Essam Marzouk
Encyclopedia
An Egyptian resident of British Columbia
, Essam Hafez Mohammed Marzouk (عصام حافظ محمد مرزوق) arrived in Vancouver, Canada in 1993 as a refugee
fleeing persecution in Pakistan
. He was one of 14 people subjected to extraordinary rendition
by the CIA prior to the 2001 declaration of a War on Terror
.
In 1999, he was convicted as a member of the Vanguards of Conquest
, a pre-cursor to al-Jihad. The Egyptian government says that he belongs to the terrorist group al-Jihad. He is currently serving 15 years in an Egyptian prison for supporting terrorism.
, Marzouk grew up in a 5th-storey apartment at 2 Doctor El-Mahroky Street in the suburban Mohandeseen district of Cairo. Following his service in the Egyptian Army
, he told his father he wanted to study in the United States
, but instead moved to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas
along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border at the age of 19.
In 1986-87, he worked as an ambulance
driver at the Red Crescent hospital in Peshawar
, Pakistan
where he met Egyptian-Canadian Ahmed Khadr, and later worked with the Muslim World League
.
From 1988-1993 he is alleged to have run an Afghan training camp
for al-Jihad.
Flight 492 in Frankfurt, Germany.
Dressed as a Saudi sheikh
and calling himself Fawzi Al-Harbi, he was arrested in Canada when immigration official Gordon Peterson became suspicious of his story of being an "Arab volunteer" in Afghanistan and Pakistan, ordered a search of his luggage and found his fake identity cards. Ali Mohamed
had travelled north from California to meet Marzouk at the airport. Airport security noticed him waiting for "Al-Harbi" and questioned him, before releasing him. While in prison, on charges of using a forged document, fraud and illegally entering the country, Marzouk applied for refugee status, claiming he feared religious and political persecution in Egypt. He was once shown a TIME
magazine article about the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, and asked if he knew any of the people involved, in the presence of lawyer Phil Rankin.
Six months after his arrest, Mohamed returned from a trip to the Sudan where he met with Osama bin Laden
, and brought Abul-Dahab with him. Dahab later told Egyptian interrogators he had withdrawn $3,000 from a Californian
bank account on orders of bin Laden himself, to offer as bail
money to lawyer Phil Rankin. The pair hoped to have Marzouk released and possibly smuggle him into the United States. Mohamed was viewed suspiciously and subsequently detained by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
(RCMP) himself. However, after a brief phone call with U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) agent John Zent, Mohamed was identified as a CIA agent. Marzouk spent nearly a year in detention in Canada before his refugee status was confirmed and he was released, although Canadian authorities prevented him from being given permanent resident status due to their suspicions, and he was instead granted only refugee status on December 12, 1994.
Upon his week, Rankin allowed him to move briefly into his family home, describing him as "very polite" and allowing him to babysit his young son.
Marzouk married a Canadian woman named Yasmien, and together they bore a child. He was tentatively employed as a truck driver
, and was living on social assistance with a net worth of approximately C$20,000 and was being physically followed by Canadian intelligence agents. He made a number of phone calls to Mohammad Zeki Mahjoub's Toronto home, although the latter denied knowing him in a 1998 interrogation. When Mahjoub was later arrested, he was carrying a slip of paper with Marzouk's former address, 105 10277 135th St. Box 150 Surrey B.C. V3T 4C , printed on it, and later confessed he had indeed known him.
In 1997, the FBI found Marzouk listed in an address book
taken from Wadih El-Hage
's Nairobi
house. In 1998 he was introduced to Mohammad Zeki Mahjoub at the house of Ahmed Khadr's in-laws in Toronto.
That year, Marzouk co-founded an import-export business named 4-U Enterprises with his "best friend" in Canada, former Egyptian Amr Hamed
who shared his love of sports. The two shared their faith openly, and would sometimes disappear into the forests of the coastal mountains for days at a time as a spiritual retreat to memorise the Quran
. In February 1998, he sold off his company assets,
In May 1998, Marzouk visited Ahmed Khadr, from the hospitals in Peshawar, at home, where he was introduced to Mohammad Zeki Mahjoub, a member of the Vanguards of Conquest
.
, where he is believed to have met with Ahmad Agiza before returning to Eastern Afghanistan. After his friend Hamed was killed in the American bombing of an Afghan training camp
on August 20, as retaliation for the African embassy bombings
, Marzouk flew to Dubai
and onward to Europe
, before quickly doubling back to Dubai and booking a flight to Azerbaijan
.
