Rahim al-Nashiri

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri ( عبد الرحيم النشيري ) is one of the aliases of the Saudi al-Qaeda member Abdul-Rahim Hussein Muhammad 'Abdu (عبد الرحيم حسين محمد عبده). Other aliases include Mullah Bilal, Mohammed Omar al-Harazi, and Abdul Rahman Hussein al-Nashari. He is alleged to be the mastermind of the USS Cole bombing and other terrorist attacks, who headed al-Qaeda operations in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf states prior to his capture in November of 2002.

On February 6, 2008, the CIA director General Michael Hayden confirmed that the CIA had used waterboarding on al-Nashiri, along with two other prisoners, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Abu Zubayda.

Background

Born in Saudi Arabia, al-Nashiri travelled to Afghanistan to participate in attacks against the Russians in the region. In 1996 he travelled to Tajikistan and then Jalalabad, where he first met Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden attempted to convince al-Nashiri to join al-Qaeda at this point, but he refused because he found the idea of swearing a loyalty oath to bin Laden to be distasteful. Still, after al-Nashiri travelled to Yemen, he began to consider committing terrorist actions against United States interests.

When he returned to Afghanistan in 1997, he again met bin Laden, but again declined to join in the terrorist group. Instead, he fought with the Taliban against the Afghan Northern Alliance. Still, he assisted in the smuggling of four anti-tank missiles into Saudi Arabia, and helped arrange for a terrorist to get a Yemeni passport. His cousin, Jihad Mohammad Ali al-Makki, was one of the suicide bombers in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya.

Joined al-Qaeda

Finally, probably in 1998, al-Nashiri joined al-Qaeda, reporting directly to bin Laden. In late 1998, he conceived of a plot to attack a U.S. vessel using a boat full of explosives. Bin Laden personally approved of the plan, and provided money for it. First, al-Nashiri attempted to attack the USS The Sullivans as a part of the 2000 millennium attack plots, but the boat he used was overloaded with explosives and began to sink.

The next attempt, however, the USS Cole bombing, was successful. 17 U.S. sailors were killed, and many more were injured. This success brought him fame and respect within al-Qaeda, and al-Nashiri became the chief of operations for the Arabian Peninsula. He organized the Limburg tanker bombing in 2002, and he may have planned other attacks as well.

Arrest

In November 2002, al-Nashiri was captured in the United Arab Emirates. He is currently in American military custody in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, having previously been held at some secret location. On September 29, 2004, he was sentenced to death in absentia in a Yemeni court for his role in the USS Cole bombing.

The U.S. military put al-Rahim al-Nashiri in prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Pentagon said March 14 2008. He was held by the CIA for an undisclosed amount of time.

That he had been a bomb-maker.
That he traveled on a forged passport.
That he arranged to have a small boat rented just prior to the USS Cole bombing.

The full verbatim transcript from his Tribunal ended up bin thirty-six pages long, after extensive redactions were made from the portions when he responded to questions about his claims that his confessions were the result of torture.

Claims of torture

Abd al-Rahim attributed his confessions of involvement in the USS Cole bombing to torture. All the details Abd al-Rahim offered of his claims of torture were redacted from his transcript.

In his opening statement, al-Nashiri listed seven false confessions he had been induced to make while under torture.