualties.” They were charged with preparing for terrorism by plotting a bombing campaign, recruiting others, and fundraising. Khalid and Naseer were also charged with traveling to Pakistan for terrorism training. The trio pleaded not guilty. Naseer had a degree in pharmacy, which prosecutors said helped him in designing chemical compounds suitable for bombmaking. Rahim Ahmed was named as a co-conspirator and the group’s chief financier, using fake charities on financial markets to raise money. He lost most of the terrorists’ money through inept trading. He pleaded guilty to supporting terrorism. Prosecutors said the group also discussed strapping blades on the front of a truck and driving it into a crowd, a tip offered in AQAP’s Inspire magazine.
At the end of a 12-week trial, on February 21, 2013, the British court declared guilty Irfan Naseer, Irfan Khalid, and Ashik Ali. Six co-conspirators earlier pleaded guilty to terrorism charges. The judge told them to expect a life sentence. The trio had discussed putting poison on the car door handles of intended targets, firing rifles on crowded streets, and attacking British soldiers. The trio conducted fundraising by wearing yellow construction jackets and carrying plastic buckets, soliciting donations for Muslim charities. Prosecutors said the terrorists lost $14,000 of the $20,000 they raised when an associate squandered it in a currency futures investment. Naseer, the ringleader, was nicknamed Chubby in school for his weight problem. Naseer and Khalid were tracked by authorities when they left the UK to enter al-Qaeda–affiliated Harakat al Mujahideen terrorist training camps on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, where they studied inside houses for 40 days in the spring of 2011 in Waziristan. The duo later arranged for 4 others—who pleaded guilty—to also get terrorist training in Pakistan. The convicted trio were overheard complaining that the 7–7–05 transit bombers had not packed their bombs with nails. Authorities said that the plot showed that al-Qaeda had decided to try a train-the-trainers approach to bombmaking, teaching a few Western operatives in bombmaking and terrorism in their camps, then sending them back home to teach others. Among the techniques was using ammonium nitrate—found inside sports injury cold packs—as an explosive. Naseer taught such techniques to Ali upon his return to the UK.
October 2011—Kenya—Somali terrorists kidnapped Spanish aid workers Montserrat Serra and Blanca Thiebaut from the Dadaab refugee camp in the east after shooting and wounding their Kenyan driver. The terrorists released the duo on July 18, 2013.
October 11, 2011—U.S.—On May 30, 2013, Mansour J. Arbabsiar was sentenced to 25 years by U.S. District Judge John Keenan in Manhattan.
November 2011—Mali—On September 16, 2013, the Mauritanian ANI website said it received an AQIM video showing proof of life for 7 foreign hostages it kidnapped 2–3 years earlier. Four French hostages were kidnapped on September 16, 2010, from the French-operated Areva uranium mine in Arlit, Niger. ANI said messages from the French captives were made in June. Three other hostages—Sjaak Rijke from the Netherlands, South Africa-UK dual national Stephen Malcolm and Johan Gustafsson from Sweden—were kidnapped from Timbuktu, Mali in November 2011. French hostage Daniel Larribe, 61, said that French military intervention was endangering his life. ANI quoted him as saying, “I am in good health but threatened with death.” The 3 other French hostages were Pierre Legrand, Thierry Dol and Marc Feret. The Dutch hostage was Sjaak Rijke, the Swedish hostage was Johan Gustafsson, and the South African hostage was Stephen Malcolm, who holds dual British citizenship.
On April 6, 2015, AP and NPR reported that at 5 a.m., French special forces freed Dutch hostage Sjaak Rijke, who had been kidnaped from a Timbuktu hostel in November 2011 by jihadis. There was no word on Swedish citizen Johan Gustafsson and South African–British dual citizen Stephen Malcom, the other 2 hostages taken with him. A German had died in the initial attack. French President Francois Hollande said some terrorists were killed and others captured. Rijke appeared in a video posted in November 2014 by AQIM.
On July 23, 2015, AP reported that a “proof of life” video of hostages South African Stephen Malcolm McGowan and Swedish citizen Johan Gustafsson had surfaced in June 2015, with the 2 suggesting that the kidnappers were open to negotiation. Gift of the Givers, a South African humanitarian organization, expressed interest in assisting. Founder Imtiaz Sooliman said the hostages’ families had approached them after they obtained the release of a South African held in Yemen. Authorities believed al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was responsible.
On December 2, 2015, AP reported that AQIM released a video of the 2 Gift of the Givers hostages—a South African and a Swede in Mali—showing them with long beards and in apparent good health. Gift of the Givers said that the videos of Stephen McGowan and Johan Gustafsson were made on October 20. In the video, McGowan said, “My wife and my family: I am well. I hope you are all well back home.” In a separate video, Gustafsson said he was “safe and sound” and missed his family.
November 24, 2011—Mali—Gunmen kidnapped 2 French citizens from their hotel in Hombori during the night. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb later claimed credit, saying Serge Lazarevic and Philippe Verdon were French intelligence agents. Reuters quoted French media reports indicating that Lazarevic, of Hungarian extraction, “took part during the 1990s in the recruitment of Yugoslav mercenaries to fight in then Zaire.” The press also claimed that Verdon was arrested in September 2003 in Comoros for involvement in a coup attempt. The group said the attack was to avenge Malian attacks against AQIM and French aggression in the Sahel. Addressing the Malian government, the group said “It is time you learned your lesson and stop killing mujahedeen and their families to please the impious crusaders.” On March 19, 2013, AQIM spokesman Qayrawani, a Tuareg commander, said it had beheaded Verdon, a French geologist, “in response to the French military intervention in the north of Mali,” according to Mauritania’s ANI news agency.
On November 7, 2014, AFP reported that French President Francois Hollande said that AQIM hostage Serge Lazarevic could be alive after nearly 3 years in captivity. Hollande said in a TV interview, “We have evidence that suggests he is alive…. We have proof that he is likely still being held.” Lazarevic appeared in a video, which he said was recorded on May 13, 2014, and aired in June by Dubai-based Alaan TV, calling on Hollande to negotiate his freedom. Lazarevic and Philippe Verdon, whom he was accompanying on a business trip, were captured at a small hotel in Hombori in Mali’s north. Verdon was found shot dead in 2013.
On November 17, 2014, AP reported that Lazarevic appeared in an AQIM video, pleading for France to negotiate for his release. “I feel my life is in danger since France intervened in Iraq,” he said. French President Francois Hollande’s office authenticated the video. The video also featured Dutch hostage Sjaak Rijke, who gave the date of his video message as September 26. The Dutch government had yet to authenticate his identity. Rijke said in English, “As of today, I hold my government responsible for any harm that comes to me.” He was kidnapped in November 2011 from a hostel in Timbuktu along with Swede Johan Gustafsson and South African Stephen Malcolm, who holds dual British citizenship. A German man was killed in the attack.
On December 9, 2014, French president Francois Hollande announced that French hostage Serge Lazarevic had been freed by AQIM after 2 suspected kidnappers were released from prison. Another hostage kidnapped with Lazarevic from their hotel in Hombori, Philippe Verdon, was found dead in July 2013. Hollande thanked the Niger president for helping in the release. The 2 AQIM detainees were transferred to mediators in Niger on December 6, and then turned over to AQIM. On December 15, 2014, the Malian government says it exchanged 4 prisoners, including 2 Malians, for Lazarevic. AQIM had demanded the release of 6 prisoners.
