Bahrain Mirror: It has not been proven that Bahrainis took part in Al-Qaeda terrorist acts against the world; however, clinging to that idea is the way to hell. In the past ten years, Bahrain was a marginal playground on Al-Qaeda agenda despite revealing cases of five Jihadi cells, at least two of them were convicted.Today, Bahrain has turned into an important logistic supply. Since 2013, at least one Bahraini has been on the American terrorism blacklist. The Salafist groups enjoy freedom in movement after they have secured their control on more than an apparatus in the government. The following is a chronology of Bahrain's share of Al-Qaeda:

2001-2002
Six Bahraini nationals were arrested at the Pakistani-Afghani borders for allegedly being affiliated to Al-Qaeda, Salah Al-Balooshi, Salman Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, Abduall Al-Noami, Adel Kamel, Isa Al-Mirbati and Juma Al-Dosary.Their relatives said: they had gone to Afghanistan to offer humanitarian aid to the Afghans who were bombarded by the allied troops in 2001. They entered Afghanistan either via Pakistan or illegally via the Iranian borders. They said after the shelling, they fled along with the hundreds of Arabs to the Pakistani borders. The villagers their hosted them, who subsequently handed them over to the Americans for money. They were taken to cement jails in Qandahar military airport. Then they were deported to Guantanamo. Those men were not convicted, released in 2006 and 2007 and returned to Bahrain. One of them, Abdulla Al-Noaimi established a committee whose objective was to support Guantanamo detainees. In 2008 the Saudi authorities arrested him while he was going to Saudi Arabia through King Fahd Causeway.

September 2002
The Bahraini authorities arrested Mukhtar Al-Bakri (American citizen of Yemeni background) in an apartment in Um-Al-Hassam according to an arrest warrant from the American authorities. They suspected his links to Al-Qaeda. He was arrested in connection to an Al-Qaeda cell that was captured by the FBI in the suburbs of Buffalo city in New York. It was reported that he had lived close to five arrested Yemenis. The American Authorities charged them of financially supporting a foreign terrorist organisation and conspiring with it to carry out terrorist acts.

February 2003
The Bahrain authorities arrested the Bahraini citizen Mohiuddin Mahmood Khan for suspecting him of connections to Al-Qaeda. Khan had travelled twice to Afghanistan during the Afghani war against the Soviet Union, the second time was in 1986. He revealed in a press conference that he had gone to Afghanistan: "After I contacted Sheikh Ben Othaimeen [of Saudi Arabia] and I took a fatwa [religious edict] from him to go to Afghanistan, the Saudi government knew about those who went to Afghanistan."

August 2003
The security authorities in Saudi Arabia arrested two Bahraini nationals: Abdulraheem Al-Mirbati who was arrested in Madina after raiding his house, and Sheikh Mohammed Saleh who was arrested on King Fahd Causway. They were arrested for being suspected to have links with Riyadh bombing of 7 June 2003 and planning to carry out bombings in Bahrain. It was reported that the Saudi General Intelligence interrogated the Al-Mirbati for his activity in a licensed charity NGO, despite Saudi Arabia had been financing it till recently and it was active in the Afghan refugee camps during the Soviet occupation. He is still in jail until now.

October 2003
The Kuwaiti authorities issued an arrest warrant for the Bahraini citizen Yasser Abdulla Kamal for suspecting of having links with Al-Qaeda. He disappeared in Kuwait refusing to hand himself in to the authorities. It was reported that the security authorities in Kuwait suspected his connection with the Islamic groups that the Americans classify as "terrorist".

July 2004
The Bahraini authorities announced that it had arrested a Salafist group for suspicion of belonging to Al-Qaeda. The cell was composed of: Bassam Bukhowa, Bassam Al-Ali, Yasser Abdulla Kamal, Omar Abdulla Kamal, Mohiuddin Mahmood Khan, and Ali Mahmood Khan. An official in the National Security Agency said: "Information has accumulated of a scheme to carry out sabotage to compromise the citizens and expatriates' lives, to cause terror and disseminate chaos in the society." The attorney general announced a few days later that it had interrogated the suspects and concluded that the evidence was not enough to indict them and decided to release them without any guarantees. The detainee Mohiuddin Mahmood Khan declared after his release that the interrogation focused on his relation with people overseas and specifically in Jordan, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. He said: "In the National Security Agency, they asked me about an American who lives in Saudi Arabia, I told them that that guy had nothing, why always you suspect people? They asked us about our opinion of what's going on in Saudi Arabia and we said that I was religiously forbidden, but what's going on in the Jihad lands like Iraq, Chechnya, and Afghanistan is a real Jihad." Bassam Bukhowa commented in the press conference: "America pressurizes us to say No to Al-Qaeda, but in reality it wants us to say No to Islam, we have to be accurate: Al-Qaeda is a group of muslims."

