Fawaz al-Rabeiee
Encyclopedia
Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeiee (1979-2006) was a al-Qaeda
terrorist, sentenced to death in 2004 by a Yemen
i 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.
Al-Rabeii was a Yemeni national although born in Saudi Arabia
. He became 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 as the cell leader 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
.
Al-Rabeiee was considered to be the "ring leader" of his Yemen terrorist cell. In 2002, he had been identified by the FBI as traveling on Yemeni passport 00452004. His identified aliases included Fawaz Yahia Hassan Aribii, Fawaz al-Rubai, Fawaz Yehia Hassan al-Rabie, Fawaz Yahya Hasan al-Rabi'i, Fawaz Yahya al-Ribi (al-Ruba'i, al-Rabia'i, al-Rabi'i), Forqan al-Tajiki, Furqan al-Tajiki, Furgan al-Tajiki, Furqan the Chechen, Faris al-Baraq, Sa'id Musharraf, and Salem al-Farhan. "Furqan al-Tajiki" is the addressee of a letter, found in Afghanistan, which appears to have been written by his brother Salman Yahya Hassan Mohammed Rabeii
.
, when the 2000 USS Cole bombing
killed 17 American sailors and wounded 40 off the port coast of Aden, Yemen. In the aftermath, the government of Yemen rounded up numerous suspected terrorists, many of whom were identified as members of al-Qaeda.
Historically, Yemen has tolerated Islamist terrorism. However, it cracked down on such groups after the September 11 attacks. After the Cole bombing, Yemen allowed U.S. forces to train its troops against terrorism and worked with the CIA.
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.
In response, on February 11, 2002, Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei became one of 17 suspected terrorists added by the FBI to the "Seeking Information" list. The early version of that list was then known as the "Most Wanted Terrorists Seeking Information" list. Years later, the FBI removed his profile from the main page of that list.
On February 14, 2002, several days after the alert, 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.
The six names identified in the Yemen plot on February 11, 2002, but who were removed from the list on February 14, 2002 as already in Yemen custody were: Issam Ahmad Dibwan al-Makhlafi
, Ahmad al-Akhader Nasser Albidani
, Bashir Ali Nasser al-Sharari
, Abdulaziz Muhammad Saleh bin Otash
, Shuhour Abdullah Mukbil al-Sabri
and Riyadh Shikawi.
Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei remained listed among the eleven names still being sought on February 14, 2002. The others who also remained were: Alyan Muhammad Ali al-Wa'eli
, Bassam Abdullah bin Bushar al-Nahdi
, Mustafa Abdulkader Aabed al-Ansari
, Omar Ahmad Omar al-Hubishi
, Ammar Abadah Nasser al-Wa'eli
, Samir Abduh Sa'id al-Maktawi
, Abdulrab Muhammad Muhammad Ali al-Sayfi
, Abu Nasr al-Tunisi
, Abu Mu'az al-Jeddawi
and Amin Saad Muhammad al-Zumari
.
In al-Rabeei's later trial, charges included the October 2002 bombing of the Limburg
, a French oil tanker, and a plot to kill the United States Ambassador
in Yemen.
Two suicide bombers
rammed an explosive-laden boat into the oil tanker, killing a Bulgarian crew member and spilling 90,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Aden
. This operation was very similar to the attack on the American destroyer USS Cole two years earlier. Saudi born Abdulraheem al-Nashiri, prime suspect of the USS Cole bombing (currently in the US custody), paid $40,000 to fund the Limburg attack. With that money, the former Al Qaida leader Abu Ali al-Harithi bought the explosives and transported them from his house in Shabwa to Mukalla in Hadramut. Later in 2002, Al-Harithi was killed by the CIA with a missile fired from a Predator drone.
Al-Rabeiee's conviction also included the detonation of explosives at a civil aviation authority building in April 2002 and then after the Limburg attack, the attack on a helicopter carrying Hunt Oil Co. employees in November 2002.
By February 2, 2003, the FBI rearranged its entire wanted lists on its web site, into the current configuration. Al-Rabeiee was one of the remaining eight Yemen plot suspects 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.
