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." [1]
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.
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. [2] 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. [3]
NBC News said that the five videos had been recorded after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. [4] 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." [2]
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. [2] 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; [5] 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. [6] |
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 |
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 |
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. [7] 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. [8] [9]
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. [10] |
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. [11] |
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. [12] |
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. [13]
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.
By February 2, 2003, the FBI rearranged its entire wanted lists on its web site. The outstanding five martyr video suspects (including Jdey's Montreal associate Boussora) were moved to a separate linked page, titled "Martyrdom Messages/video, Seeking Information Alert" (Although both Jdey and Boussora were later returned to the main FBI list page). Additionally, the remaining eight Yemen plot suspects were archived to a linked page titled, "February 2002, Seeking Information Alert". Around this time the FBI also changed the name of the list, to the FBI "Seeking Information – War on Terrorism", to distinguish it from its other wanted list of "Seeking Information", which the FBI already uses for ordinary fugitives, those who are not terrorists.
Along with the re-arrangement, the FBI also continued to add new fugitive names to the list, including one member of The Portland Seven terror cell. [14]
Amer el-Maati | |
Habis Abdulla al Saoub | Killed in Pakistan in October 2003, removed from the list June 24, 2004. [15] |
By June 2003, several new terrorist suspects were added: [16]
Jaber A. Elbaneh | Moved to FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list February 23, 2006. |
Jamal Ahmad Mohammad Al Badawi | Removed from FBI list October 10, 2004; [17] escaped with 22 others from a Yemeni jail on February 3, 2006; [18] moved to FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list February 23, 2006; killed in a drone strike in Yemen in January 2019. |
Fahd al-Quso | Removed from FBI list October 10, 2004; escaped with 22 others from a Yemeni jail on February 3, 2006; moved to FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list February 23, 2006; killed in a drone strike in Yemen in May 2012. |
Dr. Mohammed Khan | Located by June 2003, removed from list before 2006. |
Aafia Siddiqui | Captured on July 17, 2008 in Afghanistan. |
Adnan Gulshair el Shukrijumah | Moved to FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list in July 2010; killed in Pakistan in December 2014. |
Two new additions to the list were introduced by September 5, 2003. [19] In addition, Jdey was also moved on to the main list page, from the earlier archived 2002 group: [20]
Zubayr Al-Rimi | Killed in Saudi Arabia in September 2003, removed from the list before 2006. |
Karim El Mejjati | Killed in Saudi Arabia in April 2005, removed from the list before 2006. |
On May 26, 2004, United States Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller announced that reports indicated that seven al-Qaeda members were planning a terrorist action for the summer or fall of 2004. The alleged terrorists listed on that date were Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, and Abderraouf Jdey, along with Amer El-Maati, Aafia Siddiqui, Adam Yahiye Gadahn, and Adnan G. el Shukrijumah. The first two had been listed as FBI Most Wanted Terrorists since 2001, indicted for their roles in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings. Jdey was already on the FBI's "Seeking Information" wanted list since January 17, 2002, and el-Maati since February 2003, and Siddiqui and Shukrijumah also since early 2003. Gadahn was added as well to the Seeking Information list. [21]
Adam Yahiye Gadahn | Moved to FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list October 11, 2006; [22] [23] killed in a drone strike in Pakistan in January 2015. |
23 people, 12 of them al-Qaeda members, escaped from a Yemeni jail on February 3, 2006, according to a BBC report. [18] On February 23, 2006, the U.S. FBI confirmed the escape, as they issued a national Press Release naming some of the escapees as new Most Wanted Terrorists, and also one of the escapees as a new addition to the Seeking Information list, Abdullah Al-Rimi. He is being sought for questioning relating to any knowledge he might have of the 2000 attack on the USS Cole. [24]
With this one addition below, as of February 23, 2006, the total count on the outstanding Seeking Information list stood at eight.
Abdullah Al-Rimi |
The very next day, on February 24, 2006, the FBI added an additional three names to the Seeking Information – War on Terrorism list, most notably, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the notorious leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. [25] This marked the first time that al-Zarqawi had appeared on any of the three major FBI wanted lists. On June 8, 2006, ABC News reported that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was confirmed to have been killed in Baghdad in a bombing raid the day before by a United States task force. His death was confirmed by multiple sources in Iraq, including the United States government.
Saleh Nabhan was wanted for questioning for attacks in Kenya in 2002. Noordin Top was a member of the Jemaah Islamiyah group, which was involved in bombings in Indonesia between 2002 and 2004. With these three additions, as of February 24, 2006, the total count on the outstanding Seeking Information list stood at ten.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi | Killed in Iraq on June 7, 2006; removed from list October 12, 2006. |
Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan | Killed in Somalia on Sept 14, 2009. |
Noordin Mohammad Top | Killed in Indonesia on Sept 17, 2009. |
Mas Selamat bin Kastari | Captured in Malaysia on April 1, 2009. |
Sirajuddin Haqqani |
Shaykh Aminullah | Removed from list in February 2023. |
Ghazi Nasr al-Din | Removed from list in February 2019. |
Abdullah Shair Khan |
Hamza bin Laden | Killed in a United States counterterrorism operation in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region. |
Mohamed Ahmed Elsayed Ahmed Ibrahim | Removed from list in August 2019. |
Abd al-Rahman al-Maghrebi |
Issa Barrey |
Mu’min al-Mawji Mahmud Salim | |
Sarah Jamal Muhammad al-Sayyid |
Mohammad Mahdi Khanpour Ardestani | |
Majid Dastjani Farahani |
Reza Hamidi Ravari |
Hamza al-Ghamdi |
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.
