Al-Qaeda terrorist leader Ali Yousif Ahmed Al-Nouri was arrested on U.S. soil Thursday, for assassinating Iraqi police. How long he’s been lurking in Arizona is still a mystery, along with how he got there and what he’s been up to since 2006.
Al-Qaeda leader in custody
Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division was joined by U.S. Attorney Michael Bailey for the District of Arizona, to announce that on January 30, Al-Nouri was taken into custody in Phoenix, Arizona. The following day they hauled him in front of federal magistrate Judge John Z. Boyle, the same judge who issued the warrant for his arrest two days before.
He’s charged with the premeditated murder, in 2006, of two policemen in Al-Fallujah, Iraq. His immigration status isn’t clear but whether he came in through the front door or across the wide-open border is a moot point because Al-Nouri is being held for extradition and will be tried in his home country.
The FBI Phoenix Field Office were in charge of arresting Al-Nouri, with an assist from the U.S. Marshals Service and Department of Homeland Security. The extradition case will be handled by federal prosecutors in the District of Arizona and the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs.
Prosecutors with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office & Arizona Attorney General’s Office received the FBI Director’s Certificate of Commendation Award for their work with the FBI in combating international terrorism. Thank you for your partnerships! pic.twitter.com/u2sl7oaG65
— FBI Phoenix (@FBIPhoenix) January 28, 2020
A ‘sleeper cell’ lurking in America
The Iraqi government alerted authorities at the Department of Justice last week that we had a terrorist hiding in America. He’s probably been here for a long time now, hiding in the shadows created by liberal immigration policies.
Ali Yousif Ahmed Al-Nouri was the leader of an Al-Qaeda terrorist group in Al-Fallujah back in the early part of the millennium. In 2006, his group was tasked with picking off policemen, one-by-one. They were out to get officers wherever possible.
Al-Nouri allegedly “shot and killed a first lieutenant in the Fallujah Police Directorate and a police officer in the Fallujah Police Directorate, on or about June 1, 2006, and October 3, 2006, respectively,” according to the DOJ bulletin.
What was he up to?
The big question on everyone’s mind is what kind of mischief has Al-Nouri been up to in Arizona. The only available information on that, for now, indicates that he was comfortably settled and leading an apparently normal life. After all, he managed to evade detection for the past 14 years. The DOJ statement refers to him as a “resident” of the Phoenix area. He must have blended in rather well.
The State Department will make the final decision to return Al-Nouri to Iraq after his extradition is “certified by the court.” That gives U.S. authorities some time to do some digging into his background. If anything shows up, we may be charging him with domestic crimes and giving him a trial here before he goes back to Iraq.
