Faker Ben Abdelazziz Boussora

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Faker Ben Abdelazziz Boussora
Faker Ben Abdelazziz Boussora

Faker Ben Abdelazziz Boussora (born March 22, 1964 in Tunisia) is an alleged al-Qaeda terrorist, "being sought in connection with possible terrorist activity within the United States." A Canadian citizen, he became, in early 2002, the subject of an international manhunt, one week after his Montreal companion, Abderraouf Jdey, was discovered among a group of five men on videotape found in Afghanistan, as having pledged their martyrdom in suicide missions. Upon discovery of his connection to Jdey, Boussora was immediately named by the United States Department of Justice to the FBI's recently created wanted list, which was then called "Most Wanted Terrorists Seeking Information." Jdey and the other four had become the original five list members a week earlier. Boussora and Jdey both still remain on the current version of the list, which is now known as the FBI Seeking Information - War on Terrorism list. [1]

He also goes by the aliases Fakr Abdul Aziz Bosura, Boussoura, Abdulaziz, Fakeroun, Abu Yusif Al-Tunisi, Fakerrou, Yusuf Al-Tunisi, and Faker Boussora.

Boussora's wanted poster at the FBI describes him as having predominantly protruding ears and says that he is believed to have a serious pituitary gland illness.

The United States Department of State, through its Rewards For Justice Program, is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading directly to his capture.

[edit] Atef rubble videos and Montreal plot

After January 14, 2002 five suspected al-Qaeda members delivering what United States Attorney General John Ashcroft described as "martyrdom messages from suicide terrorists" were found on five discovered videos, recovered from the rubble of the home of one of the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists, Mohammad Atef, outside of Kabul, Afghanistan. NBC News said that the five videos had been recorded after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

In response, on January 17, 2002 the FBI released to the public the first Most Wanted Terrorists Seeking Information list (now known as the FBI's "Seeking Information - War on Terrorism" list), in order to profile the five wanted terrorists about whom very little was known, but who were suspected of plotting additional terrorist attacks in martyrdom operations. [2] (see current version displaying photos of five terrorists on the remaining martyrdom videos FBI list, as of June 2006) [3] The videos were shown by the FBI without sound, to guard against the possibility that the messages contained signals for other terrorists.

On that day, only four of the names were known, among the five. The fifth wanted terrorist was positively identified a week later, January 25, 2002, as Abderraouf Jdey. He was found to be the same person using the alias Al Rauf Bin Al Habib Bin Yousef Al-Jiddi. Jdey/Jiddi, a Tunisian, was found to be a resident of Montreal, Canada. Also on January 25, An international manhunt was launched for his companion, Canadian citizen, and fellow Tunisian, Faker Boussora, then 37. U.S. officials said the two Tunisian-born Canadians were part of a Canadian group plotting to kill more civilians.

Of the original six martyr video and associate suspects, only Ramzi Binalshibh was known to be captured, not long after, in 2002.

By February 2, 2003, the FBI rearranged its entire wanted lists on its web site, into the current configuration. The outstanding five martyr video suspects (including Jdey's Montreal associate Boussora) were moved to a separate linked page, titled "Martyrdom Messages/video, Seeking Information Alert" (Although both Jdey and Boussora were later returned to the main FBI list page). 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. [4]

Both Abderraouf Jdey and Faker Boussora still officially remain on the FBI's wanted list, with their respective wanted posters, as the only two members of the original early group of six who are still listed. The remaining three would-be "martyrs" from the January 2002 videos are still presumed to be wanted, but they have been removed from the official FBI wanted list, and their photos and names have been archived by the FBI, off the main page of the FBI's Seeking Information - War on Terrorism wanted list.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Seeking Information Alert for Boussora, FBI.gov
  2. ^ Most Wanted Terrorists Seeking Information, January 17, 2002, (dead link)
  3. ^ Martyrdom Messages/video, Seeking Information Alert, video clips published by the FBI January 17, 2002, and photos of remaining 5 terrorists, FBI archival after September 2002
  4. ^ FBI Seeking Information - War on Terrorism archive page, Internet Archive Wayback Machine, February 2, 2003