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 cripple the United States of America on that day.

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. Through information gathered from Navi Araz at the beginning of the day, Marwan and his terrorist cells have been planning for the day's attacks for nearly 5 years. Each attack, starting with the train bombing in Santa Clarita early in the day, were diversions for larger, more devastating attacks against the United States. The train attack was a cover for the kidnapping of James Heller and Audrey Raines. The kidnapping was cover for the nuclear power plant attack.

Marwan hears Ali killed.

Marwan had one of his cells hijack a train to acquire the Dobson Override, a device which would bypass security codes and melt down each reactor while changing the kill codes. The goal was to melt down 104 separate nuclear reactors in power plants around the country. During the execution of this plan, Navi Araz contacted Marwan with help in finding his wife, Dina, 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.

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. He was stopped by Jack Bauer and Curtis Manning however, when they 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. ("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.

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. Marwan called Anderson to proceed with the plan to shoot down Air Force One. 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. It was too late for CTU to stop the attack, and 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 knowledge 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 impressed by Arnold Vosloo's acting performance and portrayal of the character. They decided to make him the main villain for the rest of the season. He appeared in the final 12 episodes of Day 4 after the change.

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 14,000, 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 managed to escape from the authorities five times, making him one of the most evasive terrorists faced over the nine days.
  • His first escape was from IDS Data Systems, after he posed as a CTU field agent he killed, and murdered another who spotted him.
  • Later he escaped from Rafique's warehouse in Boyle Heights as CTU raided it, then set off explosive charges hidden inside his computer systems.
  • His next escape was evading Jack at the wreckage site of the downed Air Force One in the Mojave Desert.
  • Through the use of a tunnel at The Hub nightclub (as well as an erroneous call by Bill Buchanan), he was able to escape there as well.
  • Finally, Marwan (with the help of men he had concealed in his hideout earlier) was freed after being captured at the factory on 6th and Alameda.
• 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