Mahfouz Ould Al-Walid - "War On Terror"

"War On Terror"

"I cannot conceal the fact that we here in Afghanistan, like hundreds of millions of Muslims throughout the world, could not contain our joy when we saw America taste, for one day, what the Islamic people has been swallowing every day for decades because of the actions of the US, both directly and indirectly. We rejoiced at this. Although we did not carry them out, these blows coincided with our interests, and their results were significant for us."

In November 2001, al-Walid became only the second al-Qaeda leader to give a public interview, in which he agreed with Osama bin Laden's earlier comments stating that the terrorist organization was not responsible for the September 11th attacks. However, he said that other Islamic scholars had justified the attacks: "many clerics have issued clear religious rulings and explained them by means of the Koran and the Sunnah, and with the words of the clerics of the nation, and have proved that if this act was carried out by Mujahedeen Muslims, then it was an unblemished act of Jihad."

It is believed that the American invasion of Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks by Bin Laden actually drove al-Walid away from al-Qaeda, and that he and a number of other discontent former members moved to the south to avoid connection with the ongoing fight.

The United States accused him of entering Iraq again in an attempt to get Hussein to negotiate, but state that he was rebuffed in identical terms as his first visit. He was reported killed twice, the second time following a January 8, 2002 airstrike in Zawar Kili, outside of Khost.

When Shadi Abdellah was arrested in 2002, he cooperated with authorities, but suggested that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Osama bin Laden were not as closely linked as previously believed, in large part because al-Zarqawi disagreed with many of the sentiments put forward by al-Walid for al-Qaeda.

By mid-2002, media in Thailand suggested that al-Walid, Abu Zubaydah and Saif al-Adl had traveled to North Africa as part of their exodus from al-Qaeda, while American media suggested the three were in Mashhad, Iran. Nevertheless, al-Zawahiri continues to speak positively of the role al-Walid played in encouraging Pan-Islamic peace and cooperation.

Media in Gambia suggested he returned to Mauritania in 2006 to set up a militant group. However, the Magharebia news website believed he was killed in a Pakistan airstrike. Libyan Islamist Nomam Benotman also indicated in a letter to Bin Laden that he, al-Walid and Al Qaeda security official Abu Muhammad al-Zayat opposed the 9/11 attacks.

In the 2008 Chilean book El Norte de Africa en la Intriga de al Qaeda, author Carlos Saldivia suggested that al-Walid was also involved in the 2003 Casablanca bombings.