The FBI Seeking Terror Information list is the third major "wanted" list to have been created by the United States Department of Justice's Federal Bureau of Investigation to be used as a primary tool for publicly identifying and tracking down suspected terrorists operating against United States nationals at home and abroad. The first preceding list for this purpose was the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. In 2001, after the September 11 attacks, that list was supplanted by the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list, for the purpose of listing fugitives who are specifically wanted for acts of terrorism.
Since inception in January 2002, the Seeking Information list also serves this purpose, but with the big difference from the two earlier lists being that the suspected terrorists on this third list need not be fugitives indicted by grand juries in the United States district courts. Such lower level guidelines now allow for a much quicker response time by the FBI to deliver the early known information, often very limited, out to the public as quickly as possible. As the name of this list implies, the FBI's intent is to acquire any critical information from the public, as soon as possible, about the suspected terrorists, in order to prevent any future attacks that may be in the current planning stages.
All three of the major wanted lists now appear on the FBI web site along with several other types of wanted lists as well. All such FBI lists are grouped together under the heading "Wanted by the FBI."Wanted by the FBI, official web page featuring all the FBI wanted lists.
Precedents and early versions The FBI Seeking Information – War on Terrorism list has roots in the two earlier fugitive tracking FBI lists. During the 1990s decade in particular, the FBI began using the Ten Most Wanted list to profile some major terrorists, including Ramzi Yousef and Osama bin Laden among others, such as the 1988 mass murder bombers of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
In addition to these Justice Department fugitive programs, an even earlier method of terrorist tracking was created by the United States Department of State, in the Bureau of Diplomatic Security. This DoS effort is known as the "Rewards for Justice Program", which began in 1984, and originally paid monetary rewards of up to $5 million for information countering terrorism.
After 9/11, in 2001, the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list was created, as a companion list to the extant FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives Program, and to the State Department's Rewards for Justice Program.
Original list of 5 in videos from Atef rubble After January 14, 2002, five individuals delivering what United States Attorney General John Ashcroft described as "martyrdom messages from suicide terrorists" were found on five discovered videos, recovered from the rubble of the home of Mohammad Atef outside of Kabul, Afghanistan. Abd Al Rahim, one of the individuals in the films, was detained by American forces in Guantanamo Bay for seven years and allegedly tortured, though his "martyrdom message" was in fact known to be a video documenting his torture by Al-Qaeda members who imprisoned him.Parker, Tom, "Obama Embracing Bush Legacy," Human Rights Now Blog, 1 July 2009.
NBC News said that the five videos had been recorded after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. Of the five individuals originally listed, one has been detained by U.S. authorities, while another was detained and released, a third was killed in a drone strike, a fourth died as a suicide bomber and a fifth has not been brought into custody. None have been formally tried or convicted of any crimes in the United States.
In response, on January 17, 2002, the FBI released to the public the first Most Wanted Terrorists Seeking Information list (now known as the FBI Seeking Information – Terrorism list), in order to profile the five wanted terrorists about whom very little was known, but who were suspected of plotting additional terrorist attacks in martyrdom operations. The videos were shown by the FBI without sound, to guard against the possibility that the messages contained signals for other terrorists.
Ashcroft called upon people worldwide to help "identify, locate and incapacitate terrorists who are suspected of planning additional attacks against innocent civilians." "These men could be anywhere in the world," he said. Ashcroft added that an analysis of the audio suggested "the men may be trained and prepared to commit future suicide terrorist acts."
On that day, Ramzi bin al-Shibh was one of the only four known names among the five. Ashcroft said not much was known about any of them except bin al-Shibh. The fifth wanted terrorist was identified a week later as Abderraouf Jdey, alias: Al Rauf Bin Al Habib Bin Yousef Al-Jiddi.
The initial five terrorists on videos from the Atef rubble profiled on the list were:
++Ramzi bin al-Shibh U.S. prisoner September 14, 2002, at an undisclosed location; removed from FBI list by October 17, 2002;FBI Seeking Information archive, Internet Archive Wayback Machine, October 17, 2002 transferred to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp as of September 6, 2006.Abd al-Rahim Found to be a prisoner of the Taliban in January 2002, taken into U.S. custody and sent to Guantanamo Bay. Archived to FBI "Martyrdom Messages/video" page February 2, 2003. Released in 2009.Muhammad Sa'id Ali Hasan Archived to FBI "Martyrdom Messages/video" page February 2, 2003. Killed in a drone strike in Yemen in April 2012.Khalid Ibn Muhammad Al-Juhani Archived to FBI "Martyrdom Messages/video" page February 2, 2003. Died as a suicide bomber in the Riyadh compound bombings three months later.Abderraouf Jdey
Montreal plot A week after the initial Afghanistan martyrdom videos were released, the FBI had identified the fifth name, al-Jiddi, or Jdey, a resident of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. An international manhunt was launched January 25, 2002, for his companion, a Canadian citizen named Faker Boussora, then 37. U.S. officials said the two Tunisian-born Canadians were part of a Canadian group plotting to kill more civilians.
