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Aukai Collins, born on February 13, 1974 is also known as "Aqil Collins" is an American of Irish descent who converted to Islam and fought with Islamic Chechen irregulars of the Islamic Republic of Ichkeria. He was wounded in combat with elements of a Russian SPETZNAZ unit from which he subsequently lost his leg. He then, among other things, went on to work as a deep cover intelligence operative for the FBI

His exploits, which included contacts with Al Qaeda leading operatives, are described in the autobiographical book My Jihad: One American's Journey Through the World of Usama Bin Laden...as a Covert Operative for the American Government (ISBN 0-7434-7059-1). Although he is sometimes referred to as Hawaiian American, he is Caucasian and was born in the United States, having moved to Hawaii for a period in his youth.

In this book he distinguishes between the Chechen armed resistance against the Russian army, which he regards as justified according to Islam, and terrorism in Al Qaeda style, which he regards as contrary to Islam. He also claims that he warned the bureau (FBI) long before 9/11 that Hani Hanjour, one of the September 11th hijackers, was using a Phoenix flight school as his training ground for terrorism.

He also appears in Canadian-born adventurer Robert Young Pelton's book, The Hunter, The Hammer, and Heaven: Journeys to Three Worlds Gone Mad and director Lech Kowalski's short film documentary Camera Gun

After authoring My Jihad, Collins became a bounty hunter which ultimately led to his arrest in Mexico on weapons charges. He was released in May 2006 after serving a 4 year prison sentence in Durango,Mexico.

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Aukai Collins", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0