Malian special forces spokesman Modibo Nama Traore said on July 6, 2015, that the previous day, French special forces killed Mohamed Ali Ag Wadossene in an operation in the Tigharghar mountains in the Kidal region. A dozen others were arrested. Wadossene was released in December 2014 in exchange for the freedom of a French hostage Serge Lazarevic in Mali. Ag Wadossene was among the AQIM kidnappers of Philippe Verdon and Serge Lazarevic in Mali in 2011. 11112401
December 25, 2011—Nigeria—In July 2013, Boko Haram member Kabiru Sokoto, alias Kabiru Umar, 30, was on trial for a December 25, 2011, bombing that killed 37 people at a Catholic church in Madalla, an Abuja, Nigeria suburb. On December 20, 2013, Nigerian Judge Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court sentenced Sokoto to life in prison for “facilitating the commission of terrorist acts” in northern Sokoto State between 2007 and 2012, including the 2012 bombing of the police headquarters in Sokoto city. Sokoto was sentenced to another 10 years for knowing that Boko Haram planned the 2011 Christmas car bombing of St. Theresa’s Catholic Church that killed 44 people, and failing to warn police. He had pleaded not guilty. One witness said he was Boko Haram’s most senior leader in Sokoto State, and had provided logistics, planning and 3 assault rifles for the attack. The judge said “This court found as a fact … that the accused person was the mastermind of the terrorist act at Mabera in Sokoto State,” regarding the police headquarters’ bombing.
2012—Pakistan/Afghanistan—On April 23, 2015, President Barack Obama announced that a January 2015 counterterrorism operation (CNN called it a drone strike) against an al-Qaeda-associated compound in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan inadvertently killed hostages Warren Weinstein, an American held by al-Qaeda since August 2011, and Giovanni Lo Porto, an Italian aid worker held since 2012. The airstrike killed Ahmed Farouq, an American who the White House says was deputy emir of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent. U.S. officials also believed that Adam Gadahn, an American who had served as an al-Qaeda spokesman, was killed in a separate operation in January 2015.
2012—U.S.—The State Department’s Country Reports on Terrorism 2012, issued on May 30, 2013, reported 6,771 attacks in 2012 in 85 countries, killing 11,098 people. Some 1,280 were kidnapped or taken hostage.
2012—Yemen—AQAP kidnapped a Saudi diplomat, who remained a hostage as of November 25, 2014. 12999901
2012—Yemen—AP reported that in February 2013, Swiss researcher Sylvia Abrahat was released from a year in captivity in Houdeida after months-long Qatari mediation. 12999902
2012—Poland—On December 21, 2015, AP reported that a court in Krakow sentenced Brunon Kwiecien, a university chemistry teacher in Krakow, to 13 years in prison for plotting a bomb attack on parliament and other buildings in 2012. Undercover security officers had feigned interest in his plan. He was declared guilty of preparing an attack on parliament, of trying to induce 2 students to carry out an attack and of illegal weapons possession. Kwiecien said he was a victim of a plot by the security officers.
2012—Czech Republic—On December 14, 2015, AP reported that the regional court in Plzen convicted and sentenced to 6 years and 9 months in prison Czech citizens Tomas Kopecky and Michal Polacek of a racially-motivated attempted murder by throwing firebombs at an apartment building in the western town of As occupied by Roma in 2012. The duo belonged to neo–Nazi groups. No one was injured in the attack.
2012—Sweden—Uzbek Imam Obidkhon Qori Nazarov, variant Obid-kori Nazarov, alias Obidkhon Sobitkhon, who was critical of the Uzbek regime, was shot thrice in the back of the head with a silencer-equipped revolver in Stromsund. He went into a coma and sustained brain damage. Uzbek authorities accused him of forming a terror organization after he criticized Uzbek President Islam Karimov’s government’s steps in the late 1990s to tighten control over Muslim institutions. Nazarov survived but had brain damage and spent 2 years in a coma.
On August 26, 2015, an Uzbek man was extradited to Sweden to face accusations that he tried to kill Nazarov, who fled Uzbekistan in 1998 after criticizing that country’s government. Sweden granted the imam asylum in 2006. The individual was arrested in Moscow in January 2015 on an international arrest warrant. He arrived in Sweden the evening of Au-gust 25, 2015. An Uzbek couple living in Sweden was accused of helping the suspected gunman by providing lodging and helping him find the imam. A Swedish court ruled there was insufficient evidence linking them to the shooting.
On December 15, 2015, AP and Radio Free Europe reported that the Ostersund District Court sentenced Uzbekistan citizen Yuri Yukovsky, variant Zhukovsky, 37, to 18 years in jail for the attempted murder. The court said he should be expelled after serving his time in Sweden. Judge Goran Ingebrand said he “acted on behalf of someone in Russia…. Everything indicates that he was on assignment for someone. There was clearly a connection to someone in Russia.” Yukovsky made and sent at least 34 phone calls and texts to a number in Russia on the day Nazarov was shot. Yukovsky was extradited to Sweden on 25, August 2015 from Moscow, where he was detained on an international arrest warrant. He surveilled Nazarov in Sweden but denied the shooting. His DNA was found on a rucksack and a rented car linked with the shooting. Swedish prosecutor Krister Peterrson said that the assassination attempt was ordered by the Uzbek government. Prosecutors sought a life sentence for Yukovsky.
2012—Pakistan—On September 12, 2014, the Pakistani army, police and intelligence agencies arrested the 10 Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) gunmen who tried to kill schoolgirl campaigner Malala Yousafzai in 2012. Major General Asim Bajwa told a news conference that the plan to kill Malala came from the network’s current leader, Maulana Fazlullah. Malala won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2014.
On June 5, 2015, AP reported that deputy police chief Azad Khan said that 8 of the 10 defendants in the attack on Malala Yousefzai were acquitted in April, not sentenced to life in prison as had been reported. Public prosecutor Sayed Naeem clarified that only 2 defendants were imprisoned for life while the others were acquitted due to lack of evidence. The prosecutor said reporters misquoted him earlier.
2012—Israel—On October 22, 2013, Shin Bet and the military announced that Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man identified as Mohamed Aatzi, an Islamic Jihad member, in Bilin in the West Bank. He was believed responsible for the Tel Aviv bus bombing. They tried to arrest him, but he ran to a cave, then fired at Israeli forces, who returned fire. Authorities arrested 2 accomplices.
2012—Philippines—On May 25, 2013, the Filipino government reported the deaths of 7 Marines and 7 Abu Sayyaf terrorists during an effort to rescue 6 foreign and Filipino hostages in a village near Patikul in Sulu Province. Another 6 Marines and 10 terrorists were wounded. Authorities believed the terrorists were led by Abu Sayyaf commander Jul-Aswan Sawadjaan, accused in the kidnappings of a Jordanian journalist and 2 European bird watchers. One of Sawadjaan’s sons and a minor Abu Sayyaf commander were believed killed in the hour-long gun battle. The hostages were kidnapped in 2012. They were held with 3 Filipinos kidnapped in May 2013.
2012—Afghanistan—On January 18, 2014, the Navy awarded its highest honor and the U.S. armed force’s second highest honor to Marine team commander Captain Matthew Manoukian and Marine explosive ordnance disposal technician Staff Sergeant Sky Mote, who were killed by an Afghan soldier who fired on Marines from inside their compound. The duo returned fire. They hailed from northern California and were part of the 1st Marines Special Operations Battalion. They were the 15th and 16th Marines to receive the Navy Cross.
January 7, 2012—U.S.—The FBI arrested Sami Osmakac, 25, a naturalized American born in Kosovo who was planning on conducting a car bombing, hostage-taking and suicide bombing in the Tampa, Florida area. The Florida resident intended to use explosives and weapons “to create mayhem’“ in Tampa, but the Muslim community tipped off authorities, who conducted a sting operation. On January 9, he was charged with one count of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. He recorded a martyrdom video in which he said he would “‘pay back’ for wrongs he felt were done to Muslims,” according to prosecutors. He had posted anti–Jewish and anti–Christian videos on the Internet. The FBI was tipped off in September 2011 that the resident of Pinellas Park, Florida, “asked for al-Qaeda flags. He went on to discuss potential targets, and asked for an informant’s assistance in obtaining guns and explosives. An undercover FBI employee met him on December 21, when Osmakac said he wanted an AK-47-style machine gun, Uzi submachine guns, high capacity magazines, grenades and an explosive belt. Prosecutors said he gave the FBI employee a $500 down payment. The FBI inserted the weapons, which were to be used in night clubs in the Ybor City area of Tampa, the operations center of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in Ybor City, a business in the South Tampa area, and an Irish bar in south Tampa—all places where there would be large crowds. In a follow-up hostage-taking, he would demand prison release, then set off an explosive belt. He faced life in prison.
