Msalam, Fahid Mohammed Ally (1976–)

aka Fahid Mohammed Ally, Fahid Mohammed Ali Musalaam, Fahid Mohammed Ali Msalam, Fahid Muhamad Ali Salem, Mohammed Ally Msalam, Usama al-Kini, Fahad Ally Msalam

Born in Mombasa, Kenya, Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam is alleged to be a member of the Al Qaeda network. He is said to have been directly involved in the 1998 attack on two U.S. embassies in East Africa, [Page 244]working closely on the bombing in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He is included on the FBI's “most wanted terrorists” list for his role in the bombings, which killed 224 people.

According to the FBI, Msalam is a young Al Qaeda member who has worked in the past as a clothing vendor. Al Qaeda, an Arabic word meaning “The Base,” is an international network that uses force and violence in an attempt to drive the United States from Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries. The network, 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 others with alleged links to bin Laden for the East African embassy bombings. According to the indictment, as early as 1996, Msalam showed coconspirators TNT and detonators that he had obtained in Tanzania. Prosecutors say his fingerprints were also found on a magazine inside a gym bag that contained 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 the Nairobi bombing with fellow Al Qaeda operative Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan.

The indictment charged that Msalam then helped to prepare the Dar es Salaam bomb truck, loading it with oxygen and acetylene tanks, TNT boxes, detonators, fertilizer, and sandbags before fleeing to Pakistan on August 6, 1998. On August 7, 1998, in synchronized attacks 400 miles apart, the truck bombs exploded at the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, one bomb detonating just minutes before the other.

The U.S. government declared that bin Laden and Al Qaeda operatives were responsible for the bombings. Officials at the Karachi, Pakistan, airport detained the Al Qaeda operative traveling with Msalam on August 6; however, Msalam slipped through their net and remains a fugitive. The U.S. State Department offers a reward of up to $25 million for information leading directly to his apprehension or conviction.