Ramzi Mohammed Abdullah bin al-Shibh is a Yemenite terrorist who served as al-Qaeda's communications officer. He has been detained by the United States in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp (NSGB) since 2002. He is accused of being a "key facilitator" for the September 11 attacks in 2001.
Adnan Gulshair el Shukrijumah was a citizen of Guyana and Saudi Arabia and a senior member of Al-Qaeda. He was born in Saudi Arabia and grew up in the United States.
Adam Yahiye Gadahn was an American senior operative, cultural interpreter, spokesman and media advisor for the Islamist group al-Qaeda, as well as prolific noise musician. Beginning in 2004, he appeared in a number of videos produced by al-Qaeda as "Azzam the American". Gadahn, who converted to Islam in 1995 at a California mosque, was described as "homegrown," a term used by scholars and government officials for Western citizens "picking up the sword of the idea" to commit attacks in the West. American intelligence officials allege that he inspired the 2007 Osama bin Laden video.
Abderraouf bin Habib bin Yousef Jdey is a Canadian citizen, who was found swearing to die as a shaheed (martyr) on a series of videotapes found in the rubble of Mohammed Atef's house in Afghanistan in 2002.
Jamal Ahmad Mohammad Ali Al Badawi aka Jamal Abu Abed Al Rahman Al Badawi was a Yemeni who was indicted as an accomplice for his role in the 2000 USS Cole bombing off the coast of Aden, Yemen, which killed 17 American sailors on 12 October 2000. He was captured in Yemen and sentenced to death on 29 September 2004. Al-Badawi was also indicted on 15 May 2003, by the United States for the USS Cole bombing and the attempted attack on USS The Sullivans. He is thought to have travelled to Saudi Arabia and purchased a small boat and then a truck and trailer to transport it. This boat sank from the weight of the explosives while preparing the USS The Sullivans plot. Al-Badawi is also thought to have leased the safehouses used in these endeavors. Fox News called Al-Badawi a "mastermind" of the Cole bombing.
Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeiee was an al-Qaeda terrorist, sentenced to death in 2004 by a Yemeni court for his part in the 2002 attack on the French tanker Limburg. Al-Rabeiee escaped custody in February 2006, with 22 other inmates, but was killed 1 October 2006 in San‘a’, along with another al-Qaeda suspect identified as Mohammed Daylami.
Abd al-Rahim Abdul Rassak al-Janko, a Syrian-Kurd, is a former student in the United Arab Emirates who traveled to Afghanistan in 2000, where he was captured by the Taliban who announced that he had confessed to plotting to murder Osama bin Laden, as well as spying against the Taliban on behalf of Israel and the United States. He was also denounced for "his sexual indiscretions with other young men" and accused of homosexuality.
Jaber A. Elbaneh, also known as Gabr al-Bana is a Yemeni-American who was labeled a suspected terrorist by the United States after it emerged that he had attended the Al Farouq training camp alongside the Lackawanna Six, and remained on at the camp after they returned home. He fled to Yemen, where he worked as a cab driver before turning himself in to authorities.
Faker Ben Abdelazziz Boussora born March 22, 1964, in Tunisia is a Canadian citizen, and a senior member of al-Qaeda. He also went by the name Abu Yusif al-Tunisi. The US Department of State has authorized a reward of $5 million under the Rewards For Justice Program for information leading to the arrest of Faker Ben Adbelazziz Boussora.
Muhammad Sa'id Ali Hasan al-Umda, also known as Gharib al-Taezi, was self-implicated on videotape as a possible terrorist in 2002, and was wanted by the United States Department of Justice's FBI, which was seeking information about his identity and whereabouts. He was once a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden and was a field commander for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. In January 2002, he was discovered as one of five men who had been videotaped pledging martyrdom, and who were then consequently placed on the original version, upon inception, of the FBI's third major wanted list, which is now known as the FBI Seeking Information - War on Terrorism list. He was later removed by the FBI from the list after being detained by the Saudi government and then transferred to Yemen. He was convicted in 2005 of involvement in the 2002 attack on the MV Limburg oil tanker. In February 2006, he escaped from a Sana'a prison along with 22 other militants.
Bassam Abdullah bin Bushar al-Nahdi became wanted in 2002, by the United States Department of Justice's FBI, which was then seeking information about his identity and whereabouts. He was identified as a known associate of the Yemen cell leader, Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei.
Ammar Abadah Nasser al-Wa'eli became wanted in 2002, by the United States Department of Justice's FBI, which was then seeking information about his identity and whereabouts. He was identified as a known associate of the Yemen cell leader, Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei.
Abu Mu'az al-Jeddawi, a Saudi who reportedly lived in Yemen, is believed to have been rendered by the CIA to Jordan in early 2002. His real name is believed to be Ahmad Ibrahim Abu al-Hasana.
Issam Ahmad Dibwan al-Makhlafi, 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. Very little else is known about him.
Ahmad al-Akhader Nasser Albidani 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. Very little else is known about him.
Bashir Ali Nasser al-Sharari 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. Very little else is known about him.
Abdulaziz Muhammad Saleh bin Otash, 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.
Shuhour Abdullah Mukbil al-Sabri 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. Very little else is known about him.
Abdullah Al-Rimi or Abdullah Ahmed Al-Remi,, has been described as an "important al-Qaeda recruiter", and became wanted in 2006 by the United States Department of Justice's FBI, "sought in connection with possible terrorist threats against the United States." He was one of 23 people who escaped from Yemen prison in San'a, including the Yemen cell leader, Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei. Several weeks later he became listed on the FBI's third major "wanted" list, the FBI Seeking Information – War on Terrorism list. Very little else is known about him.