Osmakac was born in Lubizde, near the Prokletije Mountains of Kosovo, on the Albanian border. His family, followers of a Sufi sect, immigrated to the U.S. when he was 13. Locals said he was a loner in high school, who rapped about bombs and killing. Osmakac was jailed for head-butting a Christian preacher outside a Lady Gaga concert. He had also physically threatened a Tampa area activist. He had tried to travel to Saudi Arabia to study Islam, but had visa problems and only made it to Turkey.
On June 10, 2014, following 5 hours of deliberations, a jury found him guilty of trying to buy weapons for the attacks, possessing an unregistered automatic weapon, and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. Sentencing was set for October 7, 2014; he faced life in prison. He was represented by attorney George Tragos.
January 12, 2012—Thailand—On September 18, 2013, a Thai court convicted Atris Hussein, 49, a Lebanese man who also holds Swedish nationality, with alleged links to Hizballah, for illegal possession of bomb-making materials that he was storing in a warehouse outside Bangkok for a possible terrorist attack. Following his arrest, Hussein led local authorities to a warehouse that filled with hundreds of boxes containing more than 6,200 pounds of liquid ammonium nitrate and 8,800 pounds of urea fertilizer, bomb precursors. He was sentenced to 2 years and 8 months for illegal possession of the ammonium nitrate—a substance banned by Thailand’s Weapons Act.
January 19, 2012—Pakistan—German citizen Bernd Muehlenbeck, an employee of the German aid group Welthungerhilfe, and an Italian colleague were kidnapped in Multan. On October 10, 2014, AP reported that Muehlenbeck was freed in Afghanistan thanks to the work of “foreign partners,” according to the German Foreign Ministry. Bild reported that he was held by the Taliban and that a German special forces team was sent to Kabul to prepare for his release. 12011902
January 21, 2012—Somalia—Gunmen kidnapped Michael Scott Moore, a German-American freelance journalist for Der Spiegel, as he drove from the airport in the northern town of Galkayo, Adado, on the border between Puntland and Galmudug. The kidnappers allowed Moore to make occasional proof-of-life phone calls to his parents. The kidnappers demanded a $5 million ransom. On September 23, 2014, the German Foreign Ministry announced that Moore, 45, a native of Redondo Beach, California, had been freed. The next day, AP reported that he was receiving medical care at the German embassy in Nairobi. The German Foreign Ministry declined comment on reports of a ransom payment, observing, “the German government cannot be blackmailed.” Bile Hussein, a pirate commander in the coastal town of Hobyo, told AP that a $1.6 million ransom was paid, arranged via Somali intermediaries acting on behalf of Germany. On September 26, 2014, AP reported that 3 Somali pirates were killed in Galkayo in a fight over the ransom. 12012101
January 27, 2012—Nigeria—Al-Qaeda kidnapped German engineer Edgar Fritz Raupach in Kano. Raupach worked for Dantata and Sawoe Construction Co., Ltd. He appeared in an online video in March, wearing a tank top and guarded by 2 rifle-toting masked terrorists. He said in German and English, “I beg my government to save my life. They will kill me here.” The group demanded the release of Umm Sayf Allah al-Ansariya, also known as Filiz Gelowicz, who had been sentenced in March 2011 to 30 months in prison on 5 counts of supporting a terrorist organization and 6 counts of recruiting for a terrorist group. Prosecutors said she had collected money and posted Internet text and video for al-Qaeda, the Islamic Jihad Union, and the German Taliban Mujahedeen. Her husband was arrested in 2007 as the leader of the Sauerland Group, a German terrorist organization. In April 2012, the Berliner Kammergericht ordered her released after she served 2/3 of her sentence. He attorney, Mutlu Gunal, said she did not want to be released as part of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’s demands.
Raupach’s kidnappers stabbed him to death when hundreds of Nigerian soldiers attacked their hideout in Kumbotso on May 31. The soldiers killed all 4 kidnappers during the 30-minute gun battle, then found his body. Four bystanders were also killed.
It was believed to be the first AQIM operation on Nigerian soil.
On June 11, 2012, AQIM blamed the German government for Raupach’s death, even though Berlin had complied with their demand for Gelowicz’s release. The group posted a note on the Internet, saying “your government gave the green light for the operation” to rescue Raupach. AQIM warned European governments to not be “dealing in foolishness” during hostage negotiations. A German official told the press that the government was not aware beforehand that Nigerian troops were going to attack the hideout, and that the troops were trying to arrest terrorists and did not know that Raupach was being held at that location. 12012701
February 2012—Jordan—On September 23, 2013, Presiding Judge Ahmed Qatarneh in Jordan’s military court convicted 5 Jordanians in their 20s and 30s and sentenced them to 5 years with hard labor for attempting to illegally cross the border to join the al-Qaeda–linked Jabhat al-Nusra rebels in Syria. Authorities had arrested them in February 2012 on the Jordanian-Syrian border. They were members of the hard-line Salafi Jihadi Movement, which is banned in Jordan.
February 1, 2012—Philippines—Abu Sayyaf was believed responsible for kidnapping 2 tourists—a Dutch citizen Ewold Horn and Swiss citizen Lorenzo Vinciguerra—in southern Tawi-Tawi Province. The duo were birders who had gone out to a mountain forest to photograph the rare Sulu hornbill. Filipino guide and triathlete Ivan Sarenas jumped into the sea and escaped. On December 6, 2014, AP reported that Vinciguerra, 49, escaped on December 6, 2014, by grabbing a long knife and hacking an Abu Sayyaf commander, Juhurim Hussein, who died. A kidnapper shot and wounded Vinciguerra while he was fleeing the jungle camp near mountainous Patikul town in Sulu Province that was under government artillery fire. Philippine army scout rangers later found and rescued him. Horn remained in captivity, having refused to join Vinciguerra in his run to freedom. 12020101
February 14, 2012—Thailand—An accidental explosion blew apart a Bangkok home where a group of Iranians were staying. In August 2013, a Thai court sentenced an Iranian to life in prison and a second Iranian to 15 years for possession of illegal explosives and other charges for a plot aimed at Israeli diplomats in Bangkok.
March 2012—Thailand—Some 100 police raided a house and arrested a suspect in the Hat Yai bombing in Songkhla Province of a shopping complex that killed 3 people.
March 2012—Yemen—On March 2, 2015, AP reported that Saudi Embassy Deputy Consul Abdullah al-Khaldi was freed by his suspected AQAP abductors, who had grabbed him in March 2012 in front of his Aden home. The Saudi Interior Ministry credited efforts made by the Saudi intelligence agency, but provided no further details. Four months after his kidnapping, his captors released a purported al-Malahem-produced video of him asking the Saudi king to grant their demands, the release of female jihadi prisoners. The Kingdom at the time said that the group had also phoned the Saudi Embassy to demand a ransom and release of male prisoner, Saudi-born Mashaal al-Shawdakhi. On March 4, the state-linked Saudi Okaz newspaper said 6 Saudis were involved in the kidnapping, under direct orders from AQAP leader Nasser al-Wahishi.
April 2012—Nigeria—On November 15, 2013, a Nigerian court convicted 34-year-old Boko Haram member Umar Mustapha of killing 3 people in a bombing and sentenced him to life in prison. The court ruled that he threw a bomb at a Kaduna media house while a suicide car bomber crashed into the office of the Thisday newspaper in Abuja, killing 6 people. Mustapha was overpowered by irate civilians. He was the only person arrested for the attacks.
