Samir Abduh Sa'id Al-Maktawi - February 12, 2002 Terror Alert

February 12, 2002 Terror Alert

In early 2002, according to an FBI report, as a result of US military operations in Afghanistan 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, Samir Abduh Sa'id al-Maktawi 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 FBI 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.

Samir Abduh Sa'id al-Maktawi remained listed among the eleven names still being sought on February 14, 2002. The others who also remained were: Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei, Omar Ahmad Omar al-Hubishi, Ammar Abadah Nasser al-Wa'eli, Alyan Muhammad Ali al-Wa'eli, Bassam Abdullah bin Bushar al-Nahdi, Mustafa Abdulkader Aabed al-Ansari, Abdulrab Muhammad Muhammad Ali al-Sayfi, Abu Nasr al-Tunisi, Abu Mu'az al-Jeddawi and Amin Saad Muhammad al-Zumari.