Probably recruited while still in Jordan

Reader comment on item: [Ra'ed Mansour al-Banna:] The California Suicide Bomber

Submitted by Richard Conoboy (United States), Apr 5, 2005 at 11:20

I worked intelligence in the Army and as a civilian for more than three decades. My take is that Banna was a sleeper from the beginning, recruited by Islamists while still an attorney in Jordan. He was then sent to the US to conduct spotting and assessing activities to either recruit new jihadis or to conduct site surveillances for terrorism operations but got crossed up when he tried to reenter the US. Being of questionable further use as a spotter, his handlers convinced him to become a martyr.

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