The FBI Most Wanted Terrorists is a list created and first released on October 10, 2001, with the authority of United States President George W. Bush, following the September 11 attacks (9/11 incident). Initially, the list contained 22 of the top suspected terrorists chosen by the FBI, all of whom had earlier been indicted for acts of terrorism between 1985 and 1998. None of the 22 had been captured by US or other authorities by that date. Of the 22, only Osama Bin Laden was by then already listed on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.
Fazul Abdullah Mohammed was a Comorian-Kenyan member of al-Qaeda, and the leader of its presence in East Africa. Mohammed was born in Moroni, Comoros Islands and had Kenyan as well as Comorian citizenship. He spoke French, Swahili, Arabic, English, and Comorian.
The Bureau of Diplomatic Security, commonly known as Diplomatic Security (DS), is the security branch of the United States Department of State. It conducts international investigations, threat analysis, cyber security, counterterrorism, and protection of people, property, and information. Its mission is to provide a safe and secure environment for officials to execute the foreign policy of the United States.
Iyman Faris is a Pakistani citizen who served for months as a double agent for the FBI before pleading guilty in May 2003 of providing material support to Al Qaeda. A United States citizen since 1999, he had worked as a truck driver and lived in Columbus, Ohio. As of September 2003, Faris was the "only confessed al Qaeda sleeper caught on U.S. soil." In 2003 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for providing material support to Al-Qaeda. In February 2020 an American federal court revoked Faris' US citizenship. In August 2020, he was released from a federal prison in Illinois.
Ahmed Mohammed Hamed Ali was an Egyptian national wanted by the United States government in connection with the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi.
Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan was the leader of al-Qaeda in Somalia. He was listed on the FBI's third major "wanted" list, the FBI Seeking Information – War on Terrorism list, for his association with multiple attacks in Kenya in 2002, as well as his possible involvement in the 1998 United States embassy bombings, in which over 250 people lost their lives.
Rewards for Justice Program (RFJ) is a U.S. government interagency rewards program that offers money as an incentive for information leading to the arrest of leaders of terrorist groups, financiers of terrorism, including any individual that abide in plotting attacks by cooperating with foreign terrorist organizations. In accordance to the 1984 Act to Combat International Terrorism, the U.S. State Department established the Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program as an interagency rewards program. The foreign threat intelligence committee includes the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) governed by the U.S. Department of State (DOS), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) of the Department of Defense (DOD), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) under jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Secret Service and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S Department of Treasury and the White House. The Rewards for Justice Program directly addresses the foreign threat assessment by identifying entities such as key leaders and financial mechanism of the foreign terrorist organizations.
Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso, also known as Abu Huthaifah, Abu Huthaifah Al-Yemeni, Abu Al-Bara', Abu Hathayfah Al-Adani, Abu Huthaifah Al-Adani, Fahd Mohammed Ahmed Al-Awlaqi, Huthaifah Al-Yemeni, or Abu Huthaifah Al-Abu Al-Bara, was alleged to be a terrorist by American and Yemeni officials, and on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list. He was wanted by the FBI, Interpol, and the United States Department of State, which had offered 5 million dollars to anyone with information about him. He was killed by a US drone strike in Yemen on 6 May 2012.
Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen, commonly known as al-Shabaab, is a Sunni Islamist military and political organization based in Somalia and active elsewhere in East Africa. It is actively involved in the ongoing Somali Civil War and incorporates elements of Somali nationalism into its Islamist cause. Allegiant to the militant pan-Islamist organization al-Qaeda since 2012, it has also been suspected of forging ties with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Daniel Maldonado, also known as his adopted Muslim name Daniel Aljughaifi, is a U.S. citizen who in February 2007 became the first to face charges in federal court for training with Al-Shabaab, a terrorist organization in Somalia.
Sheikh Mukhtar Robow, also known as Abu Mansur, is a former deputy leader and former spokesman of the Somali militant group Al-Shabaab. In 2015, he defected from Al-Shabaab due to ideology issues after years of hiding in his hometown. In 2022, Robow was appointed as the Minister of Religious Affairs in the Somali government.
Omar Shafik Hammami, also known by the pseudonym Abu Mansoor al-Amriki, was an American citizen who was a member and leader in the Somali Islamist militant group al-Shabaab. A federal warrant for his arrest was issued in 2007. In November 2012, the FBI added Hammami to its Most Wanted Terrorists list.
In United States law, providing material support for terrorism is a crime prohibited by the USA PATRIOT Act and codified in title 18 of the United States Code, sections 2339A and 2339B. It applies primarily to groups designated as terrorists by the State Department. The four types of support described are "training," "expert advice or assistance," "service," and "personnel."
On June 5, 2010, in a covert American anti-terrorism operation named "Operation Arabian Knight", two American citizens Mohamed Mahmood Alessa and Carlos "Omar" Eduardo Almonte, New Jersey residents, were arrested at Kennedy International Airport in New York City. The men were in the process of boarding booked, separate flights to Egypt. According to the affidavit filed in support of the federal criminal complaint, they planned to travel to Somalia to join Al-Shabab, an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group recruiting foreigners for its civil war. They intended to join them in killing American troops in Somalia, although few Americans are stationed there. The two men were charged with conspiring to kill, maim, and kidnap people outside the U.S.
Ahmad Diriye, also known as Ahmad Umar or Abu Ubaidah al-Somali, is the Emir of Somalia’s Islamist group Al-Shabaab. He was listed by the U.S. State Department as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in April 2015. The Rewards for Justice Program currently offers up to 10 million USD for information regarding him.
Abdikadir Mohamed Abdikadir, better known as Ikrima, is a terrorist described as one of the most dangerous commanders of the Somali terror organisation Al-Shabaab. He has reportedly been central in the planning of several terror attacks, and responsible for forging links between Al-Shabaab and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). He is of Somali ethnicity.
Somalia is the home of Al-Shabaab, an internationally cited terrorist organization with ties to foreign nations. Several individuals have been sought for questioning and are pending arrests.
On 29 October 2022, 121 people were killed and over 300 were injured by a double car bombing in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud accused Sunni jihadist group al-Shabaab of carrying out the attacks, which they admitted. The bombing marks the deadliest attack in Somalia since the 14 October 2017 Mogadishu bombings at the same junction.
Liban Haji Mohamed is a Somali al-Shabaab member wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Paul R. Houston is an American federal law enforcement officer who serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and the U.S. Department of State for the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) for Threat Investigations and Analysis (TIA). During his career with the DSS, Houston served as the director of the DSS Office of Special Investigations conducting criminal and administrative investigations for the U.S. Department of State. Paul served as the deputy director of the Department of State (DS) Command Center. As a member of the Advisory team, he led and participated in numerous projects in the public and private sections, involving conducting overseas criminal and administrative investigations, threat dissemination and crisis command and control.
