Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, one of Afghanistan’s most notorious Islamist warlords, announced today his candidacy for the presidency of Afghanistan. Elections are scheduled for April 2014. As reported in London’s Daily Telegraph, Sayyaf declared he is running “to preserve the nation.”

Sayyaf is responsible for bringing Osama bin Ladin to Afghanistan after the terrorist was thrown out the Sudan in the mid-90s. In addition, Sayyaf was named by the 9/11 Commission as ‘the mentor’ to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the brutal attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that left nearly 3,000 dead.

Sayyaf, a Muslim scholar, has a reputation for violence so pronounced that the feared jihadist terrorist sect in the Philipines, Abu Sayyaf, derives its name from him.

Sayyaf entered the capital Kabul on Thursday with a detachment of heavily armed fighters to announce his “ticket” of former Islamist warlords. His extreme conservative views on religious matters, including regarding women, will give the United States concern as it negotiates a long term security agreement with the Karzai government.

The War in Afghanistan has been waged for 12 years, costing the United States nearly $1 trillion with over 2,100 deaths and 19,000 casualties.