The Al Qaeda Handbook 1677-T 1D is a computer file found by Police during a search of the Manchester home of Anas al-Liby in 2000. [2] A translation has been provided by the American Federal Bureau of Investigation. [3] Officials state that the document is a manual for how to wage war, and according to the American military, was written by Osama bin Laden's extremist group, al-Qaeda. However, the manual was likely written either by a member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad or al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya; in addition, the mentioned targets in the manual are the rulers of Arab countries, not the West. [4]
Some of the selected translated text from the manual are found on a United States Department of Justice website. (Only some of the manual is provided because it "does not want to aid in educating terrorists or encourage further acts of terrorism". [5] )
The handbook has been repeatedly invoked by American officials when confronted with accusations of detainee abuse or torture. [2]
The manual was found in a computer file described as "the military series" related to the "Declaration of Jihad." [5] According to the United States military, the handbook contains 180 pages divided into 18 chapters. [2] It reportedly begins, "The confrontation we are calling for... knows the dialogue of bullets, the ideals of assassination, bombing and destruction, and the diplomacy of the cannon and machine gun." [2] Excerpts publicly available describe the structure of a military organization whose main mission is the "overthrow of the godless regimes and their replacement with an Islamic regime," and include instructions on counterfeiting and forgery, security measures for undercover activities, and strategies in the case of arrest and indictment. [6] The handbook provides religious justifications and quotations from the Qur'an throughout. [7]
The military states that the handbook instructs members of Al Qaeda how to lie to captors during interrogation, and falsely claim they are being tortured. [2]
Department of Defense spokesmen routinely state that Guantanamo captives were trained using the manual. [2] [8] [9] [6] American Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed detainee allegations of torture at Guantanamo, stated that "detainees are trained to lie, they're trained to say they were tortured." [2]
A student and a researcher at the University of Nottingham, studying extremism, were arrested in 2008 after downloading the Handbook from a U.S. Government site to a University of Nottingham computer. [10] Twenty-six academics at the University signed a petition in protest of the arrests. [10] They were released a week later, but one was subsequently charged with visa irregularities, and the ensuing controversy within the university led to the suspension of the educator teaching the terrorism course. [11]
Abu Zubaydah is a Saudi Arabian currently held by the U.S. in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. He is held under the authority of Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists (AUMF).
Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi was a Libyan national captured in Afghanistan in November 2001 after the fall of the Taliban; he was interrogated by American and Egyptian forces. The information he gave under torture to Egyptian authorities was cited by the George W. Bush Administration in the months preceding its 2003 invasion of Iraq as evidence of a connection between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. That information was frequently repeated by members of the Bush Administration, although reports from both the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) strongly questioned its credibility, suggesting that al-Libi was "intentionally misleading" interrogators.
Riduan Isamuddin also transliterated as Riduan Isamudin, Riduan Isomuddin, and Riduan Isomudin, better known by the nom de guerreHambali, born as Encep Nurjaman is the former military leader of the Indonesian terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which is linked with al-Qaeda. He is now in American custody in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. He is currently awaiting trial in a military commission.
Mohamedou Ould Slahi is a Mauritanian citizen who was detained at Guantánamo Bay detention camp without charge from 2002 until his release on October 17, 2016.
Ammar Al-Baluchi is a Pakistani citizen in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Charges against him include "facilitating the 9/11 attackers, acting as a courier for Osama bin Laden and plotting to crash a plane packed with explosives into the U.S. consulate in Karachi."
Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi is a Saudi Arabian citizen. He is alleged to have acted as a key financial facilitator for the September 11 attacks in the United States.
Omar Amer Deghayes is a Libyan citizen who had legal residency status with surviving members of his family in the United Kingdom since childhood. He was arrested in Pakistan in 2002. He was held by the United States as an enemy combatant at Guantanamo Bay detention camp from 2002 until December 18, 2007. He was released without charges and returned to Britain, where he lives. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 727. Deghayes says he was blinded permanently in one eye, after a guard at Guantanamo gouged his eyes with his fingers. Deghayes was never charged with any crime at Guantanamo.
