NEW YORK: To television viewers, he is the FBI agent who hunts down Al-Qaeda. But in real-life, Ali Soufan is just as extraordinary, a Muslim immigrant who fled war to live the American dream.
Born in Lebanon, a child of the Middle Eastern country’s brutal 1975-1990 civil war, he migrated to the United States as a teenager, was student president at college and dreamt of studying for a PhD in Cambridge, England.
Except he applied to the FBI as a dare and was the only one of his friends selected. With “The X-Files” big on television at the time, Soufan jokes that he was “more interested in aliens than terrorists.”
Instead, the only Arabic speaker on the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York, he was thrust onto the frontline in the hunt for Al-Qaeda after the 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa and the 2000 USS Cole bombing in Yemen.
He traveled the world conducting investigations and interrogating suspects, but US intelligence proved ultimately unable to stop the September 11, 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, among them Soufan’s former boss.
He calls the Al-Qaeda hijackings, which he watched on television from Yemen, “probably the most gut-wrenching moment in my life.” Afterward, he was handed a manila envelope with intelligence he had been asking for since November 2000.
“I don’t know if angry is the word. Crushed. I don’t know the feeling. I don’t know the term to describe it, still today,” he tells AFP in a recent interview in his New York office, an enormous US flag and framed awards on the wall.
The bitter CIA-FBI rivalry that inadvertently paved the road to 9/11 is dissected in “The Looming Tower,” a television mini-series on Hulu and Amazon Prime adapted from Lawrence Wright’s best-selling, Pulitzer-prize winning book.
With Soufan played by French actor Tahar Rahim — the two have become friends — and his FBI boss John O’Neill by Jeff Daniels, it narrates the power struggle between the CIA and the FBI, and their refusal to share intelligence.
Soufan, 46, is delighted that the show educates a new generation about 9/11, challenges Muslim stereotypes and sends a message to young people, particularly from immigrant backgrounds who may feel alienated.
“This is not only a TV series. This is a public service announcement,” he says.
“You have so many young people growing up in communities in the US, in Paris, in Brussels, in London and feeling that they don’t fit... We’re trying to reach out to them and say don’t let cynicism take you down, don’t believe Al-Qaeda and ISIS and their narrative,” he adds.
“Don’t believe the us versus them,” he says. “You can do the right thing and you can support your government, and your government will be there for you.”
The real-life Soufan is brimming with jokes, fiercely intelligent and relaxed, apologizing for not dressing in a suit and tie for an on-camera interview.
He happily shows off a Thompson submachine gun, the FBI’s first defense against the mob in the 1930s, given today as retirement presents.
“Now we have fancy stuff,” Soufan jokes. “Fancy and very effective stuff.”
Soufan testified before US Congress and presidential commissions, but opposed torture and left the FBI in 2005. Two years later, he founded a security firm which works with governments all over the world.
“It was time,” he says simply of his decision. “You don’t have to be inside in order to make the world a better place and that’s what we try to do here.”
The Soufan Group, employing retired CIA and FBI officers, offers consultancy and training to governments, corporations, law enforcement and intelligence agencies around the world.
A leading security expert and author, today he considers cyber the chief security threat as technology advances at a faster rate than laws and regulations.
But he also struggles to imagine a Muslim boy from the Middle East walking so accepting a path in today’s polarized America.
“I think the US was very good to me in so many different ways. Even as a child and as a young man, I never felt discriminated against.”
An advocate of immigration, he understands a need to focus on illegals but says isolating communities is not the answer.
On his office wall hangs a photo of himself with Barack Obama but when it comes to US President Donald Trump, Soufan says they have never talked.
So what would he say if he did? “I think that the job of a leader is to lead, not to mislead,” he replies, not missing a beat.
From Lebanon to American dream, via the FBI and 9/11
From Lebanon to American dream, via the FBI and 9/11
- In the TV mini-series “The Looming Tower,” he is the FBI agent who hunts down Al-Qaeda. But in real-life, Ali Soufan is just as extraordinary, a Muslim immigrant who fled war to live the American dream.
