Habib Marwan

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24 character
Habib Marwan
Gender	Male
Jobs held	Leader- Turkish Crimson Jihad Computer engineer - McLennan-Forster
Affiliation	Turkish Crimson Jihad/McLennan-Forster
Family	Bahar Marwan (Son)
Spouse	NA
Current status	Deceased
Portrayed by	Arnold Vosloo
Seasons	4

Habib Marwan is a fictional character played by Arnold Vosloo on the television show 24 and main villain of Season 4.

[edit] Day 4

Marwan, an immigrant from Turkey and leader of the Turkish Crimson Jihad terrorist group, is the mastermind behind a series of devastating terrorist attacks on American targets. Both the character and the show were heavily criticized for portraying Turkey as a hotbed of radical Islamist activities and the Turks as sharing Arab culture and language.

He appears to work in phases. Using the alias Harris Barnes, he obtains a middle management and computer engineer position at the McLennan-Forster Corporation, and used his position in the company to create sleeper cells and to acquire technology vital to his operations. His terrorist activities included the bombing of a commuter train, the kidnapping of Secretary of Defense James Heller, causing the meltdown or near-meltdown of several nuclear power plants, the threat of which was created to keep Air Force One in the air so it could be shot down with a stolen stealth fighter. This allowed him to steal the Nuclear Football, containing the President's nuclear launch codes. In his rush to avoid being captured by authorities investigating the crash site, Marwan was only able to steal a few pages of the playbook, but this was enough for him to launch a nuclear attack on Los Angeles.

The final attack was ultimately foiled, largely due to the actions of Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer. At the Global Center parking garage, he engages in a gunfight with Jack and CTU Agents in which he wounds Curtis Manning. After being wounded himself and cornered by Bauer, Marwan leaps over the side of a rail in an attempt to commit suicide. Bauer manages to grab his arm and attempts to pull him to safety. Marwan then draws a knife and slices Bauer's hand, causing him to release his grip, and Marwan subsequently falls to his death.

Marwan appeared in 18 episodes of season 4, making him the longest running "big bad" thus far (unless one counts Charles Logan). Reportedly Vosloo was initially hired for only a handful of episodes but quickly impressed producers with his performance enough that they continued to extend the number of episodes he appeared in and finally kept him on for the remainder of the season. Vosloo has said in interviews his performance was based on his impression after seeing a photo of 9/11 mastermind Mohamed Atta. Vosloo felt his face conveyed a total commitment to his cause, and Vosloo in turn attempted to convey the same commitment in Marwan. Many fans have noted it was this that made him such a worthy adversary for Jack Bauer (even though the two had relatively few scenes together during the season) since Jack has demonstrated an equally strong commitment to his beliefs, though fans on the other side of the debate stated that Marwan was too one-dimensional and flat.

A deleted scene filmed for one episode showed Marwan saying goodbye to his wife (played by Bahar Soomekh) and young son before sending them away for their own safety. Various reasons were given for this scene being cut: the episode was too long, producers did not wish audiences to empathize too much with Marwan, and they did not want to make Marwan appear too similar to prior villains in the series who had been established as loving family men. The scene can be viewed on the season 4 DVD set.

[edit] Trivia

• Marwan's nickname in Television Without Pity [1] was Imhoterror, as a reference as Vosloo's character in The Mummy.
• Although he's said to be Turkish, Habib Marwan is not a Turkish name (it's Arabic) and he speaks Arabic rather than Turkish.
• Habib Marwan escaped from Jack and CTU a total of five times.
• After it was revealed that President Charles Logan was behind the events of Day 5, fans began to speculate that he was also somehow responsible for the events of Day 4, and that he possibly assisted or even ordered Marwan to shoot down Air Force One, killing or at least disabling President Keeler, which in turn allowed Logan to rise to power and proceed with his plan. Other theories link Marwan to Graem and his associates. None of these theories have yet been confirmed or denied by the show.