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From Hopeful Immigrant to FBI Informant: The Inside Story of the Other Abu Zubaidah
This is the exclusive story of two brothers. One brother was accused of plotting to destroy America, while the other was determined to pursue the American dream...
What is it like to share a surname with an infamous alleged terrorist? Ask Hesham Abu Zubaidah, the younger brother of Zayn al-Abidin Mohamed Husayn, better known to the world as the high-value Guantanamo detainee "Abu Zubaidah," whom the US government has for more than a decade claimed was "one of the highest-ranking members of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization" and "involved in every major terrorist operation carried out by al-Qaeda," including the 9/11 attacks. Hesham, Truthout lead investigative reporter Jason Leopold discovered, has been living in the United States since 1998, but for more than a decade he has been paying a high price for his brother's alleged crimes. He was locked up for two years in immigration jail after 9/11 and later recruited by the FBI as an informant to spy on Muslims. Finally, he was forced to testify against his brother before a federal grand jury in Richmond, Virginia, two years ago.
During the course of Leopold's 14-month investigation, the FBI took the unprecedented step of sending out an agent to speak with Hesham about a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request Leopold filed for Hesham's case file to determine if Leopold coerced or bribed him into signing a form authorizing the bureau to release his records to Leopold.
What is it like to share a surname with an infamous alleged terrorist? Ask Hesham Abu Zubaidah, the younger brother of Zayn al-Abidin Mohamed Husayn, better known to the world as the high-value Guantanamo detainee "Abu Zubaidah," whom the US government has for more than a decade claimed was "one of the highest-ranking members of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization" and "involved in every major terrorist operation carried out by al-Qaeda," including the 9/11 attacks. Hesham, Truthout lead investigative reporter Jason Leopold discovered, has been living in the United States since 1998, but for more than a decade he has been paying a high price for his brother's alleged crimes. He was locked up for two years in immigration jail after 9/11 and later recruited by the FBI as an informant to spy on Muslims. Finally, he was forced to testify against his brother before a federal grand jury in Richmond, Virginia, two years ago.
During the course of Leopold's 14-month investigation, the FBI took the unprecedented step of sending out an agent to speak with Hesham about a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request Leopold filed for Hesham's case file to determine if Leopold coerced or bribed him into signing a form authorizing the bureau to release his records to Leopold.
53 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 29, 2012
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About the author
Jason Leopold
3 books15 followersJason Leopold is a senior investigative reporter on the Bloomberg News investigations team. Previously, he was a senior investigative reporter at BuzzFeed News.
Leopold is a recipient of the 2022 George Polk award for health reporting and a 2023 Gerald Loeb award for investigative reporting. He has twice been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in international reporting. He was honored as a finalist in 2021 as one of the lead reporters on the massive reporting project known as the FinCEN Files, an investigation by BuzzFeed News, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and 108 media partners around the world based on US government documents Leopold obtained, that revealed how banks knowingly profit from corruption and how authorities around the world allow the dark economy to flourish. Leopold was also honored as a Pulitzer finalist in 2018 as part of the team that investigated a series of suspicious deaths in the UK & US they linked back to the Kremlin. In 2015, Leopold was nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy award for producing The Architect for VICE News, the first ever interview with retired Air Force psychologist James Mitchell, the man credited with developing the CIA's torture program whose story Leopold had pursued for a decade.
Leopold's Freedom of Information Act work has been profiled by dozens of radio, television, and print outlets, including a 2015 front-page story in the New York Times. He has testified before a congressional oversight committee about the shortcomings of FOIA and steps the government needed to take to improve the law.
In 2020, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a data research organization out of Syracuse University, identified Leopold as "the most active individual FOIA litigator in the United States today." Politico has also referred to Leopold as “perhaps the most prolific Freedom of Information requester.” In 2016, Leopold was awarded the FOI award from Investigative Reporters & Editors and was inducted into the National Freedom of Information Hall of Fame by the Freedom Forum Institute and the Newseum.
Leopold is a recipient of the 2022 George Polk award for health reporting and a 2023 Gerald Loeb award for investigative reporting. He has twice been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in international reporting. He was honored as a finalist in 2021 as one of the lead reporters on the massive reporting project known as the FinCEN Files, an investigation by BuzzFeed News, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and 108 media partners around the world based on US government documents Leopold obtained, that revealed how banks knowingly profit from corruption and how authorities around the world allow the dark economy to flourish. Leopold was also honored as a Pulitzer finalist in 2018 as part of the team that investigated a series of suspicious deaths in the UK & US they linked back to the Kremlin. In 2015, Leopold was nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy award for producing The Architect for VICE News, the first ever interview with retired Air Force psychologist James Mitchell, the man credited with developing the CIA's torture program whose story Leopold had pursued for a decade.
Leopold's Freedom of Information Act work has been profiled by dozens of radio, television, and print outlets, including a 2015 front-page story in the New York Times. He has testified before a congressional oversight committee about the shortcomings of FOIA and steps the government needed to take to improve the law.
In 2020, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a data research organization out of Syracuse University, identified Leopold as "the most active individual FOIA litigator in the United States today." Politico has also referred to Leopold as “perhaps the most prolific Freedom of Information requester.” In 2016, Leopold was awarded the FOI award from Investigative Reporters & Editors and was inducted into the National Freedom of Information Hall of Fame by the Freedom Forum Institute and the Newseum.
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August 11, 2012well, I wrote it so I am clearly biased. This was an intense investigation that caught the attention of government agencies and resulted in a FOIA lawsuit against the FBI.
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