Al Qaeda's Forrest Gump?

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March 23, 2007 2:48 PM

Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani admitted that he was the top forger for al Qaeda but disputed accusations he participated in the plot to bomb the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Ghailani, according to the transcript of his enemy combatant tribunal at Gitmo released today by the Pentagon, said while he knew the bomb plotters of the U.S. embassies in East Africa, he did not know what they were doing.

Like Forrest Gump, Ghailani claimed throughout his testimony he was simply present at crucial times in al Qaeda's history without ever being a main player.

Ghailani became the first of the 14 High Value Detainees held at Gitmo to take an oath at the tribunal, saying, "I, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, swear by almighty God that my testimony before this Tribunal will be the truth."

When asked later on if he is a member of al Qaeda, Ghailani, born in Tanzania, responded, "Not a member, no. I was ah -- when I was in Afghanistan, I work with them. I work with them, but I wasn't a member of al Qaeda." He denies ever swearing his allegiance to al Qaeda's head Osama bin Laden.

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Ghailani admitted he did undergo training at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan following the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings but only because he wanted "military training" and did not want to enter the Kenyan military. He said he had hoped to return home after his three months of training but found out he was wanted for the embassy bombing in his home country.

Ghailani says he then became a forger and a trainer at al Qaeda's al Farouq training camp and fled with several al Qaeda members from Afghanistan to Pakistan following the U.S. invasion in 2001. He was apprehended in Pakistan in 2004.

Throughout the tribunal, Ghailani quibbled with the evidence against him. He admitted to having been around at the purchase of the vehicle used in one of the embassy attacks in East Africa but said he didn't purchase it as is alleged. He admitted he then drove the vehicle but not as a part of a scouting mission for the embassy attacks.

Ghailani also said he bought the TNT used in the attacks but claimed he didn't know he was buying the explosive material. When he confronted his friend, and embassy bomb plotter, Fahad Mohammad, about not telling Ghailani he was purchasing the TNT, Mohammed said he would use it for diamond mining in Somalia and did not want his friend to be fearful that something was wrong.

Ghailani also called a witness, Khalfan Khamis Mohammed, who had fingered him as an embassy plotter and is currently detained at the federal "supermax facility," for his tribunal.

Ghailani said he had hoped Mohammed would clarify that he meant another "Ahmed" in his testimony. But Mohammed declined to testify.

Read the transcript of Ghailani's Tribunal.