Habib Marwan

Habib Marwan was the mastermind behind the terrorist attacks of Day 4. For nearly five years he maintained and funded a number of terrorist sub-cells, primarily in Los Angeles, but ranging as far as Iowa and the East Coast, to prepare for a plot that threatened millions of lives in the United States of America on that day.

Using a large count of subordinate terrorists and mercenaries (including Omar, Navi Araz, Henry Powell, Marianne Taylor, Ali, Mitch Anderson, Rafique, Joe Prado, Sabir Ardakani, Robert Morrison, Yassir, and Mandy), Marwan led a series of terrorist plots during the day. His primary goals included: the televised execution of Sec-Def James Heller; the meltdown of nuclear power plants throughout the country using the stolen Dobson Override; the shooting down of Air Force One to assassinate President Keeler; and detonating a stolen nuclear warhead over Los Angeles. Most of his terrorist plots were foiled or mitigated by CTU, and Marwan martyred himself at the day's close.

Before Day 4

Marwan was an immigrant from Turkey, and his American alias was Harris Barnes. Using the Barnes identity, he earned a middle management position at the private military company McLennen-Forster and worked on the Dobson Override device. Marwan used his funds and position in the company to create sleeper cells and acquire technology needed to implement his plans. Besides placing himself at the defense contractor, he inserted Ali into IDS Data Systems, and during Day 4 had Henry Powell plant Marianne Taylor into CTU Los Angeles. Much of the in-person planning for his terrorist activity took place at 24878 Alvert Street.

Day 4

Marwan planned a series of attacks against the United States, all of which were to happen during Day 4. The first plot of the day was the Santa Clarita train bombing, successfully executed by Dar. Although the execution of James Heller by Omar and his team failed, the Dobson Override that Dar stole from Brody safely ended up in Omar's hands. Henry Powell and Navi Araz were coordinators for the override plot. The broadcasts of Heller sent massive streams of data over the internet, which set the stage for Marwan's plan to activate the override undetected by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Marwan hears Ali killed

The goal was to melt down 104 separate nuclear reactors in power plants around the country with the override. During the early stages of this plan, Navi contacted Marwan with help in finding his wife and son, who had betrayed the group. Marwan detested this distraction but had one of his subordinates give Navi the requested personnel and resources needed to silence the two. Later on, Henry Powell was apprehended by CTU; Marwan's sniper dispatched him as a loose end. ("1:00pm-2:00pm")

When CTU shut down all but six of the reactors, Marwan posed as an IT technician to take over for his man Ali at IDS Data Systems to personally work the override into melting the remaining cores. Ali's guards, Forbes, Adam and Jason killed Marianne Taylor and ran security for Marwan's activities, but were countered by Curtis Manning and Ali was later killed. Manning and Jack Bauer arrived at the office building and spotted him. Marwan fired his gun to create a panic, and used the resulting chaos to escape. Marwan killed a field agent and put on the dead man's gear. Immediately before escaping the Rockland Building, Marwan used the disguise to murder Solarz, another agent. However Curtis, with the help of Edgar Stiles, was able to shut down the remaining 103 reactors -- only the San Gabriel Island reactor completely melted down. ("Day 4: 5:00pm-6:00pm")

When CTU found another lead to Marwan, Joseph Fayed, Jack decided to use a sting operation to get his location by letting Dina Araz and Fayed take Jack hostage and bring him to Marwan. He caught onto the plan, however, and abducted Jack and Dina as Fayed martyred himself with a suicide bomb elsewhere. With Jack captive at a nearby warehouse, Marwan, suspecting that Dina was working with CTU, tested her loyalty by giving her an unloaded gun and telling her to shoot Jack. When she pulled the gun on Marwan, however, he had one of his men kill Dina. Marwan, needing to distract CTU from his next planned attack, called Michelle Dessler. He offered CTU a prisoner exchange: Jack for Behrooz Araz. CTU set up the exchange, but Marwan was not present during the swap, and Behrooz was taken by Marwan's men while Jack was returned safely.

Marwan points a gun at Dina Araz.

The nuclear reactor threat kept President John Keeler in the air around Los Angeles. The commotion of the days events allowed an ex-military pilot in one of Marwan's cells, Mitch Anderson, to steal a stealth fighter in the area. Using Nicole to help Anderson, Marwan called Anderson to proceed with the plan to shoot down Air Force One with Keeler onboard. With CTU's focus on finding Marwan and Jack's exchange, Anderson was able to steal the fighter effortlessly and get it in Air Force One's airspace. Marwan assured Anderson that his cover was in place moments before the attack, which CTU was too late to stop; Anderson destroyed an escort fighter, critically damaging Air Force One and forcing it to crash land.

Marwan's video recording, never released to the public.

With the wreckage of the plane included the nuclear football, a briefcase that contained all the firing codes for the US' nuclear warheads. Marwan got to the football in time to take one of the codes from the briefcase, but had to leave the Football behind, as he was being pursued by Jack. After escaping and returning safely back to Los Angeles, Marwan went in a back room of The Hub nightclub. There, he recorded a tape to be leaked to the media in which he explained the meaning of the days attacks, including the nuclear warhead attack that will happen before the end of the day, to the American public. Believing that American people should see their enemy, he refused to have his face covered during the filming. Through another lead that Jack extracted from Joe Prado, they cornered Marwan again. Jack and the team were interrupted by new President Charles Logan, who sent the Secret Service to arrest Jack for disobeying orders in the middle of the new operation. Marwan and his cell escaped from the nightclub using underground tunnels and an explosive to seal off their route.