April 6, 2012—Mali—On October 7, 2013, Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra announced that the remaining diplomats who were kidnapped from Algeria’s Gao consulate in Mali by the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa in April 2012 were alive. There had been earlier unconfirmed media reports that one of the 4 hostages had been killed. Three of the original 7 hostages were released in July 2012; the consul was not released.
On August 30, 2014, Algeria’s APS state news agency reported that Algerian diplomats Mourad Guessas and Kedour Miloudi, who were taken hostage in Gao, northern Mali on April 6, 2012, were released following “discreet” government intervention. No ransom was paid to the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) kidnappers. A third hostage, Consul General Boualem Saies, died following an unspecified chronic illness.
May 14, 2012—U.S.—Federal authorities arrested and charged 3 self-proclaimed anarchist members of the Black Bloc who had traveled from Florida to Chicago who were planning to commit violence as a protest against the NATO summit. They had plotted to attack President Obama’s Chicago campaign headquarters, the Chicago mayor’s home and 4 Chicago police district stations. The Black Bloc name was used by anarchists who conducted violence during the Occupy protests, including in Rome in 2011 when ski-masked terrorists torched cars and clashed with police and other Occupiers. An Illinois judge set bail at $1.5 million. The trio were identified as Brian Church, 22, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Jared Chase, 27, of Keene, New Hampshire; and Brent Vincent Betterly, 24, of Massachusetts and Oakland Park, Florida. Charges included providing material support for terrorism, conspiracy to commit terrorism, and possession of explosives or incendiary devices. Authorities said Church planned to recruit 4 teams of 4 each and that reconnaissance had already been done on the Chicago Police Department headquarters. Police seized improvised explosive or incendiary devices, a mortar gun, swords, a hunting bow, throwing stars, and knives with brass-knuckle handles. Prosecutors said they had also stockpiled Molotov cocktails. They were represented by the National Lawyers Guild and attorney Sarah Gelsomino of the People’s Law Office. On July 2, they pleaded not guilty in Cook County criminal court to charges of conspiracy to commit terrorism, possession of explosives, and other crimes. Police had raided their Bridgeport, Illinois apartment. They were heard on wiretaps planning to use Molotov cocktails to attack political targets during the NATO summit. On February 7, 2014, after deliberating for more than 7 hours, a jury acquitted them of breaking Illinois’s terrorism law, but convicting them of counts of arson and mob action. Attorney Molly Armour represented Betterly.
May 22, 2012—Syria—The Anatola News Agency reported on May 5, 2013, that the Turkish National Intelligence Organization had been negotiating with Free Syrian Army rebels who had kidnapped 11 Lebanese Shi’ite pilgrims in Syria while they were en route to Iran. Turkish diplomats had obtained the release of 2 of the hostages. On October 18, 2013, the remaining 9 Lebanese Shi’ite pilgrims were freed and reported to be in Turkish territories, according to Lebanese Interior Minister Marwan Charbel. Two of the pilgrims were released soon after with Turkish assistance. It appeared to be part of a deal for the release of 2 Turkish pilots, Murat Akpinar and Murat Agca, who were kidnapped by the Zuwaar al-Imam Rida group after flying into Beirut from Istanbul on August 9, 2013, and women held in Syrian prisons. Rebels led by Ammar al-Dadikhi, who held the pilgrims, told the Associated Press in September 2012 that he was trying to stop Hizballah from supporting the Syrian regime. Qatar’s Foreign Minister Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah told al-Jazeera that his country negotiated the release of the 9 pilgrims. The Palestinian Authority was also involved in the negotiations, according to AP. By October 24, 2013, Syria had released 61 female detainees. 12052201
May 2012—Yemen—On October 2, 2013, a Yemeni national security court accused 3 former top military officials, including the nephew of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, of negligence in the suicide attack at a military parade and killed more than 90 conscripts. The court sentenced 5 terrorists to up to 10 years for their role in the attack in Sana’a.
May 30, 2012—Azerbaijan—On November 25, 2013, a Baku court convicted 29 people on charges of plotting a series of terrorist attacks and sentenced them to 9 years to life. Charges included plotting to assassinate Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and bomb the Eurovision contest and several top hotels in Baku in May 2012. Some of the jihadis came from Russia’s Dagestan Province and had declared jihad against the Azerbaijan government. 12049902
June 2012—Philippines—Abu Sayyaf kidnapped 2 European bird watchers, a Japanese treasure hunter, Jordanian journalist Baker Abdulla Atyani, a Malaysian man, and at least 2 Filipinos. Atyani worked for the Middle East Broadcasting Corporation when he interviewed Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan 3 months before 9/11. He later worked for the Duba-based al-Arabiya TV as its Asia Bureau chief, working on a documentary about Sulu Province. The bird watchers were kidnapped from Tawi Tawi Province in February 2012 and were believed held with the other hostages in Sulu. Abu Sayyaf conducted 2 weeks of negotiations with the government in late January 2013, but refused to release the hostages. Khabir Malik, leader of the Islamic Moro National Liberation Front, was involved in the negotiations to free the hostages. The kidnappers were led by Abu Sayyaf commander Jul-Asman Sawadjaan. Abu Sayyaf demanded 130 million pesos ($3.1 million) for the release of the TV trio. Abu Sayyaf apparently freed 2 Filipino members of a Jordanian TV journal-ist’s team on February 2 after payment of a ran-som. They were identified as cameraman Ramel Vela and audio technician Roland Letriro. National Public Radio reported on February 4, 2013, that Abu Sayyaf and MILF engaged in a gun battle over the remaining hostages, who were believed to be in the jungle of Sulu’s Patikul town, 590 miles south of Manila. At last 22 people died in the clash; Abu Sayyaf beheaded a Moro. In February 2013, the Abu Sayyaf kidnappers freed the 2 Filipino crewmen they had kidnapped with Jordanian journalist Baker Atyani. On December 4, 2013, Atyani escaped on his third try. On December 5, 2013, Atyani said Abu Sayyaf commander Jul Asman Sawadjaan lured him into his kidnapping by offering an interview. Atyani worked for the Dubai-based and Saudi-owned al-Arabiya News Channel. Some observers suggested the Sawadjaan had recently died from a kidney ailment. 12069901
June 19, 2012—Kenya—A Kenyan court on May 6, 2013, sentenced Iranians Ahmad Abolfathi Mohammad and Sayed Mansour Mousavi to life for plotting attacks against Western targets. The duo led officials to 33 pounds of RDX explosives. They had been found guilty on May 2, 2013.
July 3, 2012—Cyprus—Authorities detained Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, a 24-year-old Lebanese Palestinian carrying a Swedish passport, on suspicion of involvement in a Hizballah plot to attack Israeli interests in Limassol. He admitted to Hizballah affiliation since 2007 and working for the group for 4 years on missions to Antalya, Turkey, the Netherlands, and France. He said he was planning to attack planes and buses used by Israeli tourists. Police searching his hotel room found plans to blow up a plane or tour bus. He was collecting flight schedules of charter planes from Israel and tour bus routes. When arrested, he was carrying a small red notebook with the license plate numbers of 2 buses carrying Israelis to local vacation sites. Plate LAA-505 reminded him of a Lamborghini, while KWK-663 reminded him of a Kawasaki motorcycle. Police said he acted alone. He was ordered to stand trial in September 12 on 17 terrorism-related charges, including espionage and conspiracy to commit a terrorist attack, and faced life in prison. He was represented by attorney Antonis Georgiades. On February 20, 2013, he told a court that he was a Hizballah courier in Europe and had surveilled locations in Limassol frequented by Israelis, including a parking lot behind a hospital and the Golden Arches hotel. He said his masked handler was Ayman. In a preliminary ruling in February 2013, a 3-judge panel ruled that there was enough evidence to proceed on 4 counts of conspiracy to commit a felony, 2 counts of participation in a criminal organization, one count of participating in the preparation of a crime, and one charge of covering it up. He claimed he was merely defending Lebanon, where he ran a trading company. He visited Cyprus in 2008, and began doing business in December 2011, trading in shoes, clothing, and wedding goods. He wanted to expand into importing fruit juices. He renewed his passport in Sweden on June 26, 2012. He flew to Heathrow Airport en route to Cyprus. Ayman tasked him with obtaining 2 SIM cards for cell phones and to find Internet cafes in Limassol and Nicosia. On March 20, 2014, a Cypriot appeals court upheld the conviction of the Swedish-Lebanese citizen and Hizballah member for helping to plan attacks against Israelis on Cyprus. He had been found guilty in March 2013 on 5 of 8 charges, including participation in a criminal organization, and sentenced to 4 years.
