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Sayyaf - an International Terrorist Mastermind
Afghan Mujahideen leader Abdul Rasul Sayyaf is the Saudi trained Wahhabi Islamic Law Professor who, according to the 2004 9/11 Commission report (page 146/147), employed trained and mentored 9/11 accused Khalid Sheikh Mohammed:
“KSM plunged into the anti-Soviet Afghan jihad soon after graduating from college. Visiting Pakistan for the
first time in early 1987, he traveled to Peshawar, where his brother Zahid introduced him to the famous
Afghan mujahid Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, head of the Islamic Union Party. Sayyaf became KSM’s mentor and
provided KSM with military training at Sayyaf’s Sada camp… Between 1988 and 1992, KSM helped run a
nongovernmental organization in Peshawar and Jalalabad; sponsored by Sayyaf, it was designed to aid young
Afghan mujahideen.”
The 9/11 Commission identifies the Sada camp [near Peshawar Pakistan] where KSM trained as Sayyaf’s military training camp and a 2008 report on the US Department of Justice website (page 5) states Indonesian & Filipino terrorist group commanders trained at the Sada camp too, including the 2002 Bali bombers:
“Patek and Mugasid [Indonesian and Filipino terrorist group commanders] were in the same intake at the
JI [Jamaah Islamiyah] military academy in Sada, Pakistan, on the Afghan border, in 1991. Other members of
that class were Bali bombers Imam Samudra, Ali Imron and Sarjiyo”
“Sayyaf was one of the most notorious Mujahideen commanders fighting the
Soviets in Afghanistan and had constructed at least one known facility at Khaldan”
“In late 1990, Yousef went to Afghanistan for training at Camp Khaldan, where he learned basic bomb building...
In the summer of 1991, Yousef travelled to the Philippines where he conducted explosives training for the
terrorist group Abu Sayyaf. In 1992, he returned to Camp Khaldan and began teaching a course in explosives.”
The Abu Sayyaf Group who Ramzi Yousef taught bomb making in the Philippines in summer 1991 got their name from Abdul Rasul Sayyaf after he trained and mentored their founder, as per this West Point Combating Terrorism Center (page 17) publication:
“Abdurajak delivered several khutbahs or sermons and released several fatawa using the nom-de-guerre “Abu Sayyaf,”
in honor of Afghan resistance fighter Abdul Rasul Sayyaf… Since Abdurajak used the pen name “Abu Sayyaf,”
the military described his followers as a group of Abu Sayyaf, which was popularized in media as the
Abu Sayyaf Group, or ASG.”
And Sayyaf’s relationship with lead Bali bomb plotter Hambali appears as intimate as his connections to KSM and the Abu Sayyaf Group founder are. The 9/11 Commission report (page 150/151) states:
“Sungkar first inspired Hambali to share the vision of establishing a radical Islamist regime in Southeast Asia,
then furthered Hambali's instruction in jihad by sending him to Afghanistan in 1986. After undergoing training
at Rasul Sayyaf's Sada camp (where KSM would later train), Hambali fought against the Soviets; he eventually
returned to Malaysia after 18 months in Afghanistan. By 1998, Hambali would assume responsibility for the
Malaysia/Singapore region within Sungkar's newly formed terrorist organization, the JI [Jamaah Islamiyah].”
Sayyaf - a CIA Asset, NATO Ally, and an Afghan Presidential Candidate
It should've been no surprise to the CIA that Sayyaf was using Saudi funds in the 1980s /90s to build his own insurgent organisation because they predicted just that in this now declassified 1985 CIA assessment of Sayyaf:
“Sayyaf has used his role as principal conduit of Arab money to the jihad (holy war) to build
his own insurgent organization, in competition with and at the expense of other resistance leaders.
They, in turn, accuse him of corruption and misuse of funds, resent his position as the
Arabs’ “fair-haired” boy, and have increasingly refused to cooperate with him.”
Although the declassified sections of that 1985 CIA report don’t specifically mention terrorism, it does state very clearly that Sayyaf was building his own insurgent organization. And we now know from the quotes above Sayyaf was training international terrorists from at least 1986-92, very likely using funds donated by his Arab benefactors. But given that the 1993 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef – who both learnt and taught bomb building in Sayyaf’s Khaldan camp – had been in US custody since February 1995, it strikes me as virtually impossible that they didn’t know about Sayyaf’s role in training international terrorists when CIA officer Gary Schroen put him on their payroll in October 2001:
“I produced a $100,000 bundle of cash from my backpack and handed it across the table to Sayyaf,
who instinctively took the package... Sayyaf looked at me and his eyes narrowed.
“That is the first time I have ever accepted cash directly from anyone.” He shook his head
as if he had been tricked, eying me carefully, a slight smile on his lips. We rose and thanked
him for agreeing to assist the US government, and we shook hands.”
Schroen’s 2006 book ‘First In: How Seven CIA Officers Opened the War on Terror in Afghanistan’
Having admitted he put Abdul Rasul Sayyaf on the CIA / US payroll in October 2001 (while the bodies of those murdered by Sayyaf’s protégé KSM on 9/11 were still being recovered from the rubble of the World Trade Center), is it possible senior CIA officer Gary Schroen didn’t know about Sayyaf’s links to International Terrorism? Gary Schroen died in 2022 so we can’t ask him, but his boss George Tenet – CIA director from 1996-2004 - is alive and available for questioning. Putting KSM’s Afghan boss on the CIA payroll instead of in a prison cell could’ve been excused as an error or oversight if it wasn’t for the 2004 9/11 Commission report that clearly states Sayyaf’s close associations to terrorist entities worldwide. But instead of arresting Sayyaf then, in 2004, the International Terrorist Mastermind continued to prosper under the CIA and NATO’s protection as a significant government official.
In the Afghanistan 2014 elections Sayyaf – 9/11 terrorist KSM’s boss - even ran for President, but was knocked out in the first round with a not insignificant 7.1% share of the vote. That was when I first heard of Sayyaf, after my summer 2012 tour of Helmand with the British army, and when I started reading news headlines like this:
“Former Islamist warlord who brought bin Laden to Afghanistan to run for president
A former Islamist warlord who reputedly invited Osama bin Laden to live
in Afghanistan has joined the race to become the next Afghan president.”
Being the Arab’s ‘fair-haired child (their favourite) as the CIA described Sayyaf in 1985, it was natural Sayyaf was allied with Osama bin Laden during the 1980s Jihad, but it should be noted that OBL returned to Arabia as soon as the Soviets left Afghanistan, in February 1989. It was KSM who stayed with Sayyaf until 1992, after which KSM and Ramzi Yousef commenced their terrorist spree with the February 1993 World Trade Center bomb. What the new headline above is referring to is OBL’s return to Afghanistan in 1996, when it’s widely believed that Sayyaf (allied to the Northern Alliance) offered him sanctuary there. OBL was initially hosted by allies of Sayyaf but was soon passed off to Sayyaf and the Northern Alliance’s enemy – the Taliban. Was that a Machiavellian move by Sayyaf, lumbering his enemy with a man being hunted by the CIA? OBL wasn’t charged with a crime unit 1998 but the CIA had been spying on him for years, first by Billy Waugh in Sudan, and then by the dedicated CIA Alec Station from January 1996.
NATO’s relationship with Sayyaf is best captured in the images below, where Sayyaf is bowed to by US General John Nicholson, is ‘strongly supported’ by NATO’s senior civilian representative Stefano Pontecorvo, and with NATO’s other favourite war lord in Afghanistan, Sayyaf’s man Asadullah Khalid. The photo of Sayyaf shaking hands with Mike Pompeo was from 2019 Kabul.
