[6][7]: 18 [8] Under interrogation, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said that al-Walid had opposed any large-scale attack against the United States and wrote bin Laden a stern letter warning against any such action, quoting the Quran.

[10][11] The publisher of the magazine Al-Talib (The Student), al-Walid wrote poetry that attracted the attention of Osama bin Laden, and was invited to give spiritual lectures to mujahideen at Afghan training camps.

[13] Later in 1998, the United States learned al-Walid was staying in Room 13 at the Dana Hotel in Khartoum, and President Bill Clinton sought to have him killed or preferably renditioned to a friendly country for interrogation.

[3] It is believed that the American invasion of Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks by Bin Laden actually drove al-Walid away from al-Qaeda and that he and a number of other discontent former members moved to the south to avoid connection with the ongoing fight.

[3] Libyan Islamist Nomam Benothman also indicated in a letter to Bin Laden that he, al-Walid, and Al Qaeda security official Abu Muhammad al-Zayat opposed the 9/11 attacks.