American mujahid describes terror fight

FBI: 'Tied up with his mercenary, action hero image'

Aqil Collins: "I don't see any contradiction between being a Muslim and fighting against terrorism."

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- American Aqil Collins is a self-proclaimed Muslim freedom fighter who battled the Russians in Chechnya and fought in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Collins converted to Islam during a brief time in prison and went to Afghanistan in 1994 to become a mujahid, or jihad (holy war) fighter. There, he learned guerrilla warfare tactics at a camp that also trained some future terrorists.

In Chechnya, he lost part of his leg to a claymore mine but returned to the fight -- first in Chechnya, then in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Collins said his devotion to the cause did not extend to attacks against civilians and that terrorists were giving Islam a bad name and must be stopped.

"I don't see any contradiction between being a Muslim and fighting against terrorism," Collins said. "Believing in the true jihad doesn't mean you engage in acts of terrorism."

Collins volunteered to help the CIA in 1996 after leaving Chechnya, but the agency turned him down and suggested he contact the FBI, U.S. officials said.

Collins served as an FBI informant during the late 1990s while working as a security guard at a mosque in Phoenix, Arizona.

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U.S. officials told CNN that Collins had given good information about Muslim fundamentalists in Phoenix, but said "he could be a loose cannon" and that his ego was "tied up with his mercenary, action hero image."

So, when Collins came to them in 1998 and told them he had an opportunity to penetrate terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden's organization, officials did not feel they could trust him with such a serious mission.

Collins said a young Arab came to him during a trip to London and suggested bin Laden might have use for someone like him.

"I came back to my handlers with the news -- thought they would be beyond excited," Collins said. "But the reaction I got was the complete opposite. They told me it would never happen."

Collins said the FBI told him to break contact with the man who made the invitation.

Former FBI counterterrorism chief Bob Blitzer never met Collins, but he said choosing an agent to infiltrate a terrorist group must be done with the utmost care.

"Is he controllable? I mean, will he work with you, or are you going to fear that he's going to go off on his own and do something?" Blitzer said.

"We have to know that this person is giving us real information and is not just someone just coming in and trying to pull the wool over your eyes, for example, for payment."

Collins said the FBI did pay him for his information, but he said he did not do it for the money. He has, however, written a book about his adventures and his disillusionment with the FBI.

He said "his track record was solid" and that he even provided information about September 11 hijacker Hani Hanjour, who trained at a flight school in Arizona -- information Collins said the FBI apparently did not follow up on.

"He was just a scrawny Arab guy, short, thin. He didn't appear to be that intelligent, or religious for that matter," Collins said. "I had contact with him during the course of everyday operations with the FBI and of course I would report back to them on him and the others."

U.S. officials have emphatically denied that Collins ever gave them any information about Hani Hanjour or about flight schools in Arizona.

They said they did interview Collins about Ahmed Omar Sheikh, who is now on trial in Pakistan charged with involvement in the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

"He was in the training camp that I was in in Afghanistan in 1994," Collins said.