A SHIVER ran down Nasser al-Bahri’ s spine as he heard the gruesome details of Osama bin Laden’s final moments. He was suddenly transported back in time to a cave in Afghanistan where the terrorist mastermind had told him exactly how he intended to die. It was August 1998 , and al-Qaeda had just bombed two US embassies. Bin Laden knew he was now America’s most hunted man so he called in his devoted bodyguard and gave him a chilling order. Al-Bahri recalls how “The Sheik”, pulled out a revolver with two bullets in the chamber and handed it to him. “He told me, ‘If ever the Americans encircle me, I absolutely do not want to end my life as a prisoner of the United States. So you will be in charge of killing me’.” Bin Laden drew him closer and explained: “I would rather receive two bullets in the head than be taken prisoner. I want to die a martyr – but certainly not in prison. ” Al-Bahri says: “When I heard of his death my first thought was that he had got his wish. But I’m glad I did not have to pull the trigger.” While millions in the West were celebrating the death of his former boss, al-Bahri, 39 , was mourning the loss of the fanatic he still describes as “an unrivalled leader of men”. For six years he was bin Laden’s most trusted bodyguard, sharing his most intimate thoughts as they hid out in the remote Afghan mountains. And he has revealed the extraordinary details of the bizarre lifestyle of the man responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent people. Al-Bahri has told how, between plotting terror attacks and gloating about them on videos, bin Laden would keep tabs on the fortunes of his beloved Arsenal Football Club – constantly hailing the “beauty” of their performances in the 1990 s. He once enjoyed playing the game, too, preferably at centre forward – but never removed his turban for a kick-about. He was also a decent volleyball player – because at 6ft 4ins he didn’t need to jump as high to smash the ball past his rivals. Al-Bahri recalls how the terror chief was a voracious reader and often quoted the memoirs of Field Marshal Montgomery and Charles de Gaulle. He was also obsessed with black stallions. “The Sheik loved horses,” says al- Bahri, himself a fugitive from justice now living under the radar in Yemen. “He would always stop and try to buy one if he saw one he liked along the side of the road. He loved honey too – claiming that it could cure most ailments.” Al-Bahri became so close to bin Laden that he earned the nickname Abu Jandal – The Powerful One. Like his boss, al-Bahri was born in Saudi Arabia to Yemeni immigrants. He fell in with a group of Jihadists – or Islamic warriors – in his 20 s and, in 1994 , travelled to Pakistan and then on to Afghanistan, where he became part of bin Laden’s entourage. It was in Afghanistan that he met the terrorists who, on September 11 , 2001 , would fly hijacked planes into the World Trade Center. They included Mohammed Atta, who was in regular contact with bin Laden before becoming a suicide bomber. “Like the others he was a colleague,” says al-Bahri. “We met in a safe house in Pakistan where he was playing video games on a PlayStation – flying a plane in fact. ” Recalling his day-to-day routine with bin Laden, al-Bahri says: “ From the start of the day before dawn, when he began his prayers, to late at night he was always doing something, never resting. “We were not living in a comfortable environment but that did not stop him from all the time working, thinking and planning. After prayers came administration and after administration came meetings with distinguished visitors, sometimes secret visitors, but all day he never stopped.” Osama bin Laden Al-Bahri did everything from carrying bin Laden’s baggage to making sure his satellite communications were working. Although he was long gone by the time of 9 /11 , al-Bahri later heard that bin Laden had complained about not having a satellite TV to watch the atrocities unfold at his then hideout in Kandahar. But despite his loyalty, al-Bahri never shared his master’s ruthlessness. When he once raised objections to the number of civilian casualties involved in al-Qaeda atrocities, bin Laden pointed out that the Americans were never slow to kill people themselves. “OK, but must we compare ourselves to our enemies?” al- Bahri replied, reducing bin Laden to silence. Al-Bahri was so close to bin Laden that he was chosen to travel to Yemen to “select” his fourth wife Amal al-Sadah and bring her to Afghanistan. While there he collected his own Yemeni wife Taysir al Qala and the first of their five children Habib was born in Kandahar. Bin Laden’s domestic life was no bed of roses. And he was always careful to try to avoid conflict with his four wives – as each was trained in the use of a Kalashnikov. But he was unable to stop his first wife, an uneducated Syrian and the mother of seven of his children, from becoming fiercely jealous of the second, an older Saudi Arabian who he would consult on matters of Islamic science. They, in turn, bitterly resented the arrival of teenage bride Amal from Yemen. Al-Bahri left Afghanistan in 2000 to return to Yemen because his father-in-law was ill. His departure came shortly before al-Qaeda attacked the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden – an outrage that led to his arrest. Al-Bahri was in prison when the 9 /11 attacks were launched. He described them as contributing to “one of the darkest days of my life”, mainly because “Jihad is not about attacking civilians”. Al-Bahri was released in 2002 under a Yemeni jihad rehabilitation scheme, but he is still wanted for questioning in the West. He now keeps a low profile, earning a living as a taxi driver and junior college lecturer in human resources. Last year he wrote a book, In the Shadow of Bin Laden, with French journalist Georges Malbrunot. The killing of his former boss has left him deeply shocked. But, ominously, he fears the death may galvanise al-Qaeda and perhaps make it more powerful. Referring to the terror group’s previous No 2 , Ayman al-Zawahiri, he says: “I’m not sure that he will be the new leader – he does not have the right qualities – but someone will come forward. It is only a matter of time…”