- Being the only Arabic speaker on the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York, he was thrust onto the frontline in the hunt for Al-Qaeda after the 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa and the 2000 USS Cole bombing in Yemen.
First Bangladeshi pilgrims ready to depart for Hajj
- The country’s quota this year is 127,000 pilgrims
- First flight leaves for Saudi Arabia on Thursday
DHAKA: Thousands of Bangladeshis are going to become some of the earliest Hajj pilgrims to arrive in Saudi Arabia this year, with the first batch scheduled to fly to Jeddah on Thursday.
This year, the Hajj is expected to start on June 14 and end on June 19.
While the pilgrimage itself can be performed over five or six days, pilgrims often arrive early, knowing that it may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fulfill their religious duty.
The first Hajj flight carrying 419 pilgrims is scheduled to leave for Jeddah from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on Thursday morning.
“Our pilgrims will be the first batch of Hajj pilgrims from around the world who will arrive in the Kingdom,” Mohammad Matiul Islam, additional secretary at the Ministry of Religious Affairs, told Arab News.
“Some pilgrims opt to travel earlier to the holy land, as it gives them spiritual peace. It’s the pilgrims’ choice to determine their time of travel.”
This year, Saudi Arabia granted Bangladesh a quota of 127,000 pilgrims to perform the spiritual journey that is one of the five pillars of Islam. Because of the rising cost of airfares to the Middle East, fewer Bangladeshis than expected will be able to go.
Bangladesh, one of the most populous Muslim-majority countries, also struggled to meet the quota in 2023, when the minimum government rate for Hajj was $6,000.
To prevent the same scenario during the 2024 pilgrimage season, the Bangladeshi government reduced the cost by $1,000, but high inflation at home prevented a third of prospective pilgrims from registering.
“As we fell short of meeting the number, a quota of 41,000 is surrendered to Saudi Arabia,” Islam said. “The surrendering of this (remaining slots) will not affect the receiving of our Hajj quota next year.”
Saudi visa registration for Bangladeshis will end on Saturday, and most of them will be departing over the next few weeks from Dhaka, where they will be assisted by Saudi authorities under the flagship Makkah Route initiative.
The pre-travel program was launched by the Kingdom in 2019 to help pilgrims to meet all the visa, customs and health requirements at their airport of origin, and save them long hours of waiting before and upon arrival in Saudi Arabia.
From Wednesday, those flying in the next few days can wait for departure at a special Hajj camp near the airport in Dhaka.
“While staying at the Hajj camp, the pilgrims have their Bangladeshi immigration part done. Also, a part of Saudi immigration is being done here as the pilgrims leave their luggage here to Makkah Route authorities,” Islam said.
“The air-conditioned accommodation here is free of cost for the pilgrims ... We suggest the pilgrims from outside Dhaka be at the Hajj camp two days before their flight. The camp can hold more than 5,000 pilgrims at a time.”
Russia warns French troops legitimate targets if they are sent to Ukraine
- French president Emmanuel Macron caused controversy in February by saying he could not rule out the deployment of ground troops in Ukraine in the future
MOSCOW: Russia warned France on Wednesday that if President Emmanuel Macron sent troops to Ukraine then they would be seen as legitimate targets by the Russian military.
Macron caused controversy in February by saying he could not rule out the deployment of ground troops in Ukraine in the future. The French leader warned that if Russia wins in Ukraine then Europe’s credibility will be reduced to zero.
“It is characteristic that Macron himself explains this rhetoric with the desire to create some kind of ‘strategic uncertainty’ for Russia,” Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters.
“We have to disappoint him — for us the situation looks more than certain,” Zakharova said.
“If the French appear in the conflict zone, they will inevitably become targets for the Russian armed forces. It seems to me that Paris already has proof of this.”
Zakharova said Russia was already seeing growing numbers of French nationals among those killed in Ukraine.
Russia said on Monday it would practice the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons as part of a military exercise after what the Moscow said were threats from France, Britain and the United States.
