Energy Department engineer charged with allegedly aiding Houthis
The US Justice Department says FBI agents arrested Ashton Hamed Ellaboudy, an Energy Department electrical engineer, on charges of providing material support to Yemen’s Houthi movement. Investigators allege he bought explosive and drone components, advised on communications and travelled covertly to Yemen.
The FBI has arrested a US Department of Energy electrical engineer accused of providing material support to the Houthi movement in Yemen, the Justice Department said Thursday. Ashton Hamed Ellaboudy, 51, of Richland, Washington, was arrested Thursday and is due to make his first court appearance on Friday. Court records did not list a lawyer available to speak on his behalf.
The Justice Department alleges that Ellaboudy sought to help the Houthis improve their communications capabilities. Investigators say he travelled to Yemen last September and attempted to reach the capital, Sanaa, to establish government-level contacts, but was unable to do so. According to an FBI affidavit, Ellaboudy told investigators working undercover that he had been smuggled into and out of Yemen.
After returning to the United States from Oman, authorities say he told Customs and Border Protection officials that he had been on a work trip connected to a US government mission inspecting missile-defence systems. His supervisor told investigators that he knew nothing of Ellaboudy’s international travel or of an Energy Department missile-inspection programme to which Ellaboudy could have been assigned, the affidavit says. The FBI began investigating after learning that Ellaboudy had bought acetone and sodium bisulfate, chemicals commonly associated with homemade explosive devices, as well as drone parts.
Investigators also say he communicated with several informants, including one posing as a Houthi colonel, and offered advice and assistance concerning communications equipment. Ellaboudy is charged under a law prohibiting material support for organisations designated by the United States as foreign terrorist organisations. The Justice Department’s national-security chief, John Eisenberg, described the allegations as deeply disturbing.
The Houthis, backed by Iran, seized Yemen’s capital in 2014, forcing the country’s government into exile in Saudi Arabia. The source material says renewed violence involving the Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces has killed hundreds and displaced tens of thousands.
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