In August, a wiretapped phonecall tipped off the Israeli Mossad
that a rendez-vous between Ihab Saqr
and an Iranian MOIS official was planned in Baku, Azerbaijan. Without a bureau in Azerbaijan, they contacted the American CIA, who allowed a Canadian-raised Mossad agent to unofficially tag along as seven or eight CIA officers based in Frankfurt
oversaw a local police raid on the Baku hotelroom on August 20.
When the Azeri police received confirmation that Saqr was in his hotelroom drinking coffee with others, they stormed the room grabbing all three people they found present and brought them still barefoot to the police station. It was now realised that the Iranian official hadn't yet shown up, and they had instead arrested Saqr, as well as Ahmad Salama Mabruk
and Marzouk, who was wearing a "shabby business suit". They were brought to the police station, where the Mossad agent says the police "beat the crap out of them".
Marzouk was extradited to Egypt, who initially denied they had him - during which time he alleges he was tortured. He was accused of acting as a trainer to two of the embassy bombers. He was put before a military tribunal
on March 16, 1999, as part of the Returnees from Albania
trial, with Montasser al-Zayat as his lawyer. He was sentenced to 15 years' hard labour for being an alleged member of al-Jihad. As of 2008, he is still believed to be incarcerated although there is no absolute proof.
In November 2001, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
investigated claims that an "al-Qaeda office" in Kabul
had business card
s reading 4-U Enterprises - Amr H. Hamed and included an address for a rented postal box in a B.C. convenience store
.
In their 2008 report concerning Mahmoud Jaballah, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service
(CSIS) misidentified Amr Hamed
and Marzouk as being the same person. In their 2008 report concerning Mohammad Zeki Mahjoub, they reported that Marzouk was convicted in absentia in Egypt in 1998, although he was not.
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, Essam Hafez Mohammed Marzouk (عصام حافظ محمد مرزوق) arrived in Vancouver, Canada in 1993 as a refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
fleeing persecution in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
. He was one of 14 people subjected to extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition is the abduction and illegal transfer of a person from one nation to another. "Torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe situations in which the United States and the United Kingdom have transferred suspected terrorists to other countries in order to torture the...
by the CIA prior to the 2001 declaration of a War on Terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
.
In 1999, he was convicted as a member of the Vanguards of Conquest
Vanguards of Conquest
Founded as a branch of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad operating in Somalia in 1993, the Vanguards of Conquest were a separate faction that eventually folded back into the group under the leadership of Ayman al-Zawahiri....
, a pre-cursor to al-Jihad. The Egyptian government says that he belongs to the terrorist group al-Jihad. He is currently serving 15 years in an Egyptian prison for supporting terrorism.
Life
Born to a wealthy engineer in CairoCairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, Marzouk grew up in a 5th-storey apartment at 2 Doctor El-Mahroky Street in the suburban Mohandeseen district of Cairo. Following his service in the Egyptian Army
Egyptian Army
The Egyptian Army is the largest service branch within the Egyptian Armed Forces and holds power in the current Egyptian government. It is estimated to number around 379,000, in addition to 479,000 reservists for a total of 858,000 strong. The modern army was created in the 1820s, and during the...
, he told his father he wanted to study in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, but instead moved to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas
Federally Administered Tribal Areas
The Federally Administered Tribal Areas are a semi-autonomous tribal region in the northwest of Pakistan, lying between the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and the neighboring country of Afghanistan. The FATA comprise seven Agencies and six FRs...
along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border at the age of 19.
In 1986-87, he worked as an ambulance
Ambulance
An ambulance is a vehicle for transportation of sick or injured people to, from or between places of treatment for an illness or injury, and in some instances will also provide out of hospital medical care to the patient...
driver at the Red Crescent hospital in Peshawar
Peshawar
Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
where he met Egyptian-Canadian Ahmed Khadr, and later worked with the Muslim World League
Muslim World League
The Muslim World League is one of the largest Islamic non-governmental organizations. Muslim religious figures from 22 states founded it in Makkah in 1962.-Structure:...
.
From 1988-1993 he is alleged to have run an Afghan training camp
Afghan training camp
An Afghan training camp is a camp or facility used for militant training located in pre-2002 Afghanistan. At the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Indian intelligence officials estimated that there were over 120 training camps operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan, run by a variety of...
for al-Jihad.
In Canada
In 1993, Marzouk acquired two fake Saudi passports and flew to Khartoum, Sudan on May 23. Once there, he acquired tickets to fly from Damascus, Syria to Vancouver, Canada, connecting with LufthansaLufthansa
Deutsche Lufthansa AG is the flag carrier of Germany and the largest airline in Europe in terms of overall passengers carried. The name of the company is derived from Luft , and Hansa .The airline is the world's fourth-largest airline in terms of overall passengers carried, operating...
