– NOMAN BENOTMAN

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* Noman Benotmanwas born in Libya in 1967, He first adopted radical Islamism in the mid-1980s’ after reading the books of Sayyid Qutb. In 1989 he travelled to Afghanistan where he fought against the Soviet Union, taking part in battles around Khost, Gardez and elsewhere. After the Soviet withdrawal, he helped set up the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group – LIFG as the financier of the group, which aimed to violently overthrow Colonel Gaddafi and establish an ‘Islamic state’ in Libya. In 1994, he moved to Sudan where he forged close links with Osama Bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and other key members of Al Qaeda. Since Noman Benotmanhas lived in London where he was initially part of the ‘Londonstan’ scene alongside other senior extremists such as Abu Qatada and Mustafa Setmarian, known also as Abu Musab al-Suri, before gradually distancing himself from Islamism.

 LIFG claimed responsibility for a failed assassination attempt against Qadhafi in 02/1996, which was in part funded by the British MI6. It is probably the reason why Noman  Benotmanwas allowed to stay in UK. 

During the last few years, he has played a key role in the disbanding of the LIFG and the issuing of its ‘refutations’. He is also well known as one of the most public critics of Al Qaeda, appearing widely on international media such as CNN and the Arabic TV channel Al-Jazeera as well as taking part in a range of international conferences. He has a degree in Human Development Studies from Birkbeck University and speaks English and Arabic.

Noman  Benotmanhas been appointed, in late 2007, as Senior Analyst (Strategic Communications) at Quilliam group, headed by Maajid Nawaz, a British Government funded “counter-extremism” think tank, based in London by former activists from radical Islamist organizations (see – Reza Pankhurst ).

Noman  Benotmanis leading Quilliam’s work on de-radicalisation processes in the UK and abroad, working to raise international awareness of Jihadist recantations, co-ordinating Quilliam’s outreach to current and former extremists and using Quilliam as a platform from which to share his inside knowledge of Al Qaeda and other Jihadist groups with a wider audience.

Referring to the All-Europe Plot of 10/2010, the German Spigel on-line quoted Noman  Benotman, on Friday 10/29/2010, as saying  “I have information that I consider to be reliable, according to which Al Qaeda in FATA, Waziristan is training how to carry out multiple parallel hostage takings in order to enforce the release of a prisoner”.  Noman  Benotmanclaimed Al Qaeda is determined to force the realize of Khalid Shaik Mohammed The 9/11 mastermind.

Noman  Benotman referred to an audio message from Bin Laden in June 2010 (the audio was actually aired on 03/25/2010 – see – Laden 03.25.10 ), in which he had warned the USA that Al Qaeda would kill American prisoners if the US executed Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

 

 

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