After four years, al-Bahri became "disillusioned", largely because bin Laden consolidated al-Qaeda's relationship with the Taliban by giving his Bayʿah to its leader, Mullah Omar,[8][non-primary source needed] but also because he had married and become a father.

He agreed to abide by the parole conditions of a Yemeni jihadist rehabilitation program directed by judge Hamoud al-Hitar.

[5] During a September 2009 interview with reporter Michelle Shephard of the Toronto Star, al-Bahri said that he was no longer a member of al-Qaeda, but that he supported the organization for some of its beliefs.

Al-Bahri and Hamdan were the subjects of the documentary, The Oath (2010), by American director Laura Poitras, which explored their time in al-Qaeda and afterward.

He became interested in jihad while watching TV accounts of foreigners who traveled to Afghanistan to fight with the resistance during the Soviet occupation during the 1980s.

[11][non-primary source needed] He underwent rigorous training and became a trainer himself before bin Laden singled him out to become his personal bodyguard, giving him a special revolver and two bullets which al-Bahri was to kill him with if ever he was surrounded by "the enemy".

[19][non-primary source needed] Hamdan returned to Yemen in November 2008, having been imprisoned by the United States in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and being convicted on a charge in 2008.

In 2013, an English translation of the book, by Susan de Muth, was published in London under the title Guarding bin Laden: My Life in Al-Qaeda.

While talking to the Toronto Star in 2009, he said he had supported al Qaeda's 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, as a means to make Americans aware of their nation's activities abroad.