July 13, 2012—Syria—On November 11, 2013, British prosecutors dropped their case against 2 British brothers—Shajul and Najul Islam—who had been charged for the kidnapping of journalists in Syria. Trainee doctor Shajul Islam had pleaded not guilty to working with others to “unlawfully and injuriously imprison” photographers—Briton John Cantlie and Dutch citizen Jeroen Oerlemans—on July 13, 2012, in Syria. Najul had pleaded not guilty to engaging in conduct in preparation of a terrorist act. The prosecution said a problem prevented it from presenting evidence. 12071302
July 18, 2012—Bulgaria—On February 5, 2013, Bulgaria implicated 2 members of the military wing of Hizballah in the bombing. The U.S. pressed European governments to name Hizballah as a terror-ist group. Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said 2 of the 3 attackers carried legitimate Canadian and Australian passports. Both were of Lebanese descent and had lived in Lebanon. The 3 terrorists flew from Beirut to Warsaw, then took a train to Bulgaria. Investigators walked back from earlier reports of a suicide bombing, saying the Europol found “the device had been remotely detonated.” The terrorists had apparently planned to set off the bomb while the bus was going to a hotel; the detonator had a range of 6.2 miles. The 2 surviving terrorists escaped into Romania. Investigators found a forged Michigan driver’s license and Social Security card in Tsar Kaloyan village. The dead man’s DNA was found on the card. The duo flew on to Turkey, then went to Lebanon. Canada’s Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kennedy, said the Canadian suspect moved to Canada at age 8, obtained citizenship after a few years, and left at age 12. He might have returned to Canada a few times.
On June 5, 2013, the new Belgian Foreign Minister told Bulgarian National Radio that the “evidence is not categorical” that Hizballah was responsible for the bus bombing.
On September 12, 2013, Bulgaria’s chief prosecutor said that the Lebanese-origin suspects would be tried in 2014. They were Australian citizen Meliad Farah, 32, alias Hussein Hussein, and Canadian citizen Hassan el-Hajj Hassan, 25. The duo remained at large in a country “from which extradition would be possible.”
On February 20, 2014, Sotir Tsatsarov, Bulgaria’s chief prosecutor, said a 4th attacker could have been involved in the bombing. Two suspects of Lebanese origin—Meliad Farah, and Hassan el-Hajj Hassan—remained at large. Tsatsarov had planned to file formal charges in March, but identification of a third man could delay proceedings. The bomber was decapitated in the explosion; he could not be identified by DNA and fingerprint analysis.
On April 7, 2014, Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetlin Yovchev told the press that he believed that Hizballah was behind the bombing that killed 5 Israelis and their Bulgarian bus driver. The daily Presa reported that the bus bomber was of Algerian origin and had trained in terrorist camps in southern Lebanon.
On July 18, 2014, Bulgaria’s prosecutor’s office and the national security agency named the suicide bomber as Lebanese-born Mohamad Hassan el-Husseini, 23. He had dual Lebanese-French citizenship. The bombing killed 5 Israeli tourists, the Bulgarian bus driver and the bomber and wounded 35 people. In 2013, Bulgaria accused Hizballah of involvement, naming 2 Lebanese plotters: Meliad Farah, and Hassan el-Hajj Hassan. Neither had been arrested as of mid–July 2014.
July 20, 2012—U.S.—On July 16, 2015, the jury convicted James Holmes, 27, of 24 counts of first-degree murder—2 for each victim slain—as well as 134 counts of first-degree attempted murder, 6 counts of attempted second-degree murder and one count of explosives possession in the shooting at the Aurora movie theater on June 20, 2012. He faced the death penalty.
August 2012—Kenya—On August 26, 2013, a Kenyan government task force reported that it had not determined who killed Aboud Rogo Mohammed as he drove his wife, Hania Said Saggar, to a Mombasa hospital. In 2005, he was acquitted of murder charges in a 2002 bombing of a tourist hotel near Mombasa. Witnesses said a gunman in the passenger seat of a white Subaru without a license plate fired at Mohammed some 600 yards from a police station. The gunman used sign language to tell nearby witnesses to keep quiet.
August 2012—Egypt—On December 17, 2013, military spokesman Colonel Ahmed Mohammed Ali said on Facebook that special forces killed Selmi Mohammed Musabah Zayed, alias Abu Khaled, a member of an al-Qaeda–linked group in the northern Sinai. Ali said Zayed was behind the killings of 16 Egyptian soldiers in Sinai in August 2012.
August 8, 2012—Afghanistan—On November 12, 2015, CNN reported that President Barack Obama awarded U.S. Army Captain Florent Groberg (retired) with the Medal of Honor for “his selfless service” during a deadly attack in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, in August 2012. Groberg tackled a suicide bomber, whose explosives went off, seriously injuring Groberg and killing 4 soldiers. Groberg was credited with saving the lives of 20 other soldiers. Groberg recalled seeing an Afghan come out and walk backwards toward his group. “As soon as he started moving towards our patrol, I left my position to go meet him because he’s a threat. And I need him away…. So I hit him with my rifle and that’s when I felt I hit a vest under his clothing. So at this point all I could do was just get him away as far as we could. So I grabbed him by his vest and tried to push him down and throw him.” His platoon sergeant pushed the Afghan to the ground. “And then he detonated at my feet. And then after that I was thrown 15 to 20 feet, unconscious … you come back, and I wasn’t hearing anything. I had a blown ear drum took me a couple seconds to come back to reality.” A second suicide bomber set off his explosives, killing the 4 soldiers. “I couldn’t remember what happened. I thought I had stepped on an IED (improvised explosive device). My fibia was sticking out of my left leg, my skin was melting, and there was blood everywhere. I checked myself for internal injuries and started to drag myself out of what was probably a kill zone for small-arms fire.” Obama said Groberg “prevented an even greater catastrophe…. You see by pushing the bomber away from the formation, the explosion occurred farther from our forces and on the ground instead of the open air. Had both bombs gone off as planned, who knows how many could have been killed.” Groberg needed 33 surgeries on his leg.
August 11, 2012—Syria—On September 23, 2014, CNN reported that Austin Tice, 33, a former U.S. Marine captain who was kidnapped from a Damascus suburb in 2012, remained missing with no communication from his captors. In September 2012, a 47-second-video on YouTube showed him blindfolded and being walked through rocky terrain by gunmen. He was freelancing for McClatchy and the Washington Post beginning in May 2012. In July 2012, Tice, then a law student, appeared on CNN’s “Global Public Square.” He was last publicly heard from via Twitter on August 11, 2012, saying that he was with Free Syrian Army rebels. 12081101
August 29, 2012—Afghanistan—Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agents captured former Afghan National Army Sergeant Hekmatullah in February 2013. He was deported to Afghanistan on October 2, 2013. He was expected to face trial for 3 murders after killing 3 Australian soldiers and injuring 2 others at a patrol base north of the Australian military headquarters at Tarin Kowt in Uruzgan Province. 12082901
September 2012—UK—On December 10, 2013, 4 people were sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for stabbing retired Indian Lt. Gen. Kuldeep Singh Brar, 78, in the neck while he was walking with his wife during a visit to London. In July 2013, 2 men and a woman were convicted. One defendant had pleaded guilty to attacking him to avenge his role in the 1984 assault on Amritsar’s Golden Temple that killed more than 1,000 people. The court sentenced Mandeep Singh Sandhu and Dilbag Singh 14 years in prison. Harjit Kaur was jailed for 11 years. Barjinder Singh Sangha—who pleaded guilty—received 10 years and 6 months.