Flight 492 in Frankfurt, Germany.
Dressed as a Saudi sheikh
Sheikh
Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...
and calling himself Fawzi Al-Harbi, he was arrested in Canada when immigration official Gordon Peterson became suspicious of his story of being an "Arab volunteer" in Afghanistan and Pakistan, ordered a search of his luggage and found his fake identity cards. Ali Mohamed
Ali Mohamed
Ali Abdul Saoud Mohamed, is a double agent who worked for both the CIA and Egyptian Islamic Jihad simultaneously, reporting on the workings of each for the benefit of the other....
had travelled north from California to meet Marzouk at the airport. Airport security noticed him waiting for "Al-Harbi" and questioned him, before releasing him. While in prison, on charges of using a forged document, fraud and illegally entering the country, Marzouk applied for refugee status, claiming he feared religious and political persecution in Egypt. He was once shown a TIME
Time
Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....
magazine article about the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, and asked if he knew any of the people involved, in the presence of lawyer Phil Rankin.
Six months after his arrest, Mohamed returned from a trip to the Sudan where he met with Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
, and brought Abul-Dahab with him. Dahab later told Egyptian interrogators he had withdrawn $3,000 from a Californian
Californian
Californian is an adjective describing something related to the American state of California.It can also refer to:Periodicals:* The Bakersfield Californian, Bakersfield, California* The Salinas Californian, Salinas, California...
bank account on orders of bin Laden himself, to offer as bail
Bail
Traditionally, bail is some form of property deposited or pledged to a court to persuade it to release a suspect from jail, on the understanding that the suspect will return for trial or forfeit the bail...
money to lawyer Phil Rankin. The pair hoped to have Marzouk released and possibly smuggle him into the United States. Mohamed was viewed suspiciously and subsequently detained by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
(RCMP) himself. However, after a brief phone call with U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
(FBI) agent John Zent, Mohamed was identified as a CIA agent. Marzouk spent nearly a year in detention in Canada before his refugee status was confirmed and he was released, although Canadian authorities prevented him from being given permanent resident status due to their suspicions, and he was instead granted only refugee status on December 12, 1994.
Upon his week, Rankin allowed him to move briefly into his family home, describing him as "very polite" and allowing him to babysit his young son.
Marzouk married a Canadian woman named Yasmien, and together they bore a child. He was tentatively employed as a truck driver
Truck driver
A truck driver , is a person who earns a living as the driver of a truck, usually a semi truck, box truck, or dump truck.Truck drivers provide an essential service to...
, and was living on social assistance with a net worth of approximately C$20,000 and was being physically followed by Canadian intelligence agents. He made a number of phone calls to Mohammad Zeki Mahjoub's Toronto home, although the latter denied knowing him in a 1998 interrogation. When Mahjoub was later arrested, he was carrying a slip of paper with Marzouk's former address, 105 10277 135th St. Box 150 Surrey B.C. V3T 4C , printed on it, and later confessed he had indeed known him.
In 1997, the FBI found Marzouk listed in an address book
Address book
An address book or a name and address book is a book or a database used for storing entries called contacts. Each contact entry usually consists of a few standard fields...
taken from Wadih El-Hage
Wadih el-Hage
Wadih el-Hage is a former al-Qaeda member who is serving life imprisonment in the United States for his part in the 1998 United States embassy bombings. He was indicted and arrested in 1998, and convicted on all counts and sentenced to life without parole in 2001...
's Nairobi
Nairobi
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
house. In 1998 he was introduced to Mohammad Zeki Mahjoub at the house of Ahmed Khadr's in-laws in Toronto.
That year, Marzouk co-founded an import-export business named 4-U Enterprises with his "best friend" in Canada, former Egyptian Amr Hamed
Amr Hamed
Amr Mohamed Hamed was a Canadian who died in the American bombing of an Afghan training camp on August 20, 1998, as retaliation for the African embassy bombings.-Life in Egypt:...
who shared his love of sports. The two shared their faith openly, and would sometimes disappear into the forests of the coastal mountains for days at a time as a spiritual retreat to memorise the Quran
Hafez
Khwāja Shamsu d-Dīn Muhammad Hāfez-e Shīrāzī , known by his pen name Hāfez , was a Persian lyric poet. His collected works composed of series of Persian poetry are to be found in the homes of most Iranians, who learn his poems by heart and use them as proverbs and sayings to this day...
. In February 1998, he sold off his company assets,
In May 1998, Marzouk visited Ahmed Khadr, from the hospitals in Peshawar, at home, where he was introduced to Mohammad Zeki Mahjoub, a member of the Vanguards of Conquest
Vanguards of Conquest
Founded as a branch of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad operating in Somalia in 1993, the Vanguards of Conquest were a separate faction that eventually folded back into the group under the leadership of Ayman al-Zawahiri....