On July 10, 2004, during a court hearing, several of the accused threatened the prosecutor by stating that they would cut off his legs.
Fawaz al-Rabeiee was sentenced to death for the Limburg attack. He was also fined $100,000 to compensate for the aviation building damages.
Seven others were sentenced to 10 years in prison. Five of the militants—Ibraheem Mohammed al-Huwaidi, Aref Saleh Ali Mujali, Mohammed Abdullah al-Dailami, Abdulghani Ali Hussein Kaifan and Kasem Yahia al-Raimee—were sentenced to five years in prison. They were found guilty of plotting attacks against the US, French, UK, Cuban and German embassies, and plotting to assassinate the former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen. One of the 15 accused was sentenced to death for killing a Yemeni police officer.
Mr. Fayez al-Hajoury, a lawyer who represented Fawzi Halabi, a defendant who received a 10 years sentence, described the verdict
s as "null and void" and stated that the work of the defense attorneys was obstructed by authorities. Saleh Majali, the father of the man sentenced to death, angrily stated that the whole trial was a "sham", with no respect to human rights. The father of defendant Abdulkareem Kaifan stated that he though the verdict had been decided from the start and the whole trial was a "decoration" to pass the verdict. The defendants vowed to appeal their verdicts and sentences.
It is not publicly known if any of the original six Yemen prisoners, who were first named and then removed from the "Seeking Information" list, were also connected to the 2006 mass al-Qaeda-related escape. However, none of the 17 Yemen plot suspects from the 2002 terror alert appeared again among the newly listed FBI "wanted" list names in relation to the Yemen escape of 2006.
Four years after Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei's original 2002 listing on the "Seeking Information" terror alert list, the FBI continues to list him among the remaining eight of those early eleven suspected terrorists. But they now only appear on the FBI web site's archived page for the February 2002 "Seeking Information Alert". As of 2006, all the individuals of the February 12, 2002 Yemen plot had since been removed from the FBI's current main wanted page, and are no longer included in the official count of suspects, for the "Seeking Information - War on Terrorism" list.
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
terrorist, sentenced to death in 2004 by a Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
i court for his part in the 2002 attack on the French tanker Limburg
Maritime Jewel
The Maritime Jewel is a double hull oil tanker built in 2000; its length is and its width is . It was known as the Limburg until 2003.-Bombing:...
. 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.
Al-Rabeii was a Yemeni national although born in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
. He became wanted in 2002, by the United States Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
's FBI, which was then seeking information about his identity and whereabouts. In early 2002, he had been named as the cell leader 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
FBI Seeking Information - War on Terrorism list
The FBI Seeking Information – War on Terrorism 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...
.
Al-Rabeiee was considered to be the "ring leader" of his Yemen terrorist cell. In 2002, he had been identified by the FBI as traveling on Yemeni passport 00452004. His identified aliases included Fawaz Yahia Hassan Aribii, Fawaz al-Rubai, Fawaz Yehia Hassan al-Rabie, Fawaz Yahya Hasan al-Rabi'i, Fawaz Yahya al-Ribi (al-Ruba'i, al-Rabia'i, al-Rabi'i), Forqan al-Tajiki, Furqan al-Tajiki, Furgan al-Tajiki, Furqan the Chechen, Faris al-Baraq, Sa'id Musharraf, and Salem al-Farhan. "Furqan al-Tajiki" is the addressee of a letter, found in Afghanistan, which appears to have been written by his brother Salman Yahya Hassan Mohammed Rabeii
Salman Yahya Hassan Mohammed Rabeii
Salman Yahya Hassan Mohammed Rabeii is a citizen of Yemen, currently held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 508....
.
USS Cole bombing
On October 12, 2000, one year prior to 9/11, Yemen became an early theater in the War on TerrorismWar on Terrorism
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
, when the 2000 USS Cole bombing
USS Cole bombing
The USS Cole Bombing, or the USS Cole Incident, was a suicide attack against the United States Navy destroyer on October 12, 2000 while it was harbored and refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen American sailors were killed, and 39 were injured...
killed 17 American sailors and wounded 40 off the port coast of Aden, Yemen. In the aftermath, the government of Yemen rounded up numerous suspected terrorists, many of whom were identified as members of al-Qaeda.
