The Specter
All images by the author.
His picture hung above the egress onto the tarmac of the single runway bush strip in Anjuan, Comoros. It was a photo of one of the most wanted men in the world along with a litany of horrible acts in Comorian French he was accused of. A young, handsome man whose eyes could have belonged to a scholar. Or, a poet. But instead, belonged to an individual who committed a horrific act of mass murder, in the name of one of the world’s great religions. I stood there. And looked into the eyes. Dark in the grainy black and white portrait photo, perhaps from one of his several passports, that made his pupils indistinguishable. A globally hunted man who had slain hundreds, and disappeared into the miasma of African Islam and all of the blood that has flowed from it. I showed no emotion nor recognition, even though I was aware of his crimes against humanity. That was not why I was there at the time. There were other dragons to be slain.
Above: A back street in Mutsamudo, Anjuan above the port.
The small, little known three island archipelago of Comoros lies within the deep, near pitch dark blue waters of the Mozambique channel, nestled in between Mozambique and the massive island of Madagascar. They are considered an extended territory of the continent of Africa and, within that storied realm, they are among the poorest of that same region. They produce little except spices such as vanilla, as well as the numerous economic offshoots of the traditional coconut palm. The fruit. The husk. The shell, as well as the frond that along with the oil has housed, fed and employed countless over millennia in tropical regions. The mountainous islands themselves erupt, spectacularly, as mist shrouded volcanic peaks springing from the immense depths surrounding them that would be fertile fishing grounds for trophy marlin and other billfish, but the lack of first world amenities and infrastructure would cast a pall over this possibility, as those willing to spend such monies would not care for the rolling blackouts of such basic needs as electricity and reliable internet connectivity. Hot water to bathe in. And, cold beer to drink after a day of dragging lures and swapping stories. The Comoro people are kind. And simple. They are quick with a smile, and they are quick to help, without expectation of reward. They live day to day. Because they truly do not know what tomorrow may bring. Life here, like in much of Africa, is a struggle. There are myriad ways one can meet his end here, be they a tribal local or a white interloper like myself. Tribalism and genocide as elevated to a modern, Biblical level as was seen in Rwanda. Or, a little known but nonetheless impactful death at the hands of a military officer who may take umbrage to their protestations at the port city of Mutsamudu on the island of Anjouan, who would then draw his pistol and send a bullet through their heart, in front of dozens, to die in the hot Comoron heat of equatorial Africa.
It was into this crucible that Fazul Abdullah Mohammed was born. The Comoros is a nation like those in much of East Africa that is almost completely composed of followers of the Muslim faith. The gospel, as well as the sword of the Prophet Muhammad has influenced the populace here and, as such, they live and die by the credos and machinations of the same. They pray. They pay tithe or, “Zakat” in Arabic, as followed by the other major world religions. The Islam that has been preached and taught in the Comoros for centuries is of a very tolerant, accepting vein. They are welcoming of strangers. Of all faiths. This analyst has sat and listened to the sermons of well known and influential Imams in mosques of that archipelago, and I can speak to the voracity of this fact. However, there has been a looming, darker influence on this simple, peaceful nation. The shadowy specter of Wahhabist teachings as put forth by the massive financing and influence of al Saud, and the intolerant, often violent form of Islam that is practiced and spread throughout the world by Saudi Arabia. It was into this web that Fazul Abdullah Mohammed would become entwined within. And the fallout of this would ripple throughout the civilized world as the remains of over two hundred bodies would be pulled from the rubble of the US embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya on August 7, 1998.
Above: Comoran Imam teaching young Muslims. His was a message of a peaceful and tolerant Islam. Note that here young boys and girls learn and pray together, unlike most of the Muslim world.
The history of the Arabian Peninsula is one of warfare and conquest. Once a landscape dotted with powerful and warring tribes headed by family lineages, or “houses”, it became solidified and lorded over after one house, the House of Saud, joined forces with the fervent warrior religionists of the Wahhabis. Following the strict teachings of, and archaic moral codes of 18th. C. Islamic religious figure ibn Abd al-Wahhab, they were by far the most potent fighting force on the peninsula. Together, they became the de-facto rulers of what was to become Saudi Arabia. It was inevitable. The House of Saud would handle the issues of governing and geopolitical relations. And the powerful Wahhabists would oversee all religious matters in the Kingdom. Sharia became the only law followed, and punishments meted out would be of the harshest kind. Over the ensuing decades a powerful, albeit discreet, power play would occasionally surface when the most fervent and fundamentalist followers of the “Ikwhan” (The early, nomadic warriors of the Wahhabis who joined with the House of Saud) Would dare to rise against the ruling house when they perceived them to be violating their concept of Sharia, or not acting accordingly as the keepers of the two holiest places in all of Islam, Mecca and Medina should. To this day, this radical element within the Kingdom, as well as within the House of Saud itself, has had a far reaching ripple effect throughout the world. One of the primary goals of the Ikwhan, arguably its most fervent goal, is the spreading of this intolerant form of Islam to the far corners of the globe. It is massively funded and spread via the building of mosques by not only the religious rulers of the Kingdom, but by the royal family as well. And with these mosques, came the imams of the most fervent kind. Preaching only the unbending and inviolable Wahhbist form of Islam.
Above: The author in the Empty Quarter, Saudi Arabia.