September 2012—France—A grenade attack in a Jewish grocery store in Sarcelles, a suburb of Paris, injured a shopper. The bomber was alleged to be Jeremie Louis-Sidney, who was killed in October 6, 2012, in Strasbourg after resisting arrest. Three days later, police recovered bags of potassium nitrate, sulfur, saltpeter, headlight bulbs, and a pressure cooker from an underground parking lot in Torcy, an eastern Paris suburb.
September 11, 2012—Libya—The Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman Brigade claimed credit for several attacks on Western targets during 2012, including the Benghazi murders. On February 3, 2013, U.S. Army General Carter Ham, head of Africa Command, said that the perpetrators included affiliates of AQIM.
Libyan authorities detained Faraj al-Shibli (variant Chalabi), 46, on March 14, 2013, in connection with the attack.
The facility is a “special mission,” not technically a consulate.
On May 21, 2013, CNN and the Associated Press reported that the U.S. had identified 5 of the attackers, but the government did not have enough evidence to win in a civilian court. The FBI had earlier released photos of 3 suspects seen on the compound via a surveillance video.
The FBI announced on May 1, 2013, that it was seeking 3 men for the attacks, and released 7 photos developed from video footage. The next day, CNN reported that 3–4 Yemeni men belonging to AQAP had participated in the attack. The group stayed in Benghazi for 2 days after the attack, then moved to northern Mali, linking up with Mokhtar Belmokhtar’s AQIM faction.
On August 6, 2013, CNN reported that U.S. Justice Department officials filed sealed federal criminal charges against Ahmed Abu Khattalah, leader of a Libyan militia, in connection with the Benghazi attack.
On November 27, 2013, the UN Security Council anti-terrorism committee blacklisted Muhammad Jamal and his Muhammad Jamal Group for involvement in the September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya and for running camps in Libya to train foreign terrorists, according to Australian Ambassador Gary Quinlan, the chairman of the committee. All nations were to freeze the funds and financial assets of Jamal and the group, block their travel, and prevent any military or technical advice or materials going to them. The U.S. State Department deemed Jamal a global terrorist in October 2013, blocking any property he or his network may have in U.S. jurisdiction and banning U.S. citizens from engaging in any transactions that would benefit him. The State Department said he learned bomb making in the late 1980s from al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and formed his own network, which included terrorist training camps in Egypt and Libya, after being released from an Egyptian prison in 2011. In the 1990s, he rose to serve as a top military commander for the Egyptian Islamic Jihad.
On June 17, 2014, the U.S. announced that Special Operations forces working with the FBI on June 15 had captured Ahmed Abu Khattala in a secret raid near Benghazi. There were no casualties in the operation. In July 2013, the FBI had filed a 3-count criminal complaint against him in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The complaint was unsealed on June 17, 2014, and charged him with “killing a person in the course of an attack on a federal facility involving use of a firearm,” providing and conspiring to “provide material support to terrorists resulting in a death,” and discharging, brandishing, using, carrying and possessing a firearm during a crime of violence.” He faced a life sentence or the death penalty. The Department of Justice could bring additional charges. He was expected to be arraigned in the U.S. after being held on a U.S. Navy ship for questioning. The Department of State designated him a terrorist in January 2014, saying he was a “senior leader” of the Benghazi branch of Ansar al-Sharia, which was also designated a terrorist organization. The Libyan government denied prior knowledge of his detention and demanded his return.
The FBI also was pursuing criminal charges against Abu Sufian bin Qumu, the leader of Ansar al-Sharia in Darnah. In 2007, he was released from Gitmo and sent to Libya, where he was detained until being released in 2008.
On June 27, 2014, Ahmed Abu Khattala arrived in Washington, D.C., from the USS New York. In a rare Saturday hearing at the federal courthouse, at 3:30 p.m. the next day, he pleaded not guilty to a single charge of “conspiracy for mutual support.” He was represented by public defender Michelle Peterson at the 10-minute hearing. On July 2, 2014, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ordered Ahmed Abu Khatallah held without bail. On October 20, 2014, Ahmed Abu Khattala, 43, pleaded not guilty in a 15-minute court proceeding before a federal judge. The previous week, a grand jury handed up 18 charges, including murder of an internationally protected person and destruction of federal property. He faced life imprisonment or death. His next court appearance was set for December 9, 2014.
On July 14, 2014, a militia in Marj detained Faraj al-Shibli, variant Chalabi, who was suspected of involvement in the 2012 attack. He was found dead 2 days later. Investigators believed he was in contact with AQAP and al-Qaeda members in Pakistan. Libyan authorities detained him in March 2013 following a trip to Pakistan. The FBI interviewed him in the presence of Libyan officials.
On November 21, 2014, AP reported that an investigation by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence concluded that the CIA and Pentagon responded appropriately to the attacks, that CIA security operatives “ably and bravely assisted” State Department officials at a nearby diplomatic compound, and that there was “no evidence that there was either a stand down order or a denial of available air support.” HPSCI Chair Mike Rogers (R–Michigan) and ranking member C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D–Maryland), announced, “We concluded that all the CIA officers in Benghazi were heroes. Their actions saved lives.”
On June 23, 2015, the Washington Post reported that Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren announced that Tunisian citizen Ali Awni al-Harzi, 29, who U.S. officials believe acted as an Islamic State intermediary across the Middle East and North Africa, and who was believed involved in the 9–11–12 attacks in Benghazi, was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Mosul, Iraq on June 15, 2015. Warren observed, “His death degrades ISIL’s ability to integrate North African jihadists into the Syrian and Iraqi fight, and removes a jihadist with long ties to international terrorism.” The Tunisian National Guard issued an arrest warrant for Ali al-Harzi in March 2015. The State Department named him as a global terrorist in April 2015, saying he was a “Syrian-based Tunisian national who joined Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia (AAS-T) in 2011.” It called him “a high-profile member known for recruiting volunteers, facilitating the travel of AAS-T fighters to Syria, and for smuggling weapons and explosives into Tunisia.” The UN had named him and his brother Tariq, 33, to its terrorism list of al-Qaeda associates days before the State Department’s April designation. The U.N. said that in 2005, Ali al-Harzi was “detained and sentenced to 30 months imprisonment for planning terrorist attacks … in Tunisia.” Al-Harzi was believed to have fled to Turkey, where he was arrested at an airport in late October 2012 and held for several days before being extradited to Tunisia. The FBI reportedly questioned him in Tunisia in December 2012, according to the Associated Press. The Tunisian government released him in January 2013, citing lack of evidence.
The U.N. said his brother, Tariq, was “a dangerous and active member of al-Qaeda in Iraq in 2004, also active in facilitating and hosting members of Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia in Syria.” A Tunisian court in 2007 sentenced Tariq in absentia to 24 years in prison for terrorist activities.
On October 16, 2015, Ahmed Abu Khattalah appeared before U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper in federal court regarding a motion to dismiss charges. He had pleaded not guilty to 18 counts, including to charges of murder, conspiracy, and destroying a U.S. facility in the Benghazi attack of September 11, 2012. He was represented by attorney Jeffrey D. Robinson of the Lewis Baach law firm.