Historically, Yemen has tolerated Islamist terrorism. However, it cracked down on such groups after the September 11 attacks. After the Cole bombing, Yemen allowed U.S. forces to train its troops against terrorism and worked with the CIA.
February 12, 2002 terror alert
In early 2002, according to an FBI report, as a result of US military operations in AfghanistanAfghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
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.
In response, on February 11, 2002, Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei became one of 17 suspected terrorists added by the FBI to the "Seeking Information" list. The early version of that list was then known as the "Most Wanted Terrorists Seeking Information" list. Years later, the FBI removed his profile from the main page of that list.
On February 14, 2002, several days after the alert, 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.
The six names identified in the Yemen plot on February 11, 2002, but who were removed from the list on February 14, 2002 as already in Yemen custody were: Issam Ahmad Dibwan al-Makhlafi
Issam Ahmad Dibwan al-Makhlafi
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...
, Ahmad al-Akhader Nasser Albidani
Ahmad al-Akhader Nasser Albidani
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...
, Bashir Ali Nasser al-Sharari
Bashir Ali Nasser al-Sharari
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...
, Abdulaziz Muhammad Saleh bin Otash
Abdulaziz Muhammad Saleh bin Otash
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...
, Shuhour Abdullah Mukbil al-Sabri
Shuhour Abdullah Mukbil al-Sabri
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...
and Riyadh Shikawi.
Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei remained listed among the eleven names still being sought on February 14, 2002. The others who also remained were: Alyan Muhammad Ali al-Wa'eli
Alyan Muhammad Ali al-Wa'eli
Alyan Muhammad Ali 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...
, Bassam Abdullah bin Bushar al-Nahdi
Bassam Abdullah bin Bushar al-Nahdi
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...
, Mustafa Abdulkader Aabed al-Ansari
Mustafa Abdulkader Aabed al-Ansari
Mustafa Abdulkader Aabed al-Ansari 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...
, Omar Ahmad Omar al-Hubishi
Omar Ahmad Omar al-Hubishi
Omar Ahmad Omar al-Hubishi 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
Ammar Abadah Nasser al-Wa'eli
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...
, Samir Abduh Sa'id al-Maktawi
Samir Abduh Sa'id al-Maktawi
Samir Abduh Sa'id al-Maktawi 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...
, Abdulrab Muhammad Muhammad Ali al-Sayfi
Abdulrab Muhammad Muhammad Ali al-Sayfi
Abdulrab Muhammad Muhammad Ali al-Sayfi a Yemeni, became wanted in 2002, by the United States Department of Justice's FBI, which was then seeking information about his identity and whereabouts...
, Abu Nasr al-Tunisi
Abu Nasr al-Tunisi
Abu Nasr al-Tunisi , possibly a Tunisian, became 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...
, Abu Mu'az al-Jeddawi
Abu Mu'az al-Jeddawi
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....
and Amin Saad Muhammad al-Zumari
Amin Saad Muhammad al-Zumari
Amin Saad Muhammad al-Zumari , , became wanted in 2002, by the United States Department of Justice's FBI, which was then seeking information about his identity and whereabouts...
.
2002 attacks and plots
Whether foiled, aborted, or merely incorrect specific intelligence, the February 12, 2002 attack never occurred. However, there were a number of plots and attacks in Yemen which followed later that year, which involved the al-Rabeei cell.In al-Rabeei's later trial, charges included the October 2002 bombing of the Limburg
Maritime Jewel
The Maritime Jewel is a double hull oil tanker built in 2000; its length is and its width is . It was known as the Limburg until 2003.-Bombing:...
, a French oil tanker, and a plot to kill the United States Ambassador
Ambassadors from the United States
This is a list of ambassadors of the United States to individual nations of the world, to international organizations, to past nations, and ambassadors-at-large.Ambassadors are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate...
in Yemen.