Fazul Abdullah Mohammed was born in Moroni, Comoros, although the exact date of his birth is not known in American intelligence circles. It is generally believed that it was sometime between 1972 and 1975. The reason for this is his numerous pseudonyms and falsified documents have left a broken trail of subterfuge and aliases, as his cache grew from homegrown Islamic terrorist, to al Qaeda leader with a five million US Dollar bounty on his head, to morphing along with his geographic location in Somalia to a leadership position in Al Shabaab. His beginning, however, was much less of note. As a young man, he began his descent into darkness at a Saudi funded Madrassa in Maroni. He showed great promise with his piety and his dedication to his Quranic studies, and was offered a scholarship to further his studies in another Wahhabi Madrassa in Pakistan. It was here, day after day, that his normal school day was composed of not learning the skills that would be of benefit in the modern world, but instead spent countless hours bowing and memorizing the Quran. Hour after hour. Day after day. Month after month. It was here that he was taught to not only distrust all those that are “haram”, or against the tenets of the Muslim faith, but all those who do so are less than human. They are to be conquered, converted and, if they do not, they are to be exterminated.
Full with the fervor of the “Mujahid”, he left for the fertile fighting grounds of Afghanistan. He trained and studied under the tutelage of al Qaeda, although there is no known record of his actually meeting with Osama bin Laden. There he spent time training in the acts of terrorism as well as the use of light, shoulder fired weaponry such as RPGs, and ManPads, and advanced explosives training, references of which would be discovered after the acquisition of a letter written to his brother Omar back in Comoros. Excerpts of which are as follows:
“ I give you these people. And me, know that the path I sent you on is the right path, not the wrong one. And those people, be wary of them because they are neither close to you nor your brothers of the same religion as you, but they claim to be Muslims when in the bottom of their hearts they hide Satanism and infidelity. And me, when I have come back to Comoros, I will have killed them, they are destroying religion.”
“If they ask you if Abdallah is studying (Referring to himself) tell them that he is studying in Karachi. Because it is totally normal in the face of God to lie. If the lie is to the benefit of Muslims ........I want to inform you I spent two months in military bases. I learned how to use armoured cars and heavy weapons. Russian - not American.....I became a member of their group.”
“I learned the use of heavy weapons (bazookas) for use on planes and with smaller weapons for urban warfare. I spent another two months on explosives. (How to blow up buildings, houses, palaces and etc.)......I learned how to plan terrorist acts....do not tell anyone about all of this. Goodbye and you have God’s blessings.” It would not be long until the fervent follower of radical Islam would put these particular skills to use.
With the planning of mastermind Fazul Abdullah Mohemmed, two vehicles were purchased, one in both Nairobi and Dar es Salaam by co-conspirator Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, a light brown Toyota Dyna and a white Nissan Atlas. In homes bought with al Qaeda cash, the massive bombs used in the embassy bombings were constructed. The Nairobi device was composed of aluminum powder, and several hundred cylinders of TNT, all intertwined with Det.Cord. The Dar es Salaam bomb was of different components, although no less powerful. It was also of ammonium nitrate construction (A “fertilizer” bomb) But with added components of large cylinders of 02 and fuel oil as blast wave multipliers. Both devices weighed roughly one ton. At between approximately 1030 and 1040 Hours (Local time) The two devices detonated in front of both US embassies. After a brief exchange of gunfire between Kenyan security forces and the drivers of the Nairobi truck, its blast killed 213 people. The Dar es Salaam blast was far less lethal, killing a mere 11 innocents. While the attack was focused on the American footprint in East Africa, as is often the case the vast majority of the deaths were of local Africans, virtually all fellow Muslims. The American deaths included two CIA officers, Molly Hardy and Thomas Shaw, as well as United States Marine Jesse Aliganga.
After the attack, the Comorian Islamic terrorist Fazul Abdullah Muhammed disappeared into the badlands of the growing number of East African terror groups and actions. He was declared by al Qaeda to be their top commander in East Africa, a well as a senior position in Somalia’s Islamic terror group of note, al Shabaab.
Goat herder. Downtown Mombasa, Kenya.
After the two spectacular attacks on the embassies, during an FBI raid on a co-conspirator’s home in Nairobi, Kenya, an email letter was discovered on a laptop that was written by Fazul. In it, numerous references were made indicating an extended network of al Qaeda and al Shabaab terror cells throughout Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Somalia. It was the contents of this letter that made American intelligence officials aware of the magnitude of the East African Islamic terror network. The lengthy letter spoke of the breadth and width of the operational scope as well as the reach of these groups, and the severe threat they posed to America’s interests in the region, as well as the incalculable potential loss of innocent life.
EPILOGUE
The car was traveling along a road to the Northwest of Mogadishu. The driver, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, was carrying a South African passport and a handgun. There were two other occupants. One in the passenger seat and one behind in the back seat. The man in the passenger side was Kenyan Islamic terrorist and al Shabaab fundraiser Musa Hussein. It was stopped at a roadblock nearing midnight on June 7, 2011 by Somali military forces. The C.O. ordered the driver to switch on the interior light of the car. After flicking the light quickly on and off, one of the occupants of the car opened fire on the soldiers manning the checkpoint. It is not known who in the car fired the first shot. The soldiers riddled the car with automatic gunfire, the muzzle flashes illuminating the pitch darkness punctuating it with the deafening roar of their HK G3s. After the engagement, in the early light of an East African dawn, the body of Comoron Islamic terrorist Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, born Haroun Fazul in Moroni, Comoros, lay dead. There were tens of thousands of US dollars in cash along with medicines and several laptop computers. The unknown third occupant of the vehicle had somehow escaped the melee during the firefight, and ran into the ink black Somali night. He was never found.