September 14, 2012—Tunisia—On May 29, 2013, twenty people convicted of attacking the U.S. Embassy received 2-year suspended sentences for violating a state of emergency and attacking property. Seifallah Ben Hassine, leader of Ansar al-Shariah who was wanted in connection with the attack, remained at large. On June 24, 2014, a Tunisian court convicted 16 individuals of theft and destruction of property for burning down the American school, and sentenced them to 2 years in prison. Two others received suspended sentences. Four were acquitted for lack of evidence. 12091401
October 2012—Pakistan—Pakistan’s Army arrested 10 Tehrik-e-Taliban terrorists suspected of involvement in the attempted assassination of Malala Yousafzai.
October 2012—Syria—Al-Qaeda–linked Jabhat al-Nusra gunmen kidnapped U.S. journalist Peter Theo Curtis, 43, after he crossed into Syria from Antakya, Turkey. Using his birth name Theo Padnos, he had written for the New Republic, the Huffington Post and the London Review of Books and a 2011 book Undercover Muslim: A Journey Into Yemen. The family received ransom demands of 25 million euros. In a June 30, 2014, video, he read from a script saying, “I have everything I need. Everything has been perfect—food, clothing, even friends now.” In a video released on July 18, 2014, he sat cross-legged on a floor with his hands bound, and read from a sheet placed in front of him on the floor. Addressing the American and European governments, he pleaded for them to contact a specific intermediary, saying, “They have given me 3 days to live. If you don’t do anything, I’m finished. I’m dead. They will kill me. Three days. You have had 20 days, and you’ve done nothing.” On August 24, 2014, the Massachusetts native was released to UN officials in Quneitra in the Syrian-held section of the Golan Heights. Al-Jazeera reported that Qatari mediators were involved in obtaining his release. Qatar said no ransom was paid. Colleagues claimed he was held with Matthew Schrier, a U.S. photojournalist who escaped from his cell in a rebel-held neighborhood of Aleppo in 2013. 12109902
October 8, 2012—Afghanistan—Pregnant American tourist Caitlan Coleman, 27, and Joshua Boyle, her Canadian husband, were reported missing from the mountains near Kabul. She was due in January 2013 and was suffering from a liver ailment. The family said on December 30, 2012, that they last heard from Josh on October 8, 2012, from an Internet café. In July and September 2013, her family received 2 videos via e-mail in which the couple asked the U.S. government to help them and their newborn child obtain freedom from the Taliban. The U.S. government said it was not clear when/where the videos were made. The videos’ time stamps of May 20, 2013, and August 20, 2013, could have been doctored. The Afghan male sender claimed to have Taliban contacts, but was out of contact with the family for several months. In one video, Coleman asked “my president, Barack Obama…. I would ask that my family and my government do everything that they can to bring my husband, child, and I to safety and freedom.” As of June 4, 2014, they remained unaccounted for. The family decided to release the videos following the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who had been held by the Taliban since June 30, 2009.
The couple married in 2011 after meeting online. They had traveled throughout Latin America. In summer 2012, they began a trip to Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, before arriving in Afghanistan. The couple withdrew money from their bank account on October 8 and 9 in Kabul. In November 2012, an Afghan official told the Associated Press that the duo was captured in Wardak Province.
Joshua Boyle was previously married to the sister of Omar Khadr, a Guantanamo Bay alum. 12100801
October 9, 2012—Pakistan—On April 30, 2015, Reuters reported that Judge Mohammad Amin Kundi jailed 10 men for 25 years each for the 2012 shooting of Malala Yousafzai, who was attacked in Swat for her campaign against Pakistani Taliban efforts to deny girls education. A police official said that none of those sentenced were among the 4 or 5 attackers, but “certainly they had a role in the planning and execution of the assassination attempt on Malala.”
October 17, 2012—U.S.—On February 7, 2013, Nafis pleaded guilty to terrorism charges. He faced 30 years to life in prison.
November 2012—Syria—On September 18, 2014, CNN reported that the Islamic State released a 3-minute video entitled “Lend Me Your Ears, Messages from the British Detainee John Cantlie” saying he will soon reveal “convey some facts” about the group to counter its portrayal in Western media. “Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, ‘He’s only doing this because he’s a prisoner. He’s got a gun at his head and he’s being forced to do this.’ Right? Well, it’s true. I am a prisoner. That I cannot deny. But seeing as I’ve been abandoned by my government and my fate now lies in the hands of the Islamic State, I have nothing to lose.” “After two disastrous and hugely unpopular wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, why is it that our governments appear so keen to get involved in yet another unwinnable conflict? I’m going to show you the truth behind the systems and motivation of the Islamic State, and how the Western media, the very organization I used to work for, can twist and manipulate that truth for the public back home.” He claimed to have worked for newspapers and magazines in the UK, including the Sunday Times, the Sun and the Sunday Telegraph. He claimed that other Western governments negotiated for the release of their hostages but that the British and American governments chose to do things differently. “I’ll show you the truth behind what happened when many European citizens were imprisoned and later released by the Islamic State, and how the British and American governments thought they could do it differently to every other European country.
“They negotiated with the Islamic State and got their people home while the British and Americans were left behind.” “Maybe I will live and maybe I will die,” the man identified as Cantlie says. “But I want to take this opportunity to convey some facts that you can verify. Facts that, if you contemplate, might help preserving lives.”
Cantlie was twice a hostage. In July 2012, he was grabbed with Dutch photographer Jeroen Oerlemans while working near the Syrian border with Turkey. They were released the same month after a group of Free Syrian Army fighters freed them. Cantlie told media after his release that they were threatened with death unless they converted to Islam. Both were shot and slightly wounded when they attempted to escape. He was shot in the arm; Oerlemans in the leg. He wrote in the Sunday Times that 30 captors included different nationalities, many British and none Syrian, and that the British jihadists had treated him the most cruelly in captivity.
On October 12, 2014, the Islamic State’s 4th edition of its 56-page Dabiq English-language online magazine included an article by an Islamic State captive, British journalist John Cantlie, who wrote that he expected to be killed soon, and “unless something changes very quickly and very radically, I await my turn.” The group’s video included him mentioning the beheading of British aid worker David Haines, but not that of Alan Henning.
On October 16, 2014, IS released the 4th video featuring Cantlie, who mentioned the beheading of British hostage David Haines, whose execution video was posted on September 13. In the 8-minute video, Cantlie mentioned the U.S. bombing of IS targets in Iraq. The 5th video, shot at a different time, had been posted on September 18. Others were posted on September 23 and 29.
IS released the 5th Cantlie video, entitled “Inside Ayn al-Islam [the IS name for Kobani],” on Octo-ber 27, 2014, a 51/2-minute report in which he commented on the battle or Kobani, Syria, saying IS had weathered airstrikes and was winning the battle against Kurdish forces. He noted, “Without any safe access, there are no journalists here in the city…. Airstrikes did prevent some groups of mujahedeen from using their tanks and heavy armor as they’d have liked, so they’re entering the city and using light weapons instead, going house to house…. The battle for Kobani is coming to an end…. The mujahedeen are just mopping up now, street to street and building to building…. As you can hear, it is very quiet—just occasional gunfire.”
On November 21, 2014, UPI reported that IS released a 7th video featuring Cantlie, sitting behind a desk, wearing an orange shirt. He said, “In this program I will tell you about a failed raid to rescue us and how it feels to be left for dead by your own government.” He noted that U.S. troops conducted an “incredibly complex, risky and expensive” rescue attempt in July before the beheading of American photojournalist James Foley. “The raid involved 2 dozen Delta Force commandos, several Black Hawk helicopters, gunships, Predator drones, F18 Hornet Jets and refueling aircraft. It took weeks of rehearsals and must have cost tens of millions to perform—but we weren’t there. The Islamic State, anticipating such a move, just put us into cars and moved us to another prison days beforehand. We were left to die. It’s the worst feeling in the world being left behind like that. I will continue to speak out against this military action … for as long as the mujahideen allow me to live.” 12119901
November 5, 2012—Bahrain—On June 5, 2014, a Bahraini court convicted and sentenced 4 Shi’ites to life imprisonment for killing an Asian man in a 2012 bomb attack in Manama. Defense attorney Zainab Abdulaziz said that the defendants faced charges that included murder, participation in an illegal organization and possession of explosives. She said she would appeal.
