Ali Mohamed (double agent)

For other people with the same name, see Ali Mohamed (disambiguation).

Ali Abdul Saoud Mohamed (Arabic: علي عبد السعود محمد) (born June 3, 1952) is a double agent[1] who worked for both the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and Egyptian Islamic Jihad simultaneously, reporting on the workings of each for the benefit of the other.[2]

He came to the United States working as a translator for Ayman al-Zawahiri who toured California in 1993 following the World Trade Centre bombing, hoping to raise money for al-Jihad from the numerous Islamic charities that still existed from the days of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. While there, Zawahiri encouraged him to infiltrate the United States, claiming to be defecting to the United States. When he simply walked into the CIA office in Cairo and asked to speak to the station chief to offer his services, the Americans assumed he was an Egyptian spy, but nevertheless recruited him to be a junior intelligence agent.[3] When tasked to infiltrate a mosque with ties to Hezbollah, he instead informed the imam he was an American spy intending to collect information. Another loyal American spy was also in the congregation and he reported Mohamed to the CIA, which dismissed him and sought to ban him from entering the United States.[3] However, he later enlisted in the U.S. Army Special Forces, who sent him to the Special Warfare school and encouraged him to pursue a doctorate in Islamic Studies to teach courses on the Middle East.[3]

In the 1980s, Mohamed trained anti-Soviet fighters en route to Afghanistan. FBI special agent Jack Cloonan called him "bin Laden's first trainer".[4] Mohamed was charged with the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Nairobi, Kenya, and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. In October 2000, he pleaded guilty to five counts of conspiracy to kill nationals of the United States and to destroy U.S. property.

Mohamed was a major in the Egyptian Army's military intelligence, until being discharged for suspected fundamentalism in 1984. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and used U.S. military information to train al-Qaeda and other Muslim militants, and write al-Qaeda's multivolume terrorist training guide.[5]

  1. ^ Hays, Tom; Theimer, Sharon (December 26, 2001). "In life of double-crosses, Egyptian worked with Green Berets and bin Laden". Black Hills Pioneer. Associated Press. Archived from the original on April 23, 2018. Retrieved February 29, 2016. mirror Archived 2016-03-11 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ "Sergeant Served U.S. Army and bin Laden, Showing Failings in FBI's Terror Policing". Wall Street Journal. 26 November 2001. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  3. ^ a b c Temple-Raston, Dina. The Jihad Next Door, 2007. p. 83
  4. ^ Interview with FBI special agent Jack Cloonan Archived 2012-03-21 at the Wayback Machine, Frontline, PBS, October 18, 2005.
  5. ^ Wright, Lawrence (2006). Looming Tower. p. 180. ISBN 1-4000-3084-6.