AstraZeneca says withdraws Covid vaccine ‘for commercial reasons’
LONDON: British drugmaker AstraZeneca said Wednesday that it has withdrawn its Covid vaccine Vaxzevria, one of the first produced in the pandemic, citing “commercial reasons” and a surplus of updated jabs.
“As multiple, variant Covid-19 vaccines have since been developed there is a surplus of available updated vaccines. This has led to a decline in demand for Vaxzevria, which is no longer being manufactured or supplied,” an AstraZeneca spokeperson said.
3 Indian men charged with killing Sikh separatist leader in Canada appear in court
SURREY, British Columbia: Three Indian men charged with killing Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia last year have appeared in court in the case that set off a diplomatic spat after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement.
Canadian police had arrested the three Indian men last week in Edmonton, Alberta, and they have been charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent Mandeep Mooker said Friday that the investigation into whether the men had ties to India’s government was ongoing.
Nijjar, 45, was shot to death in his pickup truck last June after he left the Sikh temple he led in the city of Surrey. An Indian-born citizen of Canada, he owned a plumbing business and was a leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland. India designated him a terrorist in 2020 and at the time of his death had been seeking his arrest for alleged involvement in an attack on a Hindu priest.
India has denied involvement in the slaying. In response to the allegations, India told Canada last year to remove 41 of its 62 diplomats in the country. Tensions remain but have somewhat eased since.
The arrested men — Kamalpreet Singh, 22, Karan Brar, 22, and Karanpreet Singh, 28 — appeared in court Tuesday via a video link and agreed to a trial in English. They were ordered to appear in British Columbia Provincial Court again on May 21.
Brar and Karanpreet Singh appeared in the morning. Kamalpreet’s appearance was delayed until the afternoon as he waited to speak to a lawyer.
The small provincial courtroom was filled with spectators during the morning session. Others crowded into an overflow room to watch the proceedings via video.
Richard Fowler, the defense lawyer representing Brar, said the case will eventually be moved to the Supreme Court and combined into one case.
About 100 people gathered outside the courthouse waving yellow flags and holding photos of Indian government officials whom they accuse of being involved in Nijjar’s killing.
Canadian police say the three suspects had been living in Canada as non-permanent residents.
A bloody decadelong Sikh insurgency shook north India in the 1970s and 1980s until it was crushed in a government crackdown in which thousands of people were killed, including prominent Sikh leaders.
The Khalistan homeland movement has lost much of its political power but still has supporters in the Indian state of Punjab, as well as in the sizable overseas Sikh diaspora. While the active insurgency ended years ago, the Indian government has repeatedly warned that Sikh separatists were trying to make a comeback.
UN: Myanmar displaced now at 3 million
- An estimated one-third of those displaced are children, according to the UN statement
YANGON: The number of displaced people in Myanmar has reached three million, the United Nations said, the vast majority forced to flee their homes by conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup.
Around 2.7 million have fled since the putsch that toppled Aung San Suu Kyi’s government after a short-lived experiment with democracy.
The coup sparked renewed clashes with established ethnic armed groups and birthed dozens of new “People’s Defense Forces” that the military has failed to crush.
“Myanmar stands at the precipice in 2024 with a deepening humanitarian crisis,” the UN’s resident coordinator in the country said in a statement released on Monday.
An estimated one-third of those displaced are children, according to the statement.
Around half of the three million have been displaced since late last year, when an alliance of ethnic armed groups launched an offensive across northern Shan state, the statement said.
The offensive seized swathes of territory and lucrative trade crossings on the China border, posing the biggest threat to the junta since it seized power.
Myanmar’s borderlands are home to a plethora of ethnic armed groups, many of whom have battled the military since independence from Britain in 1948 over autonomy and control of lucrative resources.
The UN said a severe funding shortfall was hampering its relief efforts, particularly ahead of the May-June cyclone season.
Last year cyclone Mocha smashed into western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, killing at least 148 people.
More than 355,000 people are currently displaced in western Rakhine state, which has been rocked since November by clashes between the Arakan Army and the military, the UN said.
