Not blond, not female, but yet another American is linked with extremist Islam with the arrest of New Jersey-born Sharif Mobley in Yemen. Unlike to two women, Mobley also does not seem to have been a social misfit. He had a significant work record as a maintenance worker in several nuclear (!) power plants. This article from The Washington Post points out that that does not mean he had any access to sensitive information, but if nothing else, he’d have a pretty good idea of plant layouts.
While the US Embassy’s Consular Section in Sanaa says it has yet to be able to make a ‘consular visit’ to verify his identity and nationality, it appears from the reporting that some USG element has been in touch. In case it needs to be noted, this story reports allegations, not proven facts.
U.S. citizen accused in Yemen killing had been under FBI watch
Karen DeYoungSharif Mobley, a U.S. citizen accused of killing a hospital guard in Yemen, is believed to be a homegrown radical who left this country to make direct contact with al-Qaeda, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials, making him the latest in a string of such suspects.
Mobley, 26, first came to public attention Wednesday, when Yemeni authorities reported that he had grabbed a guard’s gun during a medical visit last weekend after being arrested in a sweep of suspected al-Qaeda militants.
Several U.S. officials, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Mobley had been in custody in Yemen for at least several weeks before the shooting and had been known to U.S. and Yemeni authorities for a considerable period before that. “He’s been a matter of some concern for a while,” according to one official.
…
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
March:13:2010 - 10:46
It looks as if the situation is grave – if they have managed to find someone at the Nuclear plant. I don’t see why this person’s colour matters – he is not White, but he is as much an American as the other two White women – and as much capable of blending in as them. And as John says, as much home-grown as them. Colour is not the issue here. Cases such as these should not be seen through the racist angle but there should be careful analysis of how deeply this problem has penetrated in the society and what it is that is making these people fall for an obviously violent and extremist ideology.
March:13:2010 - 16:47
Daisy–what are you talking about? Is this a response to comments made on the Jihad Jane or Jihad Janet posts? You seem to have missed the point still about the role of colour in these situations, which has more to do with media interest, the ability to pass in certain societies in order to carry out terrorist acts, and the ability to go undetected by racial profiling than with anything about the actual violent extremist ideology being espoused.
Al Qaeda doesn’t restrict its ideology by colour, but by allegiance to cultural norms and faith. The Nation of Islam was however and extreme group that did specifically recruit blacks against whites. Some of Malcolm X’s best lines are about race very directly. Al Qaeda and like minded groups are different in this way from NOI as well as advocating greater acts of violence.
No one was saying anything different in the previous discussions of these American “jihadists” in the other threads, except perhaps yourself.
John–while Mobley wasn’t a social misfit he certainly wasn’t high on the social ladder, which in itself can be a source of alienation for some or many. Fortunately extremely few take up terrorism for any cause.