.
Arrest and imprisonment
After five years, Marzouk left his Canadian wife and child in 1998, and flew to TurkeyTurkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, where he is believed to have met with Ahmad Agiza before returning to Eastern Afghanistan. After his friend Hamed was killed in the American bombing of an Afghan training camp
Afghan training camp
An Afghan training camp is a camp or facility used for militant training located in pre-2002 Afghanistan. At the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Indian intelligence officials estimated that there were over 120 training camps operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan, run by a variety of...
on August 20, as retaliation for the African embassy bombings
1998 United States embassy bombings
The 1998 United States embassy bombings were a series of attacks that occurred on August 7, 1998, in which hundreds of people were killed in simultaneous truck bomb explosions at the United States embassies in the East African capitals of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. The date of the...
, Marzouk flew to Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
and onward to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, before quickly doubling back to Dubai and booking a flight to Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
.
In August, a wiretapped phonecall tipped off the Israeli Mossad
Mossad
The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....
that a rendez-vous between Ihab Saqr
Ihab Saqr
A member of the Vanguards of Conquest, Ihab Abdallah Saqr was believed to have coordinated the bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad. and was a high-priority target for the CIA when he was captured in Baku, Azerbaijan...
and an Iranian MOIS official was planned in Baku, Azerbaijan. Without a bureau in Azerbaijan, they contacted the American CIA, who allowed a Canadian-raised Mossad agent to unofficially tag along as seven or eight CIA officers based in Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
oversaw a local police raid on the Baku hotelroom on August 20.
When the Azeri police received confirmation that Saqr was in his hotelroom drinking coffee with others, they stormed the room grabbing all three people they found present and brought them still barefoot to the police station. It was now realised that the Iranian official hadn't yet shown up, and they had instead arrested Saqr, as well as Ahmad Salama Mabruk
Ahmad Salama Mabruk
Ahmad Salam Mabruk was the alleged leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad's Azeri cell. He was one of 14 people subjected to extraordinary rendition by the CIA prior to the 2001 declaration of a War on Terror.-Life:...
and Marzouk, who was wearing a "shabby business suit". They were brought to the police station, where the Mossad agent says the police "beat the crap out of them".
Marzouk was extradited to Egypt, who initially denied they had him - during which time he alleges he was tortured. He was accused of acting as a trainer to two of the embassy bombers. He was put before a military tribunal
Military tribunal
A military tribunal is a kind of military court designed to try members of enemy forces during wartime, operating outside the scope of conventional criminal and civil proceedings. The judges are military officers and fulfill the role of jurors...
on March 16, 1999, as part of the Returnees from Albania
Returnees from Albania
The case of the Returnees from Albania was a massive criminal trial in an Egyptian military court from February to April 1999. The trial is one of the principal sources of information about Sunni terrorist groups in the 1990s, especially al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya and its offshoot Egyptian Islamic...
trial, with Montasser al-Zayat as his lawyer. He was sentenced to 15 years' hard labour for being an alleged member of al-Jihad. As of 2008, he is still believed to be incarcerated although there is no absolute proof.
In November 2001, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
investigated claims that an "al-Qaeda office" in Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
had business card
Business card
Business cards are cards bearing business information about a company or individual. They are shared during formal introductions as a convenience and a memory aid. A business card typically includes the giver's name, company affiliation and contact information such as street addresses, telephone...
s reading 4-U Enterprises - Amr H. Hamed and included an address for a rented postal box in a B.C. convenience store
Convenience store
A convenience store, corner store, corner shop, commonly called a bodega in Spanish-speaking areas of the United States, is a small store or shop in a built up area that stocks a range of everyday items such as groceries, toiletries, alcoholic and soft drinks, and may also offer money order and...
.
In their 2008 report concerning Mahmoud Jaballah, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service
Canadian Security Intelligence Service
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is Canada's national intelligence service. It is responsible for collecting, analyzing, reporting and disseminating intelligence on threats to Canada's national security, and conducting operations, covert and overt, within Canada and abroad.Its...
(CSIS) misidentified Amr Hamed
Amr Hamed
Amr Mohamed Hamed was a Canadian who died in the American bombing of an Afghan training camp on August 20, 1998, as retaliation for the African embassy bombings.-Life in Egypt:...
and Marzouk as being the same person. In their 2008 report concerning Mohammad Zeki Mahjoub, they reported that Marzouk was convicted in absentia in Egypt in 1998, although he was not.