RolePlayGateway™

Groups

Description

Tahira Ali is a diminutive woman, shorter than the vast majority of people, causing her to have to look up and others to look down when in conversation. She has thin hair that is nearly all white, with some silvery strands, cut unevenly to about the length of her bosom. Ali's prominent features are a widow's peak at the center of her hairline, and high, sharp cheekbones. In relief, her deep-set, grey eyes often seem empty and vacant, making her expressions hard to read. With almond-shaped eyes and olive-toned skin, Ali appears to be of Iranian descent. Her face is marked by crow's feet around her eyes, and deeply furrowed frown lines. For those who have seen one of the many wanted posters found practically everywhere the head turns, and in most major languages, Ali's face is instantly recognizable, as an icon of her times and notoriety, though the name or the identity belonging to the face may not be immediately recalled by the casual observer. Such wanted posters commonly appear on public bulletin boards, in post offices, and in intelligence agencies and police stations, and the 2007 photograph from the wanted posters is the one most often displayed on newscasts and in newspaper articles, when Ali is mentioned.

Personality

Robert Edwards, Director, U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, in statement made in press conference dated June 12, 2013, wrote:Tahira Ali is extremely dangerous. She has murdered not only men, but women and children in cold blood. She will not hesitate to kill. Nothing will deter her from her intent, neither the protection of an individual nor his seeming vulnerability. Ali has absolutely no problem with murdering the most vulnerable innocents and will not hesitate to end another's life. She shot both President Maynard and his three year old daughter, Lainey, in the same few seconds. Don't be fooled by her old age or her small size. Make no mistake: Tahira Ali is one cruel, twisted terrorist, responsible for scores of murders and dozens of bombings, and the FBI will be doing everything in its power to ensure we capture her as soon as possible.

And when she is caught – not if, but when – Ali will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Already, we have several strong leads as to her current location, and we have no doubt that we will find her very shortly. The U.S. Attorney for the District of Washington D.C. is personally handling this case, and Mr. Drummond has made it known that his office will be in zealous pursuit of the death penalty for Ali. The families of her many victims are crying for justice, and we hear their cries as each moment passes by.

Tahira Ali is a woman without remorse for what she has done – she continues to cause great pain and suffering to many hundreds of those who have been affected by her crimes, who have lost their fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, and friends because of what she has done. We will not be intimidated by terrorism, Tahira Ali. America will stand strong, and you will be brought to justice. This, I promise.

Special Agent Natalie E. Schultz, Tahira Ali Task Force, Joint Counter-Terrorism Task Force, U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, from statement made in press conference dated May 2013, wrote:From the reports documented from the early 1968 interviews and witness canvasses, it appears that Ali was a quiet student in the scholastic setting, socially isolated from her peers, without any meaningful reciprocal relationships outside her immediate family. Recent interrogations of certain high-value terror suspects have described Ali as willing to go to any means to accomplish her goals. While still young, she excelled in math and science, the subject areas of logic and rationality - we believe that lacking the abstract creativity necessary for success in the humanities, Ali will soon be apprehended. Nevertheless, her aptitude for subjects with high degrees of certainty and closure is indicative of a highly analytical, logistical mind and thought process - combined with the traits of a callous, hardened killer, Ali is an extremely dangerous individual. I have no further comments at this time - did you know that the name Tahira is the feminine form of the male name Taher, and means 'pure'? Well, I think it's ironic. I’m hungry. Hey, you in the green striped shirt – can I have one of those munchkins?

Ibrahim El Ghamry, defector, terror cell, from interrogation transcript dated February 2009, wrote:Our cell leader met once with Tahira Ali. She was quiet and kind, observing of all proper etiquette between two strangers of the opposite sex, a modest, humble woman who offered her solemn blessing for our mission, along with her tactical advice for the operation we were to undertake. Their meeting was brief. Ali neither told her origin nor destination. She was there and then she left. When she spoke, she spoke quietly, without making eye contact, a sign of respect, her words chosen carefully and deliberately, whether she was speaking English, a language she doesn't speak fluently, or Arabic, her native tongue.

Sumitra W. Almontaser, Hope International Ministries, from FBI interview dated December 1968, wrote:Tahira was always a quiet girl. I always worried that she was lonely, that she was slipping into a kind of depression I couldn't reach into. She didn’t seem to have many friends, no one outside our family, really. She loved me very much, me and her sister, Alia. We went to church every Sunday, and on Wednesdays, we had a Bible study in our house. Only four community members came regularly, but Tahira was always there, and she smiled at each of the guests. . . she had the sweetest smile. Sometimes, I would find her crying, when she thought she was alone, when she thought - when she thought no one else was in the house. She didn’t like to talk about her feelings. . .

She would tell me ‘secrets’ sometimes. Little things. The kind of things young people think are worthy of being called ‘secrets’. But she never told me how she felt about them, just the facts. Tahira trusted me more than anyone else. Maybe more than herself. She was afraid of thunderstorms and of being left alone at night. She was afraid of going to school sometimes, and the Lord only knows how petrified she was of public speaking. She was terrified that the teacher would call on her in class.

She grew up during a time when our country was in great turmoil. There were bombings, attacks by a terrorist group called Hezbollintefadah, the Party of Uprising, which wanted to bring about a violent overthrow of the government. In the last few months before – before Tahira ran away – there were often violent skirmishes between student protestors and the police. Hezbollintefadah’s numbers grew til they were more of a revolutionary paramilitary organization than a small group of anarchist terrorists. They launched a series of attacks against European sectors of the city. . . rockets would come. . . Tahira was scared. She would hide in a corner of her room, curled up there.