Two suicide bombers
Suicide Bombers
Suicide Bombers is the name of a 2005 EP by Leæther Strip. For the Australian hardcore band see Suicide Bombers -Track listing:# Suicide Bombers# Suicide Bombers # The Shame Of A Nation # This Is Where I Wanna Be...
rammed an explosive-laden boat into the oil tanker, killing a Bulgarian crew member and spilling 90,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Aden
Gulf of Aden
The Gulf of Aden is located in the Arabian Sea between Yemen, on the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and Somalia in the Horn of Africa. In the northwest, it connects with the Red Sea through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, which is about 20 miles wide....
. This operation was very similar to the attack on the American destroyer USS Cole two years earlier. Saudi born Abdulraheem al-Nashiri, prime suspect of the USS Cole bombing (currently in the US custody), paid $40,000 to fund the Limburg attack. With that money, the former Al Qaida leader Abu Ali al-Harithi bought the explosives and transported them from his house in Shabwa to Mukalla in Hadramut. Later in 2002, Al-Harithi was killed by the CIA with a missile fired from a Predator drone.
Al-Rabeiee's conviction also included the detonation of explosives at a civil aviation authority building in April 2002 and then after the Limburg attack, the attack on a helicopter carrying Hunt Oil Co. employees in November 2002.
By February 2, 2003, the FBI rearranged its entire wanted lists on its web site, into the current configuration. Al-Rabeiee was one of the remaining eight Yemen plot suspects 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.
Capture and trial
After al-Rabeei was caught, the trial began, on May 29, 2004 and centered on the October 2002 bombing of the Limburg.On July 10, 2004, during a court hearing, several of the accused threatened the prosecutor by stating that they would cut off his legs.
Fawaz al-Rabeiee was sentenced to death for the Limburg attack. He was also fined $100,000 to compensate for the aviation building damages.
Seven others were sentenced to 10 years in prison. Five of the militants—Ibraheem Mohammed al-Huwaidi, Aref Saleh Ali Mujali, Mohammed Abdullah al-Dailami, Abdulghani Ali Hussein Kaifan and Kasem Yahia al-Raimee—were sentenced to five years in prison. They were found guilty of plotting attacks against the US, French, UK, Cuban and German embassies, and plotting to assassinate the former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen. One of the 15 accused was sentenced to death for killing a Yemeni police officer.
Mr. Fayez al-Hajoury, a lawyer who represented Fawzi Halabi, a defendant who received a 10 years sentence, described the verdict
Verdict
In law, a verdict is the formal finding of fact made by a jury on matters or questions submitted to the jury by a judge. The term, from the Latin veredictum, literally means "to say the truth" and is derived from Middle English verdit, from Anglo-Norman: a compound of ver and dit In law, a verdict...
s as "null and void" and stated that the work of the defense attorneys was obstructed by authorities. Saleh Majali, the father of the man sentenced to death, angrily stated that the whole trial was a "sham", with no respect to human rights. The father of defendant Abdulkareem Kaifan stated that he though the verdict had been decided from the start and the whole trial was a "decoration" to pass the verdict. The defendants vowed to appeal their verdicts and sentences.
Mass escape from Yemen
On February 3, 2006, 23 people, 12 of them al-Qaeda members, escaped from a Yemeni jail in San'a, according to a BBC report. Al-Rabeei was among the group, which reportedly escaped by digging a tunnel, 140 metres, which took them to a nearby mosque.It is not publicly known if any of the original six Yemen prisoners, who were first named and then removed from the "Seeking Information" list, were also connected to the 2006 mass al-Qaeda-related escape. However, none of the 17 Yemen plot suspects from the 2002 terror alert appeared again among the newly listed FBI "wanted" list names in relation to the Yemen escape of 2006.
Four years after Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei's original 2002 listing on the "Seeking Information" terror alert list, the FBI continues to list him among the remaining eight of those early eleven suspected terrorists. But they now only appear on the FBI web site's archived page for the February 2002 "Seeking Information Alert". As of 2006, all the individuals of the February 12, 2002 Yemen plot had since been removed from the FBI's current main wanted page, and are no longer included in the official count of suspects, for the "Seeking Information - War on Terrorism" list.