East Africa: The story of an Al Qaeda Bomber

March 2002 - 25’10”

Bombing archive (after the event )

VO
August 7 1998. Two bombs go off simultaneously at the US embassies in Nairobi Kenya… and Dar Es Salaam Tanzania. 224 people are killed… thousands more injured...

Cape Town… a little over a year later.  Khalfan Khamis Mohammed... or KKM as he is known to the American FBI...  is arrested at Home Affairs. He is trying to renew his permit for political asylum. This arrest is the climax of an international FBI operation… so intriguing that it resembles the plot of a Tarantino movie.  

But who is Khalfan Khamis Mohammed?

This is the story of one man’s journey… from the idyllic setting of rural Zanzibar to life imprisonment in a high security prison in New York City. It highlights a vital question that has affected all of our lives in the shadow of the September 11 attacks on America: what is it that turns young boys into bombers?

Khalfan was born in Pemba… one of the two islands that make up Zanzibar. The youngest boy in a large and poor family, Khalfan has a twin sister Fatooma.


HIDAYA RUBEA JUMA – KHALFAN’S MOTHER:
I had a lot of complications when giving birth to to Khalfan . His twin Fatooma was born first at night. Khalfan was not born until the following morning. It was raining that day.  We lived deep in the rural areas… so my younger sister had to telephone  for help to take me to the hospital.

Khalfan was just an ordinary child who went to school. After school he performed the normal domestic chores, and liked playing football like all youth . He didn't indulge in any anti-social behavior.

VO

Zanzibar is an archipelago of two small islands just off the East Coast of Tanzania. Swirling around these islands are trade winds and currents… a unique combination that brings in a great diversity of fish…

More important than the fish, These trade winds also once brought in waves of colonial powers. This placed the island at the crossroads of history… subject to and shaped by the competing demands of imperial powers…  

These days the country is torn between the rival forces of Islamic fundamentalism and United States interventionism…

But in 1973, when Khalfan was born, the dominant power in this part of the world was the Soviet Union.

When Khalfan was still small, the family moved to Kidimni Village. Here he attended school and took part in everyday Muslim activities. People say he was smart at school – like his sister Zahoora. In looks, he closely resembled his brother Rubea.



In 1990 … there were heavy financial strains on the family. Khalfan was forced to leave school. He moved to Dar es Salaam where he started working at this shop… in downtown Moshi street…  


MSIBA NYAMGUNDA -  Khalfan’s Landlady UPS:
Khalfan was a very religious person  He didn't have too many friends.... In fact most of his friends were fellow worshippers. He spent a lot of time inside the house.
I was surprised when I heard that he was involved, because I didn't expect him to be involved with killing people. We were really surprised.  
Frankly I feel disappointed. He isn't as good a person as I thought he was if he really took part in such a thing.
 

VO
During this time Khalfan lived with his brother and sister-in-law.

They stayed in this room.

He stayed in this tiny room behind the shop.


His sister-in-law Rachma now stays in a bigger house with her three children. Her husband is away in London… working to support them. Like many boys of his age, her youngest son is called Osama.  

Rachman Ahmed - Sister in law UPS
I first heard about the bomb attack over the radio while I was cooking in the kitchen. When it happened I thought this is the beginning of a war.
I wondered why is it that of all countries of the world it is only America that is frequently attacked ?


I lived in the same house with Khalifan. So I knew him well.
He was not quarrelsome. He was a law abiding person.
I don't believe he was involved in the bombings because he didn't have the wherewithall to do such a thing. Khalifan only attended school until standard nine.

I love Khalfan, like my elder brother
He was always here for me
Khalifan had a good rapport with people. He made visitors feel at home. Our visitors had a good impression of him.

VO
During this time Khalfan spent a lot of time at the mosque. It was here that he was radicalised and learnt about the oppression of Muslims in many parts of the world.  Here too he was spotted by some of the men who would later play a role in the bombing of the US embassy.

