Abu Jandal

Who is Abu Jandal?

Nasser al-Bahri, also known by his kunya or nom de guerre as Abu Jandal, is a citizen of Yemen who claims to have been a member of al-Qaeda and to have served for several years as one of Osama bin Laden's bodyguards in Afghanistan. He had previously fought for Muslims in Bosnia and Somalia. After his return to Yemen in 2000, he was taken into custody by Yemeni authorities and held for two years without trial. He agreed to abide by the parole conditions of a Yemeni jihadist rehabilitation program directed by the judge Hamoud al-Hitar. In it he had to accept more education about Islam, as well as discuss his new and old ideas about jihad with the judge and younger students.

During a September 2009 interview with the reporter Michelle Shephard of the Toronto Star, Al Bahri said that he was no longer a member of al Qaeda, but that he supported the organization for some of its beliefs.

He claimed to have recruited Salim Ahmed Hamdan to al-Qaeda, where the latter became a driver for bin Laden. The two men married sisters and became brothers-in-law. Captured in Afghanistan in 2001, Hamdan was the first detainee tried under the United States' tribunals; his military defense attorney took his case to the US Supreme Court in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld to challenge their constitutionality. Al-Bahri and Hamdan were the subjects of the award-winning documentary, The Oath, by the American director Laura Poitras, which explored their time in al-Qaeda and life journeys afterward.