Jordanian al-Qaeda detainee

The Jordanian al-Qaeda detainee was the subject of John Kiriakou’s first-ever interrogation, conducted without training when he arrived as chief of counterterrorism operations in Pakistan. Rather than play good cop or bad cop, Kiriakou simply had a conversation.^[1][2][3] The man explained he had gone to Afghanistan in 2000 to open an orphanage for parentless children, and joined al-Qaeda because it funded the orphanage generously and asked nothing of him; he never carried a weapon. In another telling, Kiriakou gives the same story slightly differently: the detainee said he had gone to Afghanistan three years earlier to volunteer building an orphanage, having previously worked at an orphanage in Jordan.^[4][3] Asked to trace his escape route from Tora Bora, he gave detail so precise — a village, a man with a Toyota, a night in a barn — that Kiriakou, who already knew the “rat lines,” knew he was telling the truth. Asked why, the man said, “I’m your prisoner; what good would it do for me to lie to you?” and then offered to invite Kiriakou into Islam and be his godfather in the faith; Kiriakou declined, thanking him but citing his own Orthodox Christian faith. He was released to Jordan as a non-combatant.^[5][6][7][8]

See also

• Economic Roots Of Terrorism
• Abu Zubaydah Capture