Ayman Fayed recalls details of journey to Afghanistan, joining al-Qaeda

Ayman Fayed's mother always explained to him the merits of jihad and the fight to make Islam victorious.

When Fayed became 18, his mother started to view him as a fully-fledged soldier. She gave him money to travel to Peshawar, Pakistan, to join al-Qaeda.

Fayed joined the jihadists in Afghanistan in 1987 when he was 18. He became a personal advisor to al-Qaeda's founder and leader Osama bin Laden later.

He told al-Marjie that he took the first step to travel to Pakistan by heading to the Pakistani Embassy in Cairo to request a visa. He especially requested a visa to the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

Having taken the visa, he headed immediately to Cairo International Airport. When he arrived in Islamabad, he took a bus to Peshawar.

Before taking the bus, he asked two Pakistani young men, who turned out to be linked to the Pakistani intelligence, about the best way to reach Peshawar to join the jihadists.

He also showed these two young men a piece of paper on which the address of al-Benyan al-Marsous magazine was written. He should have headed to the headquarters of the magazine to meet officials from the magazine.

The two young men then took Fayed to meet the Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan, Akhtar Abdur Rahman. Abdur Rahman was also responsible for the Pakistani file. He was the second-in-command in Pakistan after Pakistani prime minister, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq.

Having entered the office of Abdur Rahman, Fayed did not feel worried or nervous. He told him that he wanted to join the mujahedeen to fight against the Russians.

Abdur Rahman then advised him to give up the whole idea and return to his country. He, however, insisted to join the mujahedeen, which was why Abdur Rahman sent a message to Peshawar to ask the mujahedeen to accept him as a new member.

In Peshawar, Fayed became close friends with bin Laden. Some mujahedeen even thought that Fayed was a relative of the al-Qaeda founder.

Fayed refused to be sent to any of the training centers of the mujahedeen. This was why some of them suspected him for a spy.

Espionage suspicions   

Fayed recalled how he tried to prove that he was not a spy. He said he shattered suspicions around him only by insisting to join a training camp supervised by Abu Osama al-Masri. The camp aimed to offer training to the best 23 fighters.

"However, my demand was met with sarcasm from other people," Fayed said.

Other mujahedeen cited tough conditions for joining the camp. One of conditions was for those who wanted to join the camp to have a record of jihad not less than six months.

Fayed succeeded in joining the camp, even as he did not meet any of its conditions. There, he was trained in all types of arms.

Abu Osama al-Masri, Fayed said, was a charismatic commander who was feared by everybody.

"I understood him very well," Fayed said. "I did not feel afraid of him."

Fayed became then one of five people who founded al-Qaeda organization. These five people also charted the goals of the organization.

Soon after the exit of the Soviets from Afghanistan, the Arab mujahedeen, including bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam, discussed the idea of founding a new organization to accommodate all the mujahedeen. There were between 19,000 and 30,000 mujahedeen then.

"The 32 people who were trained by Abu Osama al-Masri were the nucleus of the new organization," Fayed said.

The mujahedeen then settled on al-Qaeda as a name for the new organization.

Al-Qaeda's goals

The mujahedeen agreed not to stage holy war anywhere without approval from Islamic scholars. Bin Laden was also selected to be the leader of the new organization.

He was selected for this position, Fayed said, for his good reputation and because he was the main financier of the mujahedeen in their battles against the Soviets.

Fayed said the Egyptian government did not prevent the travel of its nationals to Afghanistan to join in the Arab mujahedeen.

There was an agreement, he said, between US president Ronald Reagan and the late Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat for Egypt to send Russian arms to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan. He said Egypt sent the arms from Port Said to the Port of Karachi in Pakistan.

Fayed was not the only Egyptian to travel to Afghanistan to join in the mujahedeen and join in the fight against the Soviets. A large number of other Egyptians did the same, including Ayman al-Zawahiri, Abu Hafs al-Masri, and Omar Abdurrahman.

He said Afghanistan was a real test for the mujahedeen.

"We would have established a model Islamic state after defeating the Russians and kicking them out of Afghanistan," Fayed said.

CIA and the takfiris  

Fayed said takfiri and militant groups active in Sinai, Libya and Syria have nothing to do with al-Qaeda. These groups, he said, were created by the CIA to turn them into a pretext for interfering in the affairs of other countries.

The anti-terrorism bill drafted by the US following the 9/11 attacks, he added, gives the US the right to militarily intervene in countries where al-Qaeda is present to strike it.

"The US enforced this bill in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia," Fayed said.

Fayed said Muslim Brotherhood female leader Zeinab al-Ghazaly played an important role in encouraging mujahedeen to join in the jihad against the Russians.

The Brotherhood, he said, offered backing to the mujahedeen.

"The Muslim Brotherhood is obsessed with lying," Fayed said. "It uses religion to achieve its own ends."

Fayed revealed that al-Ghazaly travelled to Peshawar to meet the Mujahedeen. He said she met Zawahiri and Azzam.

Al-Ghazaly was not the only woman who offered backing to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan, Fayed said. Qadria Mohamed Ali, the mother of Khaled al-Islaboli, Sadat's assassin, also travelled to the camps of the mujahedeen in Peshawar where her second son Mohamed al-Islamboli was also being trained.

Fayed said as a child, his mother always told him the stories of mujahedeen to make him love jihad.

He said his mother was not highly educated, but was an observant Muslim from Damanhour. She used to go to mosques and attend religious classes at these mosques.

Afghanistan and the Muslim Brotherhood

The sermons delivered at mosques also played a role in encouraging Fayed to travel to Afghanistan. He also always read the al-Benyan al-Marsous magazine.

Fayed said the Brotherhood refused to send any of its members to Afghanistan to join in the fight against the Soviets. Instead, he said, they believed they should give priority to fighting the regime in Egypt.

"The Brotherhood only raised funds for the mujahedeen in Afghanistan," Fayed said. "Nonetheless, they especially sent the money to the Afghan mujahedeen."

He said al-Qaeda had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks.

The US, he said, masterminded these attacks to turn them into a pretext for interfering in other countries and occupying them.

He said Zawahiri stood behind the collapse of al-Qaeda. He added that the current al-Qaeda leader might be in prison in the US and used to send specific messages only from time to time by sending audios to his followers.

"Nonetheless, bin Laden's killing in 2011 meant that al-Qaeda is over," Fayed said.