Added to the list on January 25, 2002, was:
++Faker Ben Abdelazziz Boussora
Yemen plot 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 Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, information became available on February 11, 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, February 12, 2002.FBI Most Wanted Terrorists Seeking Information 2-11-02 ,
On February 11, 2002, the FBI added an additional 17 terrorists to the list. But several days later, on February 14, 2002, six of the names 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.FBI Most Wanted Terrorists Seeking Information 2-14-02, Internet Archive Wayback Machine, February 20, 2002, revision by FBI removed 6 Yemen prisoners' names from the list According to the FBI report, as a result of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and on-going interviews of detainees in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, information became available on February 11, 2002, regarding threats to U.S. interests, which indicated that a planned attack may have been about to occur in the United States or against U.S. interests in the country of Yemen on or around the next day, February 12, 2002.FBI Most Wanted Terrorists Seeking Information 2-11-02, Internet Archive Wayback Machine, February 13, 2002February 2002 Seeking Information Alert , photos with the remaining names, as archived by FBI
The six names identified in the Yemen plot on February 11, 2002, but removed from the list on February 14, 2002, as already in Yemen custody were:
++Issam Ahmad Dibwan al-Makhlafi Removed from FBI wanted list February 14, 2002.Ahmad al-Akhader Nasser Albidani Removed from FBI wanted list February 14, 2002.Bashir Ali Nasser al-Sharari Removed from FBI wanted list February 14, 2002.Abdulaziz Muhammad Saleh bin Otash Removed from FBI wanted list February 14, 2002; killed in Somalia in 2011.Shuhour Abdullah Mukbil al-Sabri Removed from FBI wanted list February 14, 2002.Riyadh Shikawi Removed from FBI wanted list February 14, 2002.
The eleven names who were still being sought on February 14, 2002, in relation to the planned February 12, 2002, Yemen plot were:
++Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei Leader of the Yemen cell; archived to FBI "February 2002, Seeking Information Alert" page February 2, 2003; Yemen prisoner in 2004, sentenced to death; escaped from Yemen prison in San'a February 3, 2006; killed on 1 October 2006.Alyan Muhammad Ali al-Wa'eli Archived to FBI "February 2002, Seeking Information Alert" page February 2, 2003.Bassam Abdullah bin Bushar al-Nahdi Archived to FBI "February 2002, Seeking Information Alert" page February 2, 2003.Mustafa Abdulkader Aabed al-Ansari Archived to FBI "February 2002, Seeking Information Alert" page February 2, 2003; killed in Saudi Arabia on May 1, 2004.Omar Ahmad Omar al-Hubishi Archived to FBI "February 2002, Seeking Information Alert" page February 2, 2003.Ammar Abadah Nasser al-Wa'eli Archived to FBI "February 2002, Seeking Information Alert" page February 2, 2003; killed in a drone strike in Yemen in June 2011.Samir Abduh Sa'id al-Maktawi Archived to FBI "February 2002, Seeking Information Alert" page February 2, 2003.Abdulrab Muhammad Muhammad Ali al-Sayfi Archived to FBI "February 2002, Seeking Information Alert" page February 2, 2003.Abu Nasr al-Tunisi No photo available.Abu Mu'az al-Jeddawi No photo available.Amin Saad Muhammad al-Zumari No photo available.
Three of those remaining eleven suspects (Tunisi, Jeddawi, and Zumari) did not have photos on the FBI website. Along with the earlier six suspects on the list, they brought the total count outstanding for the list to seventeen at that time.FBI Seeking Information archive, Internet Archive Wayback Machine, March 21, 2002
The attack of February 12, 2002, never occurred, but a series of plots and attacks followed later that year in Yemen, including the suicide bombing of the Limburg, a French oil tanker, for which al-Rabeei and others were later convicted. As of 2006, all the individuals of the February 12, 2002, Yemen plot have since been removed from the FBI's current main wanted page and from the official count for the Seeking Information – War on Terrorism list.
Issam Ahmad Dibwan al-Makhlafi Issam Ahmad Dibwan al-Makhlafi (born in 1977 in Saudi Arabia, identified as a Yemeni), aka Akrama, became briefly wanted in 2002, by the United States Department of Justice's FBI, which was then seeking information about his identity and whereabouts. In early 2002, he had been named in a suspected Yemen plot, for which he became listed on the FBI's third major "wanted" list, now known as the 'FBI Seeking Information - War on Terrorism list'. He was identified as a known associate of the Yemen cell leader, Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei. But he was quickly discovered to already be in Yemen prison, and was promptly removed from the FBI "wanted" list.February 2002 Seeking Information Alert , photos with the remaining names, as archived by FBI Very little else is known about him.
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