November 22, 2012—Syria—U.S. photojournalist James Foley disappeared on November 22, 2012, in Taftanaz, Syria, near the Turkish border. On August 19, 2014, a London-accented masked spokesman for the Islamic State said in a video posting that the group had beheaded Foley, 40, in retaliation for U.S. airstrikes in Iraq. The video showed Foley saying that U.S. were “my real killers.” The video ran a clip of President Obama’s August 7 announcement that he had authorized U.S. airstrikes against the group in Iraq.
A second hostage, identified as U.S. journalist Steven Joel Sotloff, then appeared in the video. The terrorist spokesman said “the life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision.” Sotloff, a freelancer who worked for several news organizations, disappeared in Syria around August 13, 2013, while covering Syria’s civil war. The group also posted a Twitter note on Sotloff, a Miami native who wrote for Time, The National Interest, and the Christian Science Monitor.
In November 2013, the terrorists used e-mail to demand a ransom of 100 million euros ($132.5 million) from both Foley’s family and GlobalPost for Foley’s release. The parents of the Rochester, New Hampshire native wanted to negotiate, but the U.S. rejected negotiating with terrorists. The group also demanded the release of unnamed Muslim prisoners.
U.S. officials announced that a rescue operation in Syria earlier in the summer by special forces had failed to find the hostages. The team killed several terrorists; one of the team was slightly injured.
The British press dubbed the spokesman Jihadi John, who was believed to lead 3 British IS jihadis who guard foreign hostages. The BBC’s Frank Gardner reported that hostages had nicknamed them John, Paul and Ringo. The Guardian reported that he may have negotiated with 8 Western families for release of hostages, and was involved with the IS release of 2 Spanish journalists.
Fellow hostage Didier Francois told Europe 1 Radio that the British terrorists disliked Foley, particularly after finding out that his brother served in the U.S. Air Force. They performed mock executions of Foley, at one point forcing him into a crucifixion position against a wall in April 2014, according to the Wall Street Journal.
On August 12, 2014, Foley’s family received its final e-mail from IS, which the GlobalPost published: “HOW LONG WILL THE SHEEP FOLLOW THE BLIND SHEPPARD… As for the scum of your society who are held by us, THEY DARED TO ENTER THE LION’S DEN AND WHERE EATEN! … Today our swords are unsheathed towards you, GOVERNMENT AND CITIZENS ALIKE! AND WE WILL NOT STOP UNTILL WE QUENCH OUR THIRST FOR YOUR BLOOD…. You and your citizens will pay the price of your bombings! The first of which being the blood of the American citizen, James Foley! He will be executed as a DIRECT result of your transgressions toward us!”
The group posted a separate message threatening to attack Americans “in any place” in response to U.S. airstrikes. “We will drown all of you in blood.”
Authorities were investigating several British jihadis, including London rapper Abdel Majed Abdel Bary, who traveled to Syria to fight with ISIS, as the spokesman. Bary’s Egyptian father was suspected of involvement in the August 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. He was extradited to New York in 2012 to face trial, charged with conspiring with members of al-Qaeda to kill Americans and attack American facilities abroad.
The Washington Post reported on August 28, 2014, that the Islamic State had waterboarded 4 hos-tages, including Foley, in Raqqah, Syria. 12112201, 13089901
November 29, 2012—U.S.—Authorities in Fort Lauderdale, Florida arrested Sheheryar Alam Qazi, 30, and his brother, Raees Alam Qazi, 20, 2 naturalized U.S. citizens from Pakistan, for plotting to provide material support to terrorists and to use a weapon of mass destruction by providing money, property, housing, and communications equip-ment to conspirators. They pleaded not guilty. On March 12, 2015, the brothers pleaded guilty in Miami to federal terrorism charges, admitting to planning to attack landmarks in New York City and later assaulting 2 deputy U.S. Marshals while in custody. They pled guilty to one count of conspiring to provide support to terrorists and conspiracy to assault 2 federal employees. Raees pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to al-Qaeda.
December 2012—Nigeria—On February 20, 2013, Nigeria announced the arrest of 3 suspected Nigerian terrorists, including Abdullahi Mustapha Berende, 50, who were planning to attack U.S. and Israeli targets. They had made suspicious trips to Iran. The Nigerian State Security Service said that Berende’s “Iranian sponsors requested that he identifies and gathers intelligence on public places and prominent hotels frequented by Americans and Israelis to facilitate attacks. There is conclusive evidence that Berende in collaboration with his Iranian handlers were involved in grievous crimes against the national security of this country…. He personally took photographs of the Israeli culture center in Ikoyi, Lagos, which he sent to his handlers … (Berende’s) lieutenants successfully conducted surveillance and gathered relevant data … for possible attacks.” Berende told reporters on February 20, “as for surveillance, that one is true…. It is a regrettable phenomenon I should be proud of it.” The SSS said he was paid $30,000 for the operations, which included surveillance of the USAID, U.S. Peace Corps, and other targets. Berende was the leader of a Shi’ite sect in Ilorin. He traveled to Iran in 2006 to study at an Islamic university. He returned in 2011 for training in the use of pistols, AK47s, and explosives. He called for an attack on former military ruler Ibrahim Babangida and Ibrahim Dasuki, former Sultan of Sokoto, to “unsettle the west.” Another member of the cell remained at large.
On August 29, 2013, Justice Ahmed Mohammed in a Nigerian federal court charged 2 Nigerians—Abdullahi Mustapha Berende and Saheed Oluremi Adewumi—with providing support for acts of terrorism by an Iranian militant cell. The court charged Berende with 6 counts, including traveling to Iran between September 2011 and December 2012 and providing “terrorist training together with others now at large on the use of firearms, explosives and other related weapons.” The charge sheet said he had agreed to recruit people, including Adewumi, for an Iranian terrorist group. The charge sheet claimed he Berende knew and “failed to disclose such information (about terrorist training in Iran and spying in Lagos) to the law enforcement officials.” Adewumi was charged with conspiring to commit terrorist acts and providing technological support, including cameras. The court did not mention that in February, the SSS said the group surveilled USAID, the Peace Corps, and other targets. The men pleaded not guilty to the 6 counts. Proceedings were adjourned until September 17.
December 19, 2012—Nigeria—On November 17, 2013, AP reported that Francis Collomp, a French engineer kidnapped in northern Nigeria 11 months earlier, escaped from his Ansaru captors in Zaria, Kaduna State, on a motorcycle. No ransom was paid. He was grabbed by 30 armed men at his home on his 63rd birthday. The terrorists killed a neighbor and a security guard. 12121901
December 25, 2012—Pakistan—Gunmen ambushed the Karachi convoy of Aurangzeb Farooqi, leader of the Deobandi Sunni organization Ahle Sunnat wal Jama’at, killing 6 bodyguards. Farooqi sustained a 6-inch bullet wound in his thigh. The ASJ is the new name for Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, which was banned in 2002. Authorities believed it was connected to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. The Sunni ideologue observed “Enemies should listen to this: my task now is Sunni awakening. I will make Sunnis so powerful against Shi’ites that no Sunni will even want to shake hands with a Shi’ite. They will die their own deaths, we won’t have to kill them.” He later said “We say Shias are infidels. We say this on the basis of reason and arguments. I want to be called to the Supreme Court so that I can prove using their own books that they are not Muslims.”