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Jamal al-Fadl
Jamal Ahmed al-Fadl (Arabic: جمال أحمد محمّد الفضل, Jamāl Aḥmad Muḥammad al-Faḍl; born 1963) is a Sudanese militant and former associate of Osama bin Laden in the early 1990s. Al-Fadl was recruited for the Afghan war through the Farouq mosque in Brooklyn. In 1988, he joined al-Qaeda and took an oath of fealty to bin Laden. After a dispute with bin Laden, al-Fadl defected and became an informant to the United States government on al-Qaeda's activities.
Initially working at a grocery store in Brooklyn, Al-Fadl was recruited to join the cause of the Afghan mujahideen "through the Farouq mosque in Brooklyn", presumably when he was in the U.S. in the mid-1980s. Al-Fadl traveled to Pakistan and began attending training camps where he learned how to shoot AK-47s, RPGs and how to handle explosives. He eventually became a "senior employee" of al-Qaeda.
He attended meetings on August 11 and 20, 1988, with Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Mohammed Atef, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, Wael Hamza Julaidan, and Mohammed Loay Bayazid and eight others to discuss the founding of "al-Qaeda". In Khartoum, he traveled to Hilat Koko with Mamdouh Mahmud Salim in late 1993 or early 1994, and met with Amin Abdel Marouf to discuss chemical weapons.
Al-Fadl became a business agent for al-Qaeda but resented receiving a salary of only $500 a month while some of the Egyptians in al-Qaeda were given $1,200 a month. When Osama bin Laden discovered that al-Fadl had skimmed about $110,000 and asked for restitution, the latter defected and became an informant for the United States.
After embezzling $110,000 from the organization, al-Fadl "defected". He contacted the CIA via the United States's Eritrean embassy and, receiving encouragement from FBI special agents Jack Cloonan and Dan Coleman (who were "seconded" to the CIA's Bin Laden unit), he returned (after staying in Germany for a while) to the United States, in spring 1996. While in protective custody, al-Fadl won a modest sum in scratch tickets in the New Jersey lottery, which was taken away by his guards.
For the next three years Cloonan and his colleagues oversaw al-Fadl in a safehouse. From December 1996, al-Fadl began to provide "a major breakthrough of intelligence on the creation, character, direction, and intentions of al Qaeda"; "bin Laden, the CIA now learned, had planned multiple terrorist operations and aspired to more" — including the acquisition of weapons-grade uranium. Al-Fadl, who had "passed the polygraph tests he was given", became a key witness in the US v. bin Laden trial that began in February 2001.
His upkeep during the first 12 years of his life in Witness Protection were deemed "expensive", as he reportedly was an "incessant troublemaker" who suffered severe emotional mood swings, a taste for womanizing and financial scheming.
Al-Fadl testified in a trial, United States v. Osama bin Laden, No. S(7) 98 Cr. 1023 (S.D. N.Y.), Feb. 6, 2001 (transcript pp. 218–219, 233); Feb. 13, 2001 (transcript pp. 514–516); Feb. 20, 2001 (transcript p. 890).
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Jamal al-Fadl
Jamal Ahmed al-Fadl (Arabic: جمال أحمد محمّد الفضل, Jamāl Aḥmad Muḥammad al-Faḍl; born 1963) is a Sudanese militant and former associate of Osama bin Laden in the early 1990s. Al-Fadl was recruited for the Afghan war through the Farouq mosque in Brooklyn. In 1988, he joined al-Qaeda and took an oath of fealty to bin Laden. After a dispute with bin Laden, al-Fadl defected and became an informant to the United States government on al-Qaeda's activities.
Initially working at a grocery store in Brooklyn, Al-Fadl was recruited to join the cause of the Afghan mujahideen "through the Farouq mosque in Brooklyn", presumably when he was in the U.S. in the mid-1980s. Al-Fadl traveled to Pakistan and began attending training camps where he learned how to shoot AK-47s, RPGs and how to handle explosives. He eventually became a "senior employee" of al-Qaeda.
He attended meetings on August 11 and 20, 1988, with Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Mohammed Atef, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, Wael Hamza Julaidan, and Mohammed Loay Bayazid and eight others to discuss the founding of "al-Qaeda". In Khartoum, he traveled to Hilat Koko with Mamdouh Mahmud Salim in late 1993 or early 1994, and met with Amin Abdel Marouf to discuss chemical weapons.
Al-Fadl became a business agent for al-Qaeda but resented receiving a salary of only $500 a month while some of the Egyptians in al-Qaeda were given $1,200 a month. When Osama bin Laden discovered that al-Fadl had skimmed about $110,000 and asked for restitution, the latter defected and became an informant for the United States.
After embezzling $110,000 from the organization, al-Fadl "defected". He contacted the CIA via the United States's Eritrean embassy and, receiving encouragement from FBI special agents Jack Cloonan and Dan Coleman (who were "seconded" to the CIA's Bin Laden unit), he returned (after staying in Germany for a while) to the United States, in spring 1996. While in protective custody, al-Fadl won a modest sum in scratch tickets in the New Jersey lottery, which was taken away by his guards.
For the next three years Cloonan and his colleagues oversaw al-Fadl in a safehouse. From December 1996, al-Fadl began to provide "a major breakthrough of intelligence on the creation, character, direction, and intentions of al Qaeda"; "bin Laden, the CIA now learned, had planned multiple terrorist operations and aspired to more" — including the acquisition of weapons-grade uranium. Al-Fadl, who had "passed the polygraph tests he was given", became a key witness in the US v. bin Laden trial that began in February 2001.
His upkeep during the first 12 years of his life in Witness Protection were deemed "expensive", as he reportedly was an "incessant troublemaker" who suffered severe emotional mood swings, a taste for womanizing and financial scheming.
Al-Fadl testified in a trial, United States v. Osama bin Laden, No. S(7) 98 Cr. 1023 (S.D. N.Y.), Feb. 6, 2001 (transcript pp. 218–219, 233); Feb. 13, 2001 (transcript pp. 514–516); Feb. 20, 2001 (transcript p. 890).