Shuhour Abdullah Mukbil al-Sabri
Shuhour Abdullah Mukbil al-Sabri | |
---|---|
Born | 1976 |
Nationality | Yemeni |
Military career | |
Allegiance | Al-Qaeda
|
Years of service | ?–? |
Rank | Al-Qaeda officer |
Battles/wars | Yemen Insurgency
Yemeni Civil War ? |
Shuhour Abdullah Mukbil al-Sabri (born in 1976 in
USS Cole bombing
On 12 October 2000, one year prior to
12 February 2002 terror alert
In early 2002, according to an FBI report, as a result of US military operations in Afghanistan and of on-going interviews of detainees in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, information became available on 11 February 2002 regarding threats to US interests which indicated that a planned attack may have been about to occur in the United States or against US interests in the country of Yemen on or around the next day, 12 February 2002.[2]
In response, on 11 February 2002, Shuhour Abdullah Mukbil al-Sabri became one of 17 suspected terrorists added by the FBI to the "Seeking Information" list. The early version of that list was then known as the "Most Wanted Terrorists Seeking Information" list.
But on 14 February 2002, several days after the FBI alert, Shuhour Abdullah Mukbil al-Sabri was one of six names who were removed, and the FBI re-published the list as only eleven names and photos, because it was discovered that confusion over transliteration had failed to reveal initially that the removed six wanted terrorists were already in prison in Yemen.[3]
The prisoners had initially gone unnoticed until Yemeni officials told the CIA station chief in
The other names among the six identified in the Yemen plot on 11 February 2002, but who were removed from the list on 14 February 2002 as already in Yemen custody were: Issam Ahmad Dibwan al-Makhlafi, Ahmad al-Akhader Nasser Albidani, Bashir Ali Nasser al-Sharari, Abdulaziz Muhammad Saleh bin Otash and Riyadh Shikawi.
2002 Yemen attacks and plots
Whether foiled, aborted, or merely incorrect specific intelligence, the 12 February 2002 attack never occurred. However, other attacks and plots in Yemen soon followed in that year. By 2004, many of those plotters had also been captured and imprisoned in Yemen.
Mass escape from Yemen
On 3 February 2006, 23 people, 12 of them al-Qaeda members, escaped from a Yemeni jail, according to a BBC report.[4] They reportedly escaped by digging a tunnel.
The FBI added several new names to the "wanted" lists, in response to the Yemen escape of 2006. However, none of the 17 Yemen plot suspects from the 2002 terror alert appeared again among the new FBI names.[5]
See also
References
- ^ February 2002 Seeking Information Alert, photos with the remaining names, as archived by FBI
- ^ FBI Most Wanted Terrorists Seeking Information 2-11-02, Archived 5 June 2002 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ FBI Most Wanted Terrorists Seeking Information 2-14-02, revision by FBI removed 6 Yemen prisoners' names from the list Archived 10 June 2002 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Hunt on for Yemeni jailbreakers, BBC, 4 February 2006
- ^ Recent Escapees From Yemen Prison Added to Most Wanted Terrorists and Seeking Information – War on Terrorism Lists, FBI national Press Release, 23 February 2006