By 1984 he had begun to despair at his own life. Fired by idealism about Islam, he paid his own way to Afghanistan, with money he earned at his brother’s grocery store. There he received Jihad or “holy war” training in Bin Ladin’s camps. His goal was to become a soldier for Allah… fighting against those he felt were attacking Muslims.
 
He trained for 10 months. Then when others were selected for missions or additional training, Khalfan was sent home. He was informed he could not yet go and fight for his Muslim brothers and sisters… and was told to leave a telephone number where he could be contacted.
 
Extremely disappointed, he returned to Dar Es Salaam… to a lowly job in this café. Here he waited for the phone to ring.


UPS Robert Manumba – Deputy Police Commissioner
Being trained in Afghanistan, he was one of them so he could receive orders just like the others from their bosses.


Finally 4 years later, he received his orders. In the cell he was the only one who could speak Swahili… Tanzania’s main language. Khalfan’s job was to facilitate operations for the rest of the team. He also helped build the bomb… and later loaded it into the truck. He wasn’t expected to drive it to the target.  That the suicide bomber did alone.

JUSTINA MDOBILU Political Assistant to US on the bombing

As I was facing the window all of a sudden for about split second I saw something like lightening. It was just for a split second and then all of a sudden…boom.

I still wasn’t sure actually what it was because I was expecting outside the embassy also to be chaos but when I peeked over the walls I saw hundreds of people looking at the embassy so I knew then that outside things are okay.  The problem is just here in the embassy.

For me, I would have thought the American Embassy would be the safest place on earth but now I come to discover that there are no safe places on earth, sincerely speaking. There are no safe places

During the cold war Tanzania was much closer to the Soviet Union than to America… but the embassy bombing changed all that.

Much like their US counterparts, many Tanzanians felt personally threatened by growing Islamic extremism. In the embassy bombing, all of those killed had been Tanzanians. Because of this the police were only too happy to get all the help they could.

UPS Manumba  on co-operation between them and the CID

There was no question of who is using who. We were all hit, therefore we had to work together.

In this new climate, Madeline Albright, the then US Secretary of State, visited the destroyed Embassy.

UPS MANUMBA:  
The interpretation that was put by Albright was very much correct. That was not religion that was not politics that was just a crime – murder - pure and simple.

At the time, the joint effort by the Tanzanians and the Americans produced some tangible results.

Computers and air-conditioning were installed in the once run-down police offices. When the FBI moved into the building they brought with them a shiny new lift. And in future all Tanzanians police detectives would be sent to the US for training.


UPS Rubea Mohammed, Brother
Hardship and poverty has driven some Tanzanians to be submissive to the Americans. They are paid to serve them and only a handful benefit.

Zahora UPS :
Yes that’s right the co-operation only serves narrow interests. Exactly

UPS Ali Issa :
America is only saying it has its own interest it will just fight for its own interest always.  Like the Israeli’s , eh, We have no permanent friendship and no permanent enemies only permanent interest.

In the aftermath of the bombing these interests coincided with those of the Tanzanians. It was a collaboration that was to prove successful.

The local CID worked closely with the FBI… and soon made a break through in the investigation. They managed to identify the chassis number of one of the cars used by the bombers.
 
Through meticulous forensics they traced the vehicle back to a dealer. He had sold it to Khalfan. Unlike the other bombers, Khalfan had naively used his real name. Not only to buy the car… but also to hire this house… which is where the trail finally led. It was here that the cell members lived while building the bombs. They had chosen it especially… because the high walls made it more private.

Robert Manumba interview
This is the sitting room it was found after they had left with only rugs, carpet and curtains, red curtains.  It seems like they were not using chairs the bomb was manufactured in the sitting room.