Marwan has been captured by CTU.

Now at a factory on 6th and Alameda, Marwan contacted Robert Morrison in Iowa, where Sabir Ardakani's sub-cell secured a nuclear warhead tracked by Marwan's stolen nuclear football intelligence. With Marwan's help, Morrison and Ardakani successfully launched the warhead an hour ahead of their original deadline. However, Marwan's location had been recently surrendered by one of his collaborators, Lee Jong. As Marwan prepared to leave the factory, a CTU team led by Jack Bauer and Curtis Manning raided the building, killed Marwan's technician Yassir and three others, and cornered Marwan. Despite being captured, he gloated that nothing could stop his missile ("Day 4: 3:00am-4:00am"). Desperate to stop the nuclear strike, Jack assured Marwan that President Logan would grant him virtually anything in return for stopping his own upcoming terrorist attack. Marwan categorically refused to undermine his own handiwork. Several minutes later at 4:09am, he escaped custody when some of his concealed men ambushed the CTU team, killing four agents while one of the terrorists drove away with Marwan. ("Day 4: 4:00am-5:00am")

Marwan smiles at Jack before he dies.

He then met with his chopper pilot at the Global Center parking lot, where he planned to escape LA with Mandy and Gary, two of his mercenaries. Unknown to Marwan, Mandy had been captured, and surrendered his location to CTU in exchange for a full presidential pardon. Bauer and CTU agents disabled his chopper and engaged him in a running gunfight in the parking structure. Despite non-fatally shooting Curtis Manning in the firefight, Marwan was shot in the foot by Bauer. When faced with his own capture, he moved to martyr himself and avoid interrogation concerning the target of his missile, which was threatening Los Angeles. Bauer grabbed him as he attempted to jump off the railing, but Marwan sliced a knife into Jack's left hand, and, with a broad grin on his face, fatally dropped from the multi-story parking garage. The stealth missile was intercepted by a jet fighter and destroyed before its nuclear warhead could detonate. ("Day 4: 6:00am-7:00am")

Memorable quotes

• Habib Marwan: People of America, you wake up today to a different world. One of your own nuclear weapons has been used against you. It will be days and weeks before you can measure the damage we have caused. But as you count your dead, remember why this has happened to you. You have no understanding for the causes of the people you strike down or the nations you conquer. You choose to meddle in their affairs, without respect. You follow your government, unquestioningly, toward your own slaughter. Today, you pay the price for that ignorance. ... Unless you renounce your policies of imperialism and interventionist activities, this attack will be followed by another... and another after that. ("Day 4: 1:00am-2:00am")

Background information and notes

• Marwan appeared in 16 episodes: see his notable Recurring antagonist distinctions.
• Marwan was originally supposed to appear in 6 episodes, but the producers were so impressed by Arnold Vosloo's acting performance and portrayal of the character that they decided to make him the main villain for the rest of the season. He appeared in almost all of the remaining episodes of Day 4 after the change. As a result of this prominence, Marwan is shown to have an extremely large amount of reserve resources such as manpower (including technicians), safehouses, technology, money and weaponry.

A deleted scene depicts Marwan's wife and son.

• In one deleted scene, Marwan met up with his wife, Hessa, and young son, Badar, to send them to safety in Mexico. The scene was cut to eliminate any feeling of compassion towards the terrorist, and for fears that it was too similar with Stephen Saunders' storyline with his daughter Jane in the prior season.
• It is possible, but unconfirmed, that Habib Marwan is the most successful mass murderer of Americans in 24. The fatalities caused by his meltdown of the nuclear reactor on San Gabriel Island were never counted, but an early estimate of the maximum potential death count was 50,000 persons. This figure was never revised, and the effectiveness of the mass evacuation was never described. The most confirmed kills on US soil, at least 13,000, belongs to one of the masterminds of Season 6, Abu Fayed. Internationally, Season 7 villain General Benjamin Juma was responsible for around 300,000 fatalities.
• Marwan narrowly avoided capture four times, and then outright escaped from custody once, making him one of the most evasive terrorists faced over the nine days:
  1. His first escape was from IDS Data Systems, after he posed as a CTU field agent he killed, and murdered another who spotted him.
  2. Later he escaped from Rafique's warehouse in Boyle Heights as CTU raided it, then set off explosive charges hidden inside his computer systems.
  3. His next escape was evading Jack and some military helicopters at the wreckage site of the downed Air Force One in the Mojave Desert.
  4. Through the use of a tunnel at The Hub nightclub (as well as an inopportunely timed call for Bauer's arrest by Charles Logan), he was able to escape from there as well.
  5. Finally, after being captured by Jack and Curtis at the factory on 6th and Alameda, Marwan was freed by terrorists who had hidden themselves outside the factory and initially were undetected.
• Although Arnold Vosloo was credited for "Day 4: 2:00am-3:00am", Marwan only appears in footage from his prerecorded message to America, filmed in "Day 4: 1:00am-2:00am."
• Marwan committed suicide believing that his plan to destroy Los Angeles would be successful, and was one of the only masterminds who did not see the collapse of his conspiracy.
• The laptop that Marwan uses throughout the day and the one to launch the nuclear warhead is Alienware brand.
• On the official Facebook page for 24, Marwan is nicknamed the "Ace of Clubs."

See also

Wiki 24 has 52 images related to Habib Marwan.

• Day 4 antagonists