Mohammed Jabarah - Release, Cooperation and Later Arrest

Release, Cooperation and Later Arrest

In May Jabarah agreed to cooperate with U.S. authorities and was turned over to them. He lived in a series of safe houses, working as a double agent for the Americans, and helped them track both Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Osama bin Laden as part of what he was told was a plea bargain.

Less than three months after the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in Queens, New York, rumors were already suggesting that it had been destroyed by an unknown terrorist with a shoe bomb similar to the one found on Richard Reid. Four months later, Jabarah stated that Mohamed's lieutenant Abu Abdelrahman had told him that Reid and Jdey had both been enlisted by the al-Qaeda chief to carry out identical plots as part of a second wave of attacks against the United States, and that Jdey had blown up the flight.

He was re-arrested in the autumn, after a Federal Bureau of Investigation search of his house found a list of American agents and prosecutors, a knife and rope in his luggage and bomb-making instructions. He was held in the Manhattan Detention Center until he was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment by judge Barbara S. Jones.

His oldest brother, Abdullah, later stated that he believed Mohammed was "a crazy bastard, fucking mad".