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244———Mughniyah, Imad Fayez (1962– )

working closely on the bombing in Dar es Salaam, Frontline. “Hunting bin Laden” PBS. http://www.pbs.org/
Tanzania. He is included on the FBI’s “most wanted wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/, May 1, 2002.
terrorists” list for his role in the bombings, which “A Nation Challenged: The Hunted; The 22 Most Wanted
killed 224 people. Suspects, in a Five-Act Drama of Global Terror.”
New York Times, October 14, 2001, 1B.
According to the FBI, Msalam is a young Al Qaeda
Reeve, Simon. The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin
member who has worked in the past as a clothing
Laden, and the Future of Terrorism. Boston: Northeastern
vendor. Al Qaeda, an Arabic word meaning “The Base,”
University Press, 1999.
is an international network that uses force and violence
U.S. District Court Southern District of New York. United
in an attempt to drive the United States from Saudi States v. Usama bin Laden et al. Indictment S(10) 98 Cr.
Arabia and other Islamic countries. The network, 1023 (LBS).
headed by Saudi Osama bin Laden, serves as an
umbrella group for other militant organizations and
establishes cells in areas it plans to attack.
In 1998, the United States indicted Msalam and 26 MUGHASSIL, AHMAD IBRAHIM
others with alleged links to bin Laden for the East AL-. See AL-MUGHASSIL, AHMAD IBRAHIM.
African embassy bombings. According to the indict-
ment, as early as 1996, Msalam showed coconspir-
ators TNT and detonators that he had obtained in
Tanzania. Prosecutors say his fingerprints were also MUGHNIYAH, IMAD FAYEZ (1962– )
found on a magazine inside a gym bag that contained
aka Mr. Haij
clothing with traces of TNT. Msalam is accused of
buying the vehicle used as a bomb by the conspirators
in Dar es Salaam and of purchasing the truck used in Deemed “the ultimate faceless terrorist” in press
the Nairobi bombing with fellow Al Qaeda operative accounts, Imad Fayez Mughniyah has eluded the FBI
Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan. since the early 1980s. According to U.S. officials,
The indictment charged that Msalam then helped to he has been tied to the hijacking of a commercial
prepare the Dar es Salaam bomb truck, loading jet, four mass bombings, and the abductions of six
it with oxygen and acetylene tanks, TNT boxes, deto- American, one British, and five French hostages. At
nators, fertilizer, and sandbags before fleeing to times described as the senior intelligence officer of
Pakistan on August 6, 1998. On August 7, 1998, in Hezbollah, at others Hezbollah’s security chief or
synchronized attacks 400 miles apart, the truck bombs operations chief, he is on the FBI’s list of the 22
exploded at the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, one “most wanted terrorists.”
bomb detonating just minutes before the other. Born in Tir Dibba in the hills of southern Lebanon
The U.S. government declared that bin Laden and overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, Mughniyah was
Al Qaeda operatives were responsible for the bomb- forced to leave his town for the slums of southern
ings. Officials at the Karachi, Pakistan, airport detai- Beirut when Israel began attacking Palestinian guer-
ned the Al Qaeda operative traveling with Msalam on rillas in Lebanon in the late 1970s. The death of his
August 6; however, Msalam slipped through their net brother, who was shot by Lebanese Army troops in the
and remains a fugitive. The U.S. State Department Muslim suburbs of Beirut, was a turning point in
offers a reward of up to $25 million for information Mughniyah’s life.
leading directly to his apprehension or conviction. He joined the Palestine Liberation Organization
(PLO) as a teenager, did extremely well in military
See also AL QAEDA; OSAMA BIN LADEN; EAST AFRICAN
training, and was placed in Force 17, Yasir Arafat’s
EMBASSY BOMBINGS
personal security detail. After Israel invaded Lebanon
in 1982, driving out the PLO, Mughniyah joined a
Further Reading small Shiite Muslim-based militia, which would later
fuse with similar groups to become the Iran-backed
Bergen, Peter L. Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of
Osama bin Laden. New York: Free Press, 2001. Shiite Muslim Hezbollah terror group. Many of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation. “Most Wanted Terrorists.” terrorist acts Mughniyah, who has operated almost
http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/terrorists/fugitives.htm, exclusively in Lebanon, is charged with committing
October 2001. were aimed at ending Israel’s presence in Lebanon,