Hammamy’s story does not begin at Tora Bora, but instead years earlier in North Africa and Italy. At the time of his capture by Pakistani authorities, Hammamy was wanted by at least two other governments for his role in international terrorism.

The GIA was one of al Qaeda’s most violent affiliates and infamous for the extreme tactics it used during the Algerian civil war of the 1990s. For example, GIA members frequently beheaded Algerian civilians who did not conform to its radical creed. In a terrorist attack that foreshadowed the September 11 attacks, the GIA also orchestrated the hijacking of a French airliner in December of 1994. The hijackers reportedly intended to crash the airplane into the Eiffel Tower. Ahmed Ressam, who has been convicted of taking part in al Qaeda’s millennium plots and planned to detonate a car bomb at the LAX airport, was also a member of the GIA.

(Algerian Armed Islamic Group better known by an acronym of its French name, the "GIA").