Yet Another Converted American Arrest for Terrororist Plot
Sharif Mobley, a 26-year-old New Jersey black man suspected of being an al-Qaida member, reportedly shot his way out of a Yemeni hospital Sunday and into American headlines.
Mobley is the latest in a line of suspected "American jihadists" -- disgruntled American citizens, including Colleen LaRose aka Jihad Jane, who have allegedly been radicalized and recruited as foot soldiers by Islamic extremists. Their American citizenship, which allows them to both travel freely and hold sensitive positions of employment without raising suspicion, makes them potentially invaluable contributors to al-Qaida plots on American soil, U.S. intelligence reports have said.
A January U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee report said as many as 36 American ex-convicts had arrived in Yemen in 2009, "ostensibly to study Arabic," but that many "had disappeared and are suspected on having gone to al-Qaida training camps in ungoverned portions of the impoverished country."
Mobley was arrested last week along with 10 other alleged al-Qaida members during a sweep in Yemen's capital, said Mohammed Albasha, a spokesman for Yemen's embassy in D.C. Several days later, he was transported to Republican Hospital in Sana'a, where he stole one of his guard's guns, killed him and attempted to shoot his way out of the hospital, Albasha said.
Some witnesses at the hospital said Mobley was being treated for a broken leg, which they said he had sustained after he tried to jump off the roof of a building before his arrest. Others said he didn't appear injured. "There are a lot of stories going around right now," Albasha said. "I have not been able to substantiate a lot of it."
The 11 alleged al-Qaida members arrested were staying on the outskirts of Sana'a in the Mathbah neighborhood, which is characterized by empty lots and unfinished buildings with bouquets of rebar sprouting from their roofs. Al-Iman University, a religious institute that some have suspected of promoting extremism, is nearby.
"He isn't from here, he didn't live here," said Mohammed Abdul Al-Kuraimi, who lives in Mathbah and said he knew of Mobley. Mobley was known as "the Somali" because of his African heritage, he said. He also said Mobley studied at Dar al-Hadith Dammaj institute in Saada, a well-known Salafist school in Yemen's northern province, which was decried as a "known terrorist training center" during tribunals for Guantanamo Bay detainees. See Chick's WHO IS HE?
Mobley is the latest in a line of suspected "American jihadists" -- disgruntled American citizens, including Colleen LaRose aka Jihad Jane, who have allegedly been radicalized and recruited as foot soldiers by Islamic extremists. Their American citizenship, which allows them to both travel freely and hold sensitive positions of employment without raising suspicion, makes them potentially invaluable contributors to al-Qaida plots on American soil, U.S. intelligence reports have said.
A January U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee report said as many as 36 American ex-convicts had arrived in Yemen in 2009, "ostensibly to study Arabic," but that many "had disappeared and are suspected on having gone to al-Qaida training camps in ungoverned portions of the impoverished country."
Mobley was arrested last week along with 10 other alleged al-Qaida members during a sweep in Yemen's capital, said Mohammed Albasha, a spokesman for Yemen's embassy in D.C. Several days later, he was transported to Republican Hospital in Sana'a, where he stole one of his guard's guns, killed him and attempted to shoot his way out of the hospital, Albasha said.
Some witnesses at the hospital said Mobley was being treated for a broken leg, which they said he had sustained after he tried to jump off the roof of a building before his arrest. Others said he didn't appear injured. "There are a lot of stories going around right now," Albasha said. "I have not been able to substantiate a lot of it."
The 11 alleged al-Qaida members arrested were staying on the outskirts of Sana'a in the Mathbah neighborhood, which is characterized by empty lots and unfinished buildings with bouquets of rebar sprouting from their roofs. Al-Iman University, a religious institute that some have suspected of promoting extremism, is nearby.
"He isn't from here, he didn't live here," said Mohammed Abdul Al-Kuraimi, who lives in Mathbah and said he knew of Mobley. Mobley was known as "the Somali" because of his African heritage, he said. He also said Mobley studied at Dar al-Hadith Dammaj institute in Saada, a well-known Salafist school in Yemen's northern province, which was decried as a "known terrorist training center" during tribunals for Guantanamo Bay detainees. See Chick's WHO IS HE?
posted by chickcomics | 6:22 AM
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