January 2007
The authorities in UAE arrested the Bahraini Adel Abdulkhaleq in Dubai. He was charged of affiliating to Al-Qaeda, covering up of information about mass destruction in Iraq, fighting alongside extremists, possession of expulsive materials, and financing Al-Qaeda. He also was charged of trying to transport electronic chips from Bahrain to Iran via UAE that could be used in making explosives for Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Iraq. He was charged of receiving military training and taking part in attacks in Afghanistan and raising funds for Al-Qaeda. The interrogators in Dubai questioned him about: "Religious figures, individuals and even MP who is still in the parliament, and his relations with them and whether they have connections with Al-Qaeda."

August 2007
The authorities in Bahrain declared that they had dismantled a cell composed of five men among eleven suspects of affiliating to Al-Qaeda. The Attorney General charged them of: "They supported and financed a group that practices terrorism while they were aware of it, and participating in aggression acts against a foreign country." It charged them too of: "Affiliating to and cooperating with a group whose headquarters is abroad that takes of terrorism and training on it a means to commit acts against a foreign country." It added: "They received military training to use arms and explosives to assist them to carry out terrorist acts."

February 2009
The Crimial Court ruled to imprison a Bahraini citizen for one year for financing Al-Qaeda. It ruled in absentia to imprison the second and third defendants (one of them was Syrian) for five years. The details of the case pointed out to: "The first defendant to be takfirist and communicated with elements affiliated to Al-Qaeda overseas. He has a broad activity in financing that organisation as he travelled with another defendant who was convicted in January 2007." The Attorney General investigations stated: "The two defendants submitted to that organisation's chief sums of money, and the defendant travelled alone in March and May and submitted an official in Al-Qaeda other sums of money." The main suspect was arrested before leaving Bahrain Airport on 9 June 2007.

May 2009
The Pentagon issued a report where it said that 27 detainees in Guantanamo who had been released had returned to their terrorist acts. The report stated the Bahraini national's name Abdulla Al-Noaimi.

March 2010
The High Criminal Court ruled to imprison two defendants for five years, one of them a Jordanian who had Bahraini citizenship and the other a Bahrain who worked in the Customs and Ports. The court ordered to confiscate the appropriated weapons in a case related to an attack against the American Naval base in Jufair area. The Attorney General stated: "During 2007 and 2008 the two defendants attempted to carry out terrorist acts against a foreign country inside the kingdom of Bahrain." It added: "They imported two automatic weapons with ammunition to implement a terrorist objective." The Attorney General charged them of: "Importing ammunition for that fire arm to implement a terrorist objective."

July 2012
The American State Department declared that it had included a Bahraini National of Al-Qaeda as wanted since five years in his country. "The Department of State designated Ahmed Abdulrahman Sihab Ahmed Sihab, also known as Abdulrahman al-Sharqi, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under section 1(b) of Executive Order 13224. Sihab, a Bahraini citizen, has been publicly charged with planning terrorist attacks as a member of al-Qa'ida. Sihab has trained members of al-Qa'ida in terrorist tactics, techniques, and procedures. Since January 2007, Sihab has been wanted for extradition by the Government of Bahrain for participating in terrorist activities and an Interpol Red Notice has been issued for Sihab's arrest" (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/07/195140.htm)

January 2013
The Saudi authorities arrested an American resident who: "Planned a terrorist attack in a military base in Bahrain." And said: "The defendant travelled there and filmed the military base and provided his cell leader a video footage of the base." It added: "The defendant is the fourth in a cell consisting of 24 persons who attempt to attack non-Muslims inside and outside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, carry out terrorist attacks against figures in Saudi Arabia, and train the cell members in using weapons."

Link to the Arabic copy ●

America's Major non NATO Ally, Safe Haven for Al-Qaeda «1-3»

Additional Appendices for the first episode:

Near to Naval Base.. Obama, Obama, Today All of Us Osama