The Terror Doctors

Mind doctors dominate al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, pushing a political agenda under the guise of— and at the expense of—Islam. Freedom continues its probe of the psycho-terrorists and their murderous actions.

By Gordon Thomas & Thomas G. Whittle

“If one is looking for the cause of an act of terrorism, one must look for its source in anti-religious ideologies. Religion enjoins love, compassion, forgiveness, peace and living according to high moral standards. Terrorism, on the other hand, is on the side of cruelty and violence, causing pain, bloodshed and committing murder. “‘Islamic terror’ is an erroneous concept which contradicts the message of Islam.” — Harun Yahya, author, Islam Denounces Terrorism

Thursday, March 11, 2004, is a day seared into the minds of the Spanish people as indelibly as September 11, 2001, scarred the memories of Americans. At the height of the morning rush hour, in the span of three minutes, 10 explosions ripped through trains in three bustling Madrid stations, leaving in their wake 191 dead and 1,900 injured—Europe’s deadliest terrorist carnage since the Pan American airliner was blown out of the sky over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.

Six or more operatives planted the bombs, timed for simultaneous detonation to amplify the psychological impact.

Planning was meticulous, beginning at least 10 months earlier, when Moroccan psychiatrist Abu Hafiza had gathered a number of al-Qaeda agents from Saudi Arabia and brought them to Fallujah, Iraq, around May 2003.

Over the next few months, posing as a teacher from a religious school or madrasa from the Fallujah area, Hafiza roamed Iraq, gathering intelligence on special assignment from Ayman al-Zawahiri, fellow psychiatrist and the top al-Qaeda strategist.

After completing his reconnaissance, Hafiza left Iraq and met with al-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden in August 2003 near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, debriefing on his observations and making recommendations that ultimately took shape in the Spanish bombings.¹

“Domino Effect”

In December 2003, a 42-page tract ascribed to Hafiza², entitled “Iraqi Jihad, Hopes and Risks,” appeared on an al-Qaeda-linked Web site, outlining political interests and terrorist plans, with roughly five pages devoted to Spain.

It warned that unless Spanish troops left Iraq, attacks of such ferocity would follow that the Spanish electorate would turn away from the government of Jose Maria Aznar and demand their troops come home, creating a “domino effect” that would compel Italy and the United Kingdom to also withdraw their forces.

Around the same time, a five-page ultimatum appeared on the same Web site stating, “If the Spanish people want to preserve the blood of their children, pull them out of Iraq—before we send them back to their families as burned corpses.”

Osama bin Laden and psychiatrist Ayman al-Zawahiri Masters of Terror Moroccan psychiatrist Abu Hafiza set the stage for the bombings that shattered trains in three Madrid stations on March 11, 2004, leaving 191 dead and 1,900 injured. Before the attack, Hafiza roamed Iraq, gathering intelligence on special assignment from Ayman al-Zawahiri, fellow psychiatrist and the most senior al-Qaeda strategist. Hafiza then met with al-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, recommending what ultimately took form in the Spanish bombings—calculated to induce not only Spain, but also Italy and the United Kingdom to withdraw their forces from Iraq. MANHUNT: The plan reportedly called for six or more operatives to plant bombs; the list of suspects grows, but Hafiza remains at large.

Three months later, the Madrid bombs exploded and at least part of Hafiza’s plan bore fruit. Three days after the carnage, the Spanish people elected a new prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who proceeded to remove Spanish troops from Iraq, a task completed by May 21, 2004.

As deadly as they were, the Madrid bombings were only the latest in a lethal terrorist career extending back at least as far as the mid-1990s, when Hafiza entered al-Qaeda’s inner circle.

Deadliest Terrorist

Emerging from research into terrorist kingpins—those engineers of terrorist calamities from 9/11 to the Madrid bombings—one is struck by the dominance of members of the psychiatric profession in their midst, men such as Abu Hafiza.

More observable and widespread are their tools of the trade—the coercive psychiatric methods integral to the creation of their terrorist corps, which in turn forwards the political agendas promulgated by the terror doctors. These include the use of mind-altering, intoxicating drugs.

In previous editions, Freedom exposed the role of drugs and other psychiatric means to create suicide bombers in Lebanon, Israel and elsewhere, identifying such figures as psychiatrists Aziz al-Abub of Hezbollah and Ayman al-Zawahiri of al-Qaeda as pivotal in the terrorist movement. (See “Behind the Terror,” Volume 34, Issue 1, and “‘Sacred’ Explosions,” Volume 35, Issue 1.)

Al-Zawahiri, most famously recognized from grainy al-Qaeda videos as Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man, is considered by many to be the deadliest terrorist of the last quarter-century. He has been called “bin Laden’s brain” by Montasser al-Zayyat, an Egyptian lawyer who spent three years behind bars with him.³ Cofer Black, a former CIA terrorism expert now with the U.S. State Department, recently said al-Zawahiri “represents more of a threat” than bin Laden.⁴

Experts say that al-Zawahiri, acting as personal doctor and counselor to bin Laden, molded him from role to role—from billionaire financier of Afghan resistance to the Soviet Union, to proponent of violent insurgency against Western political targets, and ultimately to the don of global terror.

A pioneer in the use of suicide bombers, psychiatrist al-Zawahiri also introduced the psychological propaganda tool of videotaping statements of would-be bombers before their martyrdom.⁵

By posturing that terror agents carry out a great jihad in the name of their faith, he has sought to solicit support from the Islamic world.

Yet, the very methods of mind manipulation and mass murder al-Zawahiri and other psychiatrists-cum-terror mongers put into effect are at odds with, and parasitic upon, the great religion of Muhammad.

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