Career
Al-Faifi grew up in Taif and earned a certificate after completing 18 months in the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation. At the age of 22 he worked as a security guard at Taif Prison and then transferred to a prison in Jeddah. Al-Faifi said of his move, "I moved to Jeddah because I wanted to join the Al-Ahli club. I used to play football for the prison team in Taif. My friend recommended I move to work in Jeddah so I could be closer to the club which I could join and continue working. However, when I moved to Jeddah, I found out that the period to register new players was over.” He was fired from his job at the prison after receiving many warnings for being late. He returned to Taif and was unable to find employment and remained unemployed for four years.
It was during this time that al-Faifi's involvement with militants began. He began to go out with "friends every day to escape from the daily pressure of finding a job." At first he led a self-described "wild-life" but then became more religiously conservative to the extent that he would prevent his siblings from watching television. He listened to taped lectures on the subject of Jihad and then he said he "felt like joining a jihad group." He spent the next nine months with a group of friends who showed him videotapes of militant activities in Chechnya. One of his friends arranged for al-Faiafi to travel to Afghanistan by way of Qatar and then Pakistan while his family thought him to have gone to the Eastern Province for employment.
Al-Faifi said he had not heard of al-Qaeda at that point and only wanted to train in firearms and then join the Taliban or go to Chechnya. He had been in Afghanistan for nine months when the September 11 attacks occurred. He said he initially thought the attacks were the work of China and then "heard" that a jihadi group was responsible. After September 11 he described al-Qaeda as "emerging," at which point he moved to northern Afghanistan to fight against the Northern Alliance and American forces. He remained there for a month until the bombing of Kabul by Allied forces and then retreated first to Tora Bora and then to Jalalabad.
After the month of Ramadan, 2001, al-Faifi and approximately 300 other exhausted and scared fighters, mostly Saudis, walked for four days to the Pakistani border where they surrendered to local tribes hoping to be returned to their home governments. Instead, the militants were "sold" to the Americans before being transferred to Guantánamo.
Read more about this topic: Jabir Jubran Al Fayfi
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