NAME: Khaled bin Ouda bin Mohammed al-Harbi, alias Abu Suleiman al-Makki

AGE: Doesn’t really matter

NATIONALITY: Saudi

CLAIM TO FAME: Osama’s confidant having surrendered to the Saudis

DISABLED, both physically and in spirit, the aging Khaled bin Ouda bin Mohammed al-Harbi, a confidant of Osama bin Laden, was probably tired of running and hiding. And not being a major operational Al Qaeda member and rather opting for the Saudi government’s amnesty offer and turning himself in, is likely to lead him to a better fate then being caught hiding. Under the offer, the state would drop all charges against those who surrender but they will still have to obtain a pardon from people harmed by their acts.

Al Harbi was hiding along the Iranian-Afghan border with his family and he contacted the Saudi Embassy in Tehran where he surrendered to Saudi diplomats and was flown to the Kingdom on Tuesday last. Arriving in a wheelchair along with his wife and teenage son, he seemed relived to be back, though in custody and poor health. Describing the amnesty offer as “generous” and urging other militants to take advantage of it, Al Harbi told the Saudi TV at the airport: “Thank God, thank God. ... I called the embassy, and we were very well received. I have come obeying God and obeying the (kingdom’s) rulers.”

The man who was once part of the bin Laden’s posse is the third person to surrender, and the most important so far, since the one-month government amnesty offer started on June 23. However, his name does not appear on the list of the kingdom’s 26 most-wanted militants and it has not been disclosed what exactly he is wanted for. He will prove valuable due to his closeness to the Al Qaeda leader. But it is believed that he was not involved in the planning of the recent attacks by the organization on foreign targets in Saudi Arabia, and is not likely to have much information about the future activities of the globally hunted terrorist group.

Al-Makki is related to Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama’s right hand man, by marriage and was seen talking to bin Laden in a videotape in which the two praised the September 11 attacks on US cities. The CIA released the videotape in December 2001. A resident of Mecca, from where he took his family name, al Makki is a veteran Saudi “Afghan Arab” who fought in Afghanistan and Bosnia for 11 years. Makki was disabled by a piece of shrapnel that hit him in the back while fighting in Bosnia and left him semi-paralyzed in his lower limbs. He was smuggled to Afghanistan during the US-led campaign on Osama and the Taliban. He is a leading cleric who taught the Holy Quran and religion to a large number of Arab mujahideen who were not members of Al Qaeda. Whether he has any information about Osama is something that will only be determined with time and interrogation, what would be interesting to see is if the amnesty offer sees more important surrenders and decrease in terrorist activities in the kingdom.