House of bomb making  (and interview )
The current landlord was afraid to be identified. But he did describe what happened on the day the FBI came…

UPS LANDLORD:
The way it happened, it was just like in the movies. They painted the house with a black substance -  he’s not sure if it’s paint or charcoal dust.They ran through all these walls with this machine which was producing some negatives and amazingly these negatives were coming out with shadows, of people - not pictures but shadows of those guys who were staying here.

VO
Several days before the bombing the other members of the cell left the country. Khalfan stayed behind, he was given a mere $1000. His job was to remain with the suicide bomber until he set off on his mission. Then, before leaving himself, Khalfin was supposed to clean the house. And get rid of any incriminating evidence.
 
During the police investigation, the FBI found a grinder at Khalfan’s sister’s house. It was the one that had been used to crush TNT for the bomb.  Instead of disposing of it as he was told to do, Khalfan had given it his sister… with careful instructions that it was to be thoroughly cleaned before use. To him there was no point letting a good grinder go to waste.

Deeply distrustful of America… Rubea remains skeptical of how involved his brother really was. He insist that – even if he was involved – it was because of his commitment to Islam.

UPS brother:
In my opinion , if Khalfan was really involved in the bombings, it was because he was convinced that his fellow Muslims were under attack. He identified with these oppressed people and then joined up with people who share similar views and together they did these things.

VO
This deep distrust of America is not surprising. Once the FBI had established Khalfan’s involvement in the bombing, members of his family were repeatedly arrested and interrogated.

UPS ZUHURA MOHAMMED - SISTER:
I was under constant FBI surveillance. They constantly invade my privacy and claim to be carrying out searches. Our unhappiness is made worse by the frequent arrest of different family members who are taken into detention but never even charged in a court of law.  We have no peace.

UPS MOTHER:
Frankly when I heard of the bombings over the radio I didn’t think Khalfan could have anything to do with it but after a week things changed. That’s when Rubea was arrested and taken away from his family. His wife.. my daughter in law over here..  came to report to me about Rubea’s arrest while I was cultivating  my land. I stopped digging and sat down while she explained the whole incident to me. It is still unclear to me why he was arrested.

UPS RUBEA: I wasn’t afraid but what I objected to was the manner in which they interrogated me.



VO
The day after the bombing, Khalfan took the $1000 he had been given… and boarded a bus for Cape Town. Here he checked into a hotel for a few days. The name he’d given himself on his new passport was Nassar. Using this name he soon found a job… as a chef at a fast food restaurant in Athlone on the Cape Flats.
IV ABIN DALVIE - boss

I just opened the door and because I had a Pakistani chef and an Indian chef I thought I’ll add to the flavour and get a Tanzanian as well. And then I interviewed him and asked him to start the next day.  And nine months later I asked him to move in with us.

This restaurant has since closed down. Today Abin Dalvie runs a sweet factory nearby...

IV ABIN DALVIE
There was nothing funny about some people coming here who don’t look right.  There was nothing, absolutely nothing, to say that he was connected to some particular group or party or people.

UPS Shina Dalvie - friend
Everything about him was religion he would walk home from work and as soon as he would get home, he would have his bath and start praying.

This is the mosque that Khalfan frequented. It’s directly across the road from their house.

UPS AHMED MUKADAM – Mulla

I guess he was one of our congregation at the Mosque. The Mosque in Islam is such that people frequent it five times a day but more especially on a Friday. On those days he would be there regularly and he would compliment me on my little talks especially those that had got to do with lifting up the downtrodden, lifting up the poor, helping them and that he was very devout even in his daily prayers he would go beyond the call of duty in his worship of Allah, God, at night it’s a voluntary prayer but he would get up and night and he would supplicate and invoke Allah and he would pray and to us… and in fact to any Muslim that is a mark of a committed, sincere believer.
 
It was pure luck that the FBI managed to trace Khalfan to Cape Town. An agent was going through files at Home Affairs when he spotted Khalfan’s photograph in a pile of asylum applications. They set a trap.  Unsuspecting, Khalfan returned to Home Affairs. The FBI and their South African colleagues were waiting.
 

