– WALID KHAN & ASSOCIATES

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* Walid Khan, a Saudi citizen, went to northern Iraq, close to the Iranian border, in order to train and fight alongside Ansar Al Sunna, an offshoot of Ansar al Islam, and an Al Qaeda-linked insurgency group. The group was manned by followers of Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi and Biat al-Imam. Walid Khan turned himself in to the Saudi authorities during the 2004-Leniency.

Walid Khan appeared on a TV program, on 11/29/2005, “Experiences in the Name of Jihad,” which was aired on Saudi Channel 1, Al-Majd, and Al-Arabiya. The programs were sponsored by the Interior Ministry as part of its media campaign to fight extremism and terrorism. The program was followed by a live discussion involving Saudi academics, writers and religious authorities. Viewers were also encouraged to phone in. The debate focused on why the young men were drawn to extremism. 

In their confessions, Walid Khan and two other former Al Qaeda militants who turned themselves in to the Saudi authorities during the 2004-Leniency, Ziyad Ibrahim and Abdullah Khoja, spoke about their recruitment, training and military experience in Afghanistan and Iraq. They told how radical preachers had won them over (see – Saudi-repents). 

Ziyad Ibrahim said in the TV interview “It all revolved around Jewish and Christian conspiracies in Muslim lands, at the forefront of which of course was our main cause – the Palestinians.”

Abdullah Khoja, a Saudi citizen who was working in Taif, talked about his strong desire to go to Afghanistan or to any region where there is fighting for the sake of Allah.  He was, eventually, recruited to Al Qaeda in Afghanistan by a certain Taher Khan, who came to Saudi Arabia, probably in order to recruit volunteers, and was described in the Saudi television as the Emir of the Uzbek Mujahideen in Afghanistan.  

In Afghanistan Abdullah Khoja was trained in Al Qaeda’s Khalden training camp.  According to his confession he went through trainings with Arabs and non-Arabs, Daghestanis, French, British, German, American, all Muslim Mujahideen. The context of his description referred to the late 90s’.

 

* Related topics – 

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06/2004 -MONTH OF TERROR IN SAUDI ARABIA 

PROFILE -AL-FARRAJ & AL-RASHOUD 

PROFILE -AHMAD IBN ABDULLAH  AL-SHAYIE  

 

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