[Arab News] Accusing the media of trying to link Al-Qaeda to Soddy Arabia, Jaber Al-Fifi, a former Islamic exemplar who was No. 20 on the Kingdom's list of 85 most-wanted terrorists, told the Saudi Channel 1 on Tuesday evening that the organization depends primarily on non-Saudi recruits in Afghanistan under the leadership of Osama Bin Laden."I made the vow of allegiance to a man named Abu Baseer who was a Yemeni and an assistant to Bin Laben," he said on the program "Homomna" ("Our Concerns").
Al-Fifi returned to the Kingdom from his voluntary exile in Yemen, announced his repentance and was rehabilitated at Prince Muhammad bin Naif Center for Religious Advice. "The organization in Yemen was shaken up after its leader and field commander Muhammad Al-Aoufi gave himself up to the Saudi authorities benefiting from the pardon given to Islamic exemplars," he said, adding that most of the members could not believe their ears when they heard the news.
Al-Fifi told his interviewers that the first news that came to them about Al-Aoufi was that he was sold to the Saudi authorities by some Yemeni tribes, but they now believe he gave himself up voluntarily.
"After this incident, Al-Qaeda leaders began to tighten their grip on us," he said. "I stayed in a house for a long time doing nothing. It is then that I began to think of going back home."
Al-Fifi, who was a former Guantanamo detainee, said he decamped Taif to Yemen through the Fifa Mountains.
"My escape was orchestrated by Youssef Al-Shihri, the Islamic exemplar who was killed at a Jazan checkpoint while dressing like a woman," he said.
He recalled that his exodus, with seven other former Guantanamo prisoners, followed a dinner party organized in Taif by Al-Aoufi and Saeed Al-Shihri (incumbent leader of Al-Qaeda in Yemen) during which they called for operations inside the Kingdom and said their Islamic exemplar operations were legitimate, according to a fatwa. He said he stayed at home for a year following his return from Guantanamo and got married until he was talked into rejoining Al-Qaeda during the dinner party.
He said most of the invitees to the dinner had no idea about Al-Qaeda terrorist operations in the Kingdom and thought that they were only targeting the Americans.
"I was against any terrorist operations inside the Kingdom," he said.
Al-Fifi said they chose to escape to Yemen because it was a lot easier to enter the country and forge the necessary identity papers. He said he thought he would not give the oath of allegiance after the one he had given to Bin Laden but was compelled to give a similar oath to the Yemeni Abu Naseer.
Al-Fifi, who worked under the alias Hamza Al-Taifi and Abu Abdullah Al-Shabhawani, said before he turned himself in he had been asked to go to Somalia, Afghanistan or Iraq.