Extrajudicial prisoners of the United States, in the context of the early twenty-first century War on Terrorism, refers to foreign nationals the United States detains outside of the legal process required within United States legal jurisdiction. In this context, the U.S. government is maintaining torture centers, called black sites, operated by both known and secret intelligence agencies. Such black sites were later confirmed by reports from journalists, investigations, and from men who had been imprisoned and tortured there, and later released after being tortured until the CIA was comfortable they had done nothing wrong, and had nothing to hide.
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo, on the coast of Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. Of the roughly 780 people detained there since January 2002 when the military prison first opened after the September 11 attacks, 735 have been transferred elsewhere, 36 remain there, and 9 have died while in custody.
Khalid Ahmed Qasim is a Yemeni citizen who has been held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, since May 2002.
Mourad Benchellali is a French citizen, who was captured by Pakistanis forces and detained in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 161.
Jabir Jubran Al Fayfi is a citizen of Saudi Arabia who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantánamo Bay detention camp, in Cuba on allegations he trained and fought with al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001.
Mohamed Atiq Awayd Al Harbi is a citizen of Saudi Arabia formerly held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internee Security Number was 333. The US Department of Defense reports that he was born on July 13, 1973, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Yussef Mohammed Mubarak al-Shihri (1985–2009) was a citizen of Saudi Arabia who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. He was born on September 8, 1985, in Riyadh Saudi Arabia.
A Syrian-Kurd, Abd Al-Rahim Abdul Rassak al-Janko is a former student in the United Arab Emirates who traveled to Afghanistan in 2000, where he was captured by the Taliban who announced that he had confessed to plotting to murder Osama bin Laden, as well as spying against the Taliban on behalf of Israel and the United States. He was also denounced for "his sexual indiscretions with other young men" and accused of homosexuality. Following the Invasion of Afghanistan, al-Janko begged a British journalist to alert the Americans that he had been held prisoner by the Taliban for two years; however, he was taken from the Taliban prison by American forces, and sent to the Guantanamo Bay detention camps where he spent seven years in detention.
Tariq Mahmud Ahmad Muhammad al Sawah is a citizen of Egypt who was held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba, from May 2002 to January 2016.
Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza al-Darbi is a citizen of Saudi Arabia who was held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba from August 2002 to May 2018; in May 2018, he was transferred to Saudi Arabia's custody. He was the only detainee held at Guantanamo released during President Donald Trump's administration.
Majid Shoukat Khan is a Pakistani detainee who is the only known legal resident of the United States held in the Guantanamo Bay Detainment Camp. He was detained after returning to his native Pakistan to visit his wife and was captured by Pakistani authorities, who handed him over to the CIA. In 2012, Khan pled guilty to conspiracy and the murder of 11 innocent civilians in the 2003 Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta, Indonesia, and for the attempted assassination of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.
Rafiq Bin Bashir Bin Jalud al Hami is a citizen of Tunisia, who was formerly held for over seven years without charge or trial in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 892. The Department of Defense reports that he was born on 14 March 1969, in Tunisia.
The College of Islamic and Arabic Studies in Afghanistan was an organization where American intelligence analysts asserted was tied to al Qaeda. They reported that Mahfouz Ould al-Walid, better known as "Abu Hafs al-Mauritani", the director of the institution, was a senior member of al Qaeda's leadership circle. When analysts went over the grounds of the institute they found what they characterized as "martyrship videos". Guantanamo captive Abd Al Rahim Abdul Rassak Janko testified that the recording of him was not a martyrship video at all, but rather a confession. He acknowledged that he had travelled to Afghanistan, in 2000, to offer his services to the Taliban, but he had inadvertently triggered the suspicion he was an Israeli or American spy. He asserted that the Taliban turned him over to the Taliban to torture a confession out of him, and that the recording was the confession that followed his torture. He asserted he was interrogated and tortured at the institute for two weeks.