The Al Qaeda Handbook is an extensive manual for how to wage war

War

War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...

, allegedly written by Osama bin Laden

Osama bin Laden

Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...

's extremist group, Al Qaeda.
This handbook provides religious justifications and quotations from the Qur'an

Qur'an

The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...

 throughout. It was first seized by British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 authorities in a raid on an Al Qaeda cell in Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, England. The handbook was published on the US Department of Justice

United States Department of Justice

The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...

's website.

Claims Guantanamo captives were trained using the manual

Department of Defense

United States Department of Defense

The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...

 spokesmen routinely claim that the Guantanamo captives were trained using the manual.

Main Mission

• The overthrow of the godless regimes and their replacement with an Islamic regime.

Other missions

• Gathering information about the enemy, the land, the installations, and the neighbors(sic).
• Kidnapping enemy personnel, documents, secrets, and arms.
• Assassinating enemy personnel as well as foreign tourists.
• Freeing the brothers who are captured by the enemy.
• Spreading rumors and writing statements that instigate people against the enemy.
• Blasting and destroying the places of amusement, immorality, and sin; not a vital target.
• Blasting and destroying the embassies and attacking vital economic centers.
• Blasting and destroying bridges leading into and out of the cities

Actions after capture

One controversial passage states that "At the beginning of the trial ... the brothers must insist on proving that torture was inflicted on them by state security before the judge. Complain of mistreatment while in prison."
This passage is frequently cited by commentators to cast doubt on the claims by detainees in the "war on terror

War on Terror

The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...

" that they were subjected to torture, or abuse.
However, the same section of the manual also counsels its readers to do everything they possibly can to have a full medical examination prior to their interrogation. It explains to readers that the medical examination establishes a baseline that will enable them to prove that wounds inflicted on them during interrogation were not inflicted prior to their capture.

The handbook instructs commanders to make sure operatives, or "brothers," understand what to say if captured. "Prior to executing an operation, the commander should instruct his soldiers on what to say if they are captured," the document says. "He should explain that more than once in order to ensure that they have assimilated it. They should, in turn, explain it back to the commander."

Owners

• Abu Hamza al Masri - Convicted of possession of a terrorist encyclopedia
  Encyclopedia of Afghan Jihad
  Encyclopedia of Afghan Jihad is a manual of Jihad in eleven volumes, detailing how to make and use explosives and firearms, how to plan and carry out assassinations and other terrorist acts, and much more. It was found in the London residence of Islamic cleric Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri in May 2004...
  
  , among other charges, on February 7, 2006

Arrests

The Nottingham Two

Nottingham Two

The Nottingham Two were a student and a staff member of the University of Nottingham arrested in May 2008 for suspected involvement with Islamic terrorism. University staff had notified the police after finding an English copy of the so-called...

were arested in 2008 solely for downloading the copies of the Handbook on a University computer.