Sharif Mobley, an American who alleges he was arrested and interrogated by a foreign security service at the behest of the US government, has long claimed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation visited and questioned him when he was first imprisoned in Yemen in early 2010. US government officials have long refused to comment about Mobley's case on the record. Now, an extensively redacted FBI document obtained by Mother Jones confirms US agents did indeed visit Mobley in prison. It also shows that the government was aware of Mobley's detention while US officials were telling his wife that they did not know his whereabouts.
Mobley, whom US officials have said was in Yemen to pursue terrorism, has admitted to contacting Anwar Al-Awlaki, the American-born Al Qaeda propagandist who was killed in a US drone strike in September. But Mobley and his lawyer, Cori Crider of the London-based human rights organization Reprieve, say that the two men spoke about religious and personal matters, not terrorism, and that Mobley was in Yemen to learn Arabic at the country's cheap language schools. Crider claims Awlaki and Mobley met in person once in 2008, more than a year before Mobley was picked up by Yemeni security forces on January 26, 2010. (Security forces in American-allied countries including Yemen are often trained and funded by the US government.)
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