Page 257 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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Mohamed, Khalfan Khamis (1973– )———235

Further Reading a life sentence in U.S. prison without the possibility of
parole.
Quarles, Chester L. The Ku Klux Klan and Related
American Racialist and Antisemitic Organizations: A Mohamed was one of four defendants who went on
History and Analysis. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1999. trial in Manhattan federal court in January 2001 for
Stanton, Bill. Klanwatch: Bringing the Ku Klux Klan to the Tanzania blast and the coordinated, more lethal
Justice. New York: Grove Atlantic, 1991. bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya,
where 213 people were killed. He and his codefen-
dants were all found to be part of a worldwide terror-
MILLIYETCI HAREKET PARTISI. See ist conspiracy led by Saudi exile Osama bin Laden
and carried out by his Islamic militant organization,
GREY WOLVES. Al Qaeda.
Mohamed, 25 years old at the time of the embassy
bombings, grew up in a mud-walled house on the rural
island of Zanzibar, Tanzania, one of seven children of
MIR. See MOVEMENT OF THE a farmer who grew sweet potatoes, lemon grass, and
REVOLUTIONARY LEFT.
coconuts. Fatherless at seven, Mohamed never finished
high school, and at 17, he moved to live and work with
one of his brothers, who owned a grocery store in Dar
es Salaam. There, through a mutual friend, Mohamed
MIVTZAH ELOHIM. See WRATH OF
GOD. met an Al Qaeda member, who recruited him for reli-
gious and weapons training in Afghanistan. Mohamed
underwent 10 months of training in 1994, but he was
not invited to officially join the group. Mohamed
MJL. See LAUTARO YOUTH MOVEMENT. returned to Tanzania in 1995, was sent on a training
mission for “Muslim brothers” in Somalia in 1997, and
was tapped for his jihad job the following spring.
Trial testimony and physical evidence showed
MNLF. See MORO NATIONAL LIBERATION that in the summer of 1998 Mohamed rented the
FRONT. house in the Ilala district of Dar es Salaam, a half-
hour drive from the embassy, where the bomb com-
ponents were assembled and loaded into a 1987
Nissan Atlas refrigeration truck. Using a flour mill,
MOGADISHU, SOMALIA, ATTACK Mohamed helped grind the TNT, and with others, he
ON U.S. SOLDIERS. See Al Qaeda; loaded 20 wooden crates of the explosive powder
Osama bin Laden. onto the truck, along with 15 cylinders of acetylene
and oxygen to enhance the explosion. Using money
given to him by a cell leader, Mohamed had also pur-
chased the Suzuki Samurai pickup truck that the con-
MOHAMED, KHALFAN KHAMIS spirators used to ferry bomb-making materials to the
(1973– ) house.
A defense attorney once referred to Mohamed’s
role as a “gopher.” He did not even know the target
Khalfan Khamis Mohamed was the first person until five days beforehand. On the day of the attacks,
convicted of a direct role in the August 7, 1998, bomb- Mohamed helped the Nissan bomb truck embark on
ing of the U.S. embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. its journey, riding in the passenger seat next to the
On May 29, 2001, a federal jury in New York found Egyptian suicide driver. Once the truck got to the
him guilty of participating in the attack and of murder- main road, Mohamed exited to return to the bomb-
ing the 11 people killed as a result of the explosion. making house and clean it up. He heard the news of
The same jury later deadlocked on the death sentence the explosion on TV, and left Dar es Salaam the next
sought by prosecutors, thereby imposing on Mohamed day by bus.