(José Niño, Headline USA) With the 25-year mark since September 11 approaching, the Trump administration has quietly scrubbed several high profile Al Qaeda affiliated operatives off its terrorism sanctions list, according to Max Blumenthal’s reporting in The Grayzone.
Among them is Abdullah Muhaysini, a Saudi cleric whose career involved funneling children and teens into suicide missions across Syria.
Records from Treasury’s OFAC show top commanders, recruiters and financiers tied to Al Qaeda’s Syrian branch lost their designated status this August. The move coincided with Washington dropping Syria, now governed by Ahmad Al-Sharaa, from its State Sponsors of Terrorism list. Secretary of State Marco Rubio framed the decision as “another historic step by President Trump to give the Syrian people a path to prosperity”.
Al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammad Al-Jolani, co-founded ISIS and later built Jabhat Al-Nusra before re-branding it as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and toppling Bashar Al-Assad in December 2024. Ties warmed after Trump hosted him at the White House in November 2025, spritzing him with cologne and asking about his marriages. Trump later floated a loose proposal for Syria’s military to confront Iran.
Others cleared alongside Muhaysini include Abu Sulayman al-Muhajir, Shafi Sultan Mohammed al-Ajmi, and Abdul Samrez Jashari.
Footage from 2015, preserved by analyst Joshua Landis, shows Muhaysini towering over blindfolded Syrian troops seized at an Idlib airbase before their execution. He justified the killing by saying, “I don’t like to call them Sunni. They were once Sunni but became apostatized once they enlisted in the Alawites’ regime.” His mentor, Sulayman Al-Alwan, also reportedly ran a “terrorist factory” that trained 9/11 hijacker Abdulaziz Alomari.
Grayzone’s earlier work found Muhaysini drew thousands of young recruits into suicide attacks, and by 2018 his network was pulling children from the Atmeh Refugee Camp to arm and send into battle.
He resurfaced in Damascus days after Assad’s fall, declaring inside the Umayyad Mosque, “I truly believe that in Paradise there are entire villages for the people of the Levant”. Sanctions relief came a day after Trump confirmed he would skip the 9/11 memorial at Ground Zero.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