On the day Khalfan was arrested Abin got a call telling him to hurry home.


UPS - Abin Dalvie - boss
And when I got here, I found like 10, 12 home office people who were in black clothing and they came in and said look we are in connection with Nasser and we would like to have a look at his room I personally think it was like movies you know everybody around, what’s happening you know, guy with a camera taking photos and I found it very strange, you know, why so many people? This is where Nasser stayed. That same day it was splashed in the papers.

UPS Shina Dalvie – friend
I think it must be his passport photo. It’s a black and white photo that was enlarged and that was splashed on the front page of the Argos and when I saw this picture I said ‘no that is not him’ and you try to cover the face and beard and everything and  check the eye part to make sure that this is him and I still thought in the back of my mind that if he appear and  that everything they say is not true and that we’ll get to see him again but of course it didn’t happen that way.

Khalfin was arrested by South African officials for being in the country illegally. He was then handed over to the  FBI. For several weeks a plane – with an accompanying doctor - had been on standby at Cape Town International Airport.

Khalfan’s arrest and subsequent extradition to the US plunged South Africa into controversy. Our constitution makes it illegal to transfer someone to a country where he may face the death penalty. The Americans were well aware of this. But in their determination to crack down on international terrorism they ran roughshod over South Africa’s supreme law.   

Khalfan had been arrested for being in the country illegally. It was a perfect excuse. The extradition was disguised as a deportation... and he was quickly flown to America ….

 
Supreme Court footage Chaskalson UPS  
The handing over of Mohammad to US agents was according unlawful.

 
This was the finding of the constitutional court… where the case finally landed up. It was too late for Khalfan but it set a precedent for the future.

UPS – Jerome Ramages - Lawyers
That kind of value where you can just walk over another country’s sovereignty cannot be permitted and this judgement says that. Its says that you can’t come and impress your laws and your ways of doing things on South Africa. You don’t just come and take people out of the country.

UPS RAHMA AHMED - Sister-in-law praying
Why did the South African government hurriedly hand Khalifan over to the Americans? Why ? When South Africa had the right and power to hold him in custody? The South African government has demonstrated that they are subservient to the powerful nations.


VO
Unlike South Africa, Tanzania is largely a Muslim country… with extremism on the increase. The FBI’s style of operating may have resulted in the arrest of those involved in the grim events of 1998... but it’s questionable whether it’ll prevent boys like Khalfan from becoming bombers in the future...

UPS Masaudi SAID – Muslim Student leader Tanzania
The problem is people, especially in the regime in America, are giving easy answers to difficult questions and they are trying to ignore any questions.  They don’t want to know why have be attacked, they are only interested in who attacked them.  Let me tell you this, If I turn against America for what it’s doing for destroying Islam, I’ll do it.
 
UPS Shekh RASHID SHEIF
Sometimes symptoms are there and everybody can see. But not until people are killed.

Soon after September 11, Khalfan’s court case came to an end… at the Federal Court House in New York City… in the shadow of what once was the World Trade Centre. He was sentenced to life in prison. Some of the jurors said they didn’t want to make him a martyr by imposing the death sentence.

Back in Zanzibar, his mother has just received a letter from Khalfan.  She reluctantly agrees to share it with us.

Letter from Khalfan read aloud:
My lovely mother, I thank and am very grateful for your advice to be very polite when I am in jail and I promise you that I will follow your advice all the time. I’m asking your forgiveness for any mistakes that you might see that I wrong for you and my goal is to build and not to break.

In a tropical paradise like Zanzibar… the palm trees normally grow towards the light. But sometimes because of an accident or injury the tree twists and grows away from the sun. Perhaps Khalfan is a little like that.


UPS SISTER  
Every person has their own conviction, but I would never be able to do something like that. I’d don’t have the material means .. the knowledge.. besides killing people is something I cannot think about, let alone do.

End