Amercian Nuclear Power Plant Terrorist Held In Yemen

We must all realise that the greater the number of  nuclear power plants created worldwide the greater the probability of a human accident, terrorist plot or geological dissaster(Earthquake) is greater--- There are a lot safer ways to create electicity and to give communities the chance to benefit from small scale production

An American citizen who is being held in Yemen accused of being an al-Qaeda militant worked for six years at a series of US nuclear power plants, it emerged yesterday.


Sharif Mobley, 26, who started a gun battle as he tried to escape from a hospital in Yemen last week, killing one person and wounding several others, worked at three nuclear reactors in his native New Jersey between 2002 and 2008.

Mr Mobley was among 11 al-Qaeda suspects arrested during a series of raids in the Yemeni capital Sanaa in this month, and is believed to have links to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian radical who tried to blow up a US aircraft on Christmas Day.

Before moving to Yemen in 2008, supposedly to learn Arabic and study Islam, Mr Mobley worked at Salem and Hope Creek nuclear power stations and at another plant on Artificial Island in Lower Alloways Creek.

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The company that owns the plants, Public Service Enterprise Group, said in a report to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission that Mr Mobley carried out maintenance at the plants and carried supplies.

A spokesman for the governor of New Jersey said that Mr Mobley was not believed to have breached security at the plants, but it was still unclear last night what access, if any, he had to sensitive technology.

His case is the latest example of a radicalised American travelling overseas to join al-Qaeda – a growing trend that has US authorities deeply worried – and the fact that he worked at nuclear plants makes his case all the more troubling.

Earlier this week it emerged that an American woman, who used the internet nom de guerre JihadJane, has been in custody since October. She is accused of traveling to Sweden to kill the cartoonist whose depictions of the Prophet Muhammed outraged many Muslims.

Mr Mobley, who was recaptured after the gun battle at the hospital, where he was being treated, already had strong religious views by the time he left school.

However, his alleged radicalisation occurred more recently. A former classmate, Roman Castro, who served with the US Army in Iraq, said that he last saw Mr Mobley four years ago, and that he was clearly more radical. When they met, Mr Mobley yelled at him: “Get the hell away from me, you Muslim killer!”

American officials worry that Yemen is becoming the biggest terrorist staging ground for al-Qaeda, with many members of the group having moved there from Afghanistan and Pakistan.