She cried often. She didn’t speak much, and hated to be called out. When she did speak, she took great pains to choose her words, and often seemed far wiser than her years. She did poorly in language classes and in social studies, but Tahira received her best grades in math and science. I was always disappointed that she didn’t seem to enjoy religion class, and I think she knew it. She sat politely through church, but it never seemed to mean much to her. She knew her Bible verses and she knew her Catechism and she knew her Creed, but she never had a. . . what do you call it. . . a born again experience.

Tahira would wander the streets by herself during the day. She would wander around the bazaar, the marketplace, and sometimes would disappear for hours into the city’s gardens. I think it was some form of escape for her. Like she was in her own little world. I let her wander around, as long as she was home before dark. When a child is young, let him have freedom and innocence. Bind him with rues only when he is old. My parents shared the philosophy. Why should I restrict where she went? She had some kind of yearning, deep inside. That I know.

Equipment

If examined, the items in Ali's possession number very few. They are as follows:

- an expertly forged passport and ID documents under the name "Fatima bint Batya", with a 1974 photo;
- a second expertly forged passport and ID documents under the name "Soraya Khan", with a 1967 photo;
- a letter in Latin from Carlos Hodgson, dated 26 April 1967, the paper folded crisply, the ink dark and neat;
- a letter in Arabic from Sumitra Almontaser, dated 3 September 1968, marred with a few drops of blood, the paper worn and slightly damaged;
- a wanted poster in Arabic, with Ali's 1968 and 2007 photographs juxtaposed, issued for 'Tahira Ali' by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; and
- a black and white photograph of a young East Asian girl (who is clearly not Ali), dated 1967, folded in half twice.

These are tucked into her pockets, and typically not shared or displayed to strangers.

History

Note: Some minor and irrelevant portions of this section are under construction and subject to change.

From a brief memo from the cover letter of the FBI Dossier on subject "ALI, TAHIRA"

Tahira Ali Almontaser (pronounced TAH-h'rah ah-LEE ahl-MOON-tah-SEER), usually known by her laqab, Ali, was born on 12 May 1950. She was adopted by her aunt, Sumitra Wurud Almontaser, a Christian missionary. Ali was raised in Mutalistan, a nation influenced by the intersection of Persian and Arab culture. Mutalistan was predominantly Arab and Persian with a Pashtun minority, but was governed by an oligarchy of Swedish and Scottish colonists. Sumitra had relocated to Mutalistan with Hope International Missions, an Evangelical Christian proselytizing organization. Within a year of her move, Sumitra gave birth to her own daughter, Alaia as-Sabriyya Almontaser. Ali and her sister are two months apart. While Alaia attended an international school in Tokyo on a full scholarship, Ali attended a private Catholic school in the Mutalistani capital of Hari. Ali was a quiet student who rarely participated in class discussions. Her grades later revealed talent in maths but consistently poor performance in the humanities. In 1965, she became associated with a political fringe group that soon began to advocate violent extremism at the same time she became an acquaintance of Mutalistani official Carlos Hodgson. Ali graduated in 1968, two months before the August Revolution in August 1968.

By this time, Ali's reputation within Hataf, then a budding terrorist organization, granted her the attention of its founder. At the height of the Revolution, Ali fled the country, but not before she murdered an Arab Mutalistani official and his family and an American journalist. Within two weeks, the regime collapsed. With Hataf's blessing, Ali traveled to Germany where she murdered thirteen more victims, including U.S. Senator Jordan Normandeau, who had been nominated for the presidency; Roman Catholic Cardinal Srgjam Doshi, considered a viable papal candidate; and Mohammed Ntamuhanga, the President-elect of Tanzania. After a series of assassinations and bombings in several countries, Ali traveled to the United States. In December 1968, Ali became the first woman to be named on the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List.

In December 1968, Ali arrived in New York City where she murdered two Americans, one a police officer on official duty, before traveling across the country. In the next two decades, she personally murdered several dozen people in at least eight other states and six other countries. Ali has been implicated dozens of terrorist attacks, both successful and thwarted, in dozens of countries. After the death of Hataf's original founder in the 1970s, Ali was named the organization's supreme leader. Ali was responsible for expanding the scope Hataf's operations beyond Mutalistan to develop the organization into an international terrorist threat with operatives stationed in over eighty countries. In 1998, Ali met with Usama bin Ladin, Al Qaida's chief, in Pakistan at a meeting also attended by Egyptian Ibrahim El Ghamry, who later defected from Hataf to the United States. Until recently, the reward for information leading to her capture was $25 million. The FBI has a dedicated task force of over three hundred agents assigned to locate and apprehend Ali. This task force is led by FBI Supervisory Special Agent Natalie Elisabeth Schultz, who is also assigned to the Joint Counter-Terrorism Task Force.

Ali's name, Tahira Ali Almontaser is often used inconsistently; it is alternately rendered as Tahira Ali, Tahira Almontaser, and Tahira Ali Almontaser. This ambiguity is in part due to her own use of the shortened form Tahira Ali, dropping the final nisbah.

Last updated:
8 March 2011

Tahira Ali's Story