Protester attempts suicide

last updated 8 January 2015

Washington, D.C.

A federal informant on terrorism set himself on fire this week in front of the White House. Mohamed Alanssi, 52, had accused FBI agents of failing to protect his identity after he provided information about a cleric from his native Yemen. Alanssi had also complained that the FBI would not let him visit his cancer-stricken wife in Yemen before the cleric’s trial on terrorism charges, in January. Alanssi asked guards outside the White House to take a note to President Bush, then ignited his jacket with a cigarette lighter when they refused. He was rushed to a hospital in critical condition, with burns over 30 percent of his body. In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Alanssi said the FBI had paid him $100,000, but that it wasn’t worth it, since he and his family were now receiving frequent death threats. “It is my big mistake that I have cooperated with FBI,” he said. “The FBI have already destroyed my life and my family’s life.”