Life
Believed to have been tied to al-Qaeda since its 1994 roots in the Sudan, al-Liby had lived in the United Kingdom, where he was granted political asylum. In 1999, al-Liby was arrested by Scotland Yard and interrogated. However, he was released because he had cleared his hard drive and no evidence could be found to hold him. He evaded a team that was sent to follow him and hasn't been seen since.
He speaks Arabic and English. Because he is tall and bore a passing resemblance to Osama bin Laden, he was often used as a decoy when Bin Laden traveled.
In January 2002, news reports stated that al-Liby had been captured by American forces in Afghanistan. Following this, in March 2002 news reports stated that al-Liby had been arrested by the Sudanese government and was being held in a prison in Khartoum. However U.S. officials soon denied those reports and al-Liby is still being sought.
Al-Liby has been on the USA's list of Most Wanted Terrorists since its inception on October 10, 2001. The United States Department of State, through the Rewards for Justice Program, is offering up to US$5,000,000 (formerly $25,000,000) for information about the location of Anas al-Liby.
| “ | Mr. Williams' allegations about McMaster on par a par with UFO reports and JFK conspiracy theories...that notion that because there are people on faculty from Egypt that McMaster is then a haven for terrorism is not only logically offensive, it smack of racism. | ” |
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—Lawyer Peter Downard |
In October, FBI consultant Paul Williams wrote a book Dunces of Doomsday in which he claimed that Adnan Shukrijumah, Amer el-Maati, Jaber A. Elbaneh and al-Liby had all been seen around Hamilton, Ontario the previous year, and that Shukrijumah had been seen at McMaster University where he "wasted no time in gaining access to the nuclear reactor and stealing more than 180 pounds of nuclear material for the creation of radiological bombs". He was subsequently sued by the University for libel, as there had been no evidence to suggest any part of his story was true. The publisher later apologised for allowing Williams to print statements which "were without basis in fact".
A February 2007 Human Rights Watch document claims that al-Liby and others "may have once been held" in secret detention by the CIA, but the document includes no evidence or testimony to support that assertion.
On June 6, 2007, al-Liby was listed as a possible CIA "Secret Prisoner" by Amnesty International, without giving any reason or evidence, and despite the fact he remains on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list as of the published date (June 6, 2007).
In September 2012, CNN reported that al-Liby returned to Libya after hiding in Iran for almost a decade.
Read more about this topic: Anas Al-Liby
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