Mohammed Jabarah - Militant Activity

Militant Activity

In July 2000, Abdul Rahman left for an Afghan training camp, and the following month Mohammed flew to Kuwait where he met with Ghaith who paid his fare to Karachi, from whence he traveled to Peshawar and hiked on foot into Torkham where the two brothers met up, waiting for their promised camp to finish construction and hanging around the Sheik Shaheed Abu Yahya Training Camp near Kabul instead.

In early 2001, he was diagnosed by doctor Ayman al-Zawahiri with hepatitis, and given a month's bedrest. While his brother went home to Canada, Mohammed attended a 10-week program at Al Farouq training camp, where he declined an offer to become a trainer, before moving into a guesthouse in Kandahar where his brother later visited him.

He vowed allegiance to bin Laden in May or July 2001 in Kandahar. Bin Laden sent him to Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who paired Jabarah with Ahmed Sahagi as a partner in Karachi.

After meeting with Hambali, Jabarah was given three eMail addresses; only Mohammed would send mail to "silver_crack2002@yahoo.com", while only Hambali would send eMails to Honda_civic12@yahoo.com - and Jabarah was to use the address bob_marley123@yahoo.com to respond to them. On September 10, 2001 - at the urging of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Jabarah left Pakistan and flew to Hong Kong where he stayed in a hotel. Two days later, he flew to Kuala Lumpur, where he stayed in a hotel in the Indian district, while meeting with militant contacts at a McDonald's in the food court of a local shopping mall. In late September, he took a bus to Singapore, where he met members of Jemaah Islamiyah anxious for him to give them al-Qaeda funds for their intended bombings. However the group was under surveillance, and arrested members confessed to meeting "Sammy", although Jabarah had fled the country. Authorities tracked down his identity through the landing card he had filled out upon arriving in Singapore, where he gave his true name and Canadian address.

In October, Jabarah returned to Singapore to meet with Fathur Rahman al-Ghozi who had arrived in-country on October 7 himself, and together "Sammy" and "Mike" met with militants plotting to attack embassies in Singapore. Shortly after, Jabarah and al-Ghozi travelled to Manila and were taken to see the American and Israeli embassies, which were dismissed as too difficult to attack, since the American establishment was set too far back from the road, and the Israeli was too well-guarded. After ten days in the Philippines, Jabarah flew back to Singapore.

In November, Jabarah returned to Kuala Lampur and met with an al-Qaeda agent at the City One Plaza, where he was given $10,000 on each visit to take back to the militants planning the bombings. The following month, he received an eMail titled "Problem", which informed him that Singaporean colleagues had been arrested, which led him to flee to Bangkok where he met with Hambali, who urged him to escape back to the Middle East as quickly as possible. Hambali also informed him that the $70,000 he has passed on to JI militants would be used to hit "soft" targets like nightclubs in the region.

Jabarah flew to Dubai in January 2002. There, Jabarah met with his brother Abdul Rahman Jabarah, when both were already wanted al-Qaeda suspects; largely because Mohammed's Canadian passport had been found on December 8–9 in a raid by Singaporean authorities.

In March, he moved to Oman, where Mohammed ordered him to set up an Omani al Qaeda safe house.