19 Facts About Mohamed Alanssi

Mohamed Alanssi is a Yemeni national who has worked as an informant for the FBI in over 20 terrorism-related federal prosecutions, starting in November 2001.

Mohamed Alanssi was the sole informant in that case, which involved various counts of material support of terrorism against Mohammed Ali Hassan Al-Moayad and his assistant.

At the trial, Mohamed Alanssi was not called by the prosecution, but appeared as a hostile witness for Al-Moayad's defense.

Mohamed Alanssi worked for a time at the US Embassy in Sana'a in the mid-1970s and came to the US on a tourist visa on July 23,2001.

Mohamed Alanssi came to the attention of federal investigators after an arrest in October 2001 involving Yemenis sending money from the US back to Yemen.

Mohamed Alanssi began work with his handler Robert Fuller as an FBI informant in November 2001.

Mohamed Alanssi was sent by the FBI to Yemen three times in 2002 to talk to Shiek Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad, who was suspected of having terrorist ties.

Mohamed Alanssi had previously known al-Moayad in Yemen as a neighbor and as a worshiper in al-Moayad's mosque.

Mohamed Alanssi convinced al-Moayad to travel to Frankfurt, Germany in January 2003 to meet a potential donor for Islamic fundamentalist causes.

Mohamed Alanssi bought airline tickets for Moayad and his assistant, booked them into the hotel in Frankfurt and provided about $500 for extra expenses, including visas from the German Embassy in Sana'a.

Mohamed Alanssi was paid around $100,000 by the FBI during 2003.

In November 2004, Mohamed Alanssi contacted the Washington Post to discuss his work as an FBI informant in a series of interviews.

Mohamed Alanssi related to the paper that he was very unhappy with his treatment by the FBI and he was desperate to travel to Yemen to see his wife, who was sick with stomach cancer.

At that time, Mohamed Alanssi was the prosecution's star witness in the material support of terrorism case against Al-Moayad and his assistant, Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed.

Mohamed Alanssi eventually testified at that trial in February 2005, although as a hostile witness for the defense.

Mohamed Alanssi pleaded guilty to bank fraud charges in May 2004.

Mohamed Alanssi was given five years probation in April 2005.

Mohamed Alanssi was the key witness for an investigation that produced arrests in 2006 against four Muslim-Americans, Abdulrahman Farhane, Tarik Shah, Rafiq Sabir, and Mahmud Faruq Brent.

The taped conversations between Farhane and Mohamed Alanssi which formed the center of the investigation occurred in Farhane's Brooklyn bookstore in October 2001.