An American busted in a recent raid on al Qaeda in Yemen worked at nuclear-plant complexes in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
New Jersey-raised Sharif Mobley was among 11 suspects rounded up in Sana, Yemen’s capital, in early March, a Yemeni government source said.
Another Yemeni official said authorities had “unconfirmed suspicions” that Mobley had links to the Nigerian underwear bomber who tried to blow up a plane over Detroit last Christmas.
Authorities are also investigating whether Mobley had access to sensitive information.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said he worked from 2002 to 2008 at Salem and Hope Creek in New Jersey, Peach Bottom, Limerick and Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and Calvert Cliffs in Maryland.
PSEG Nuclear, which runs the complex in New Jersey, said he carried supplies and did routine maintenance, mostly during refueling outages.
The NRC said a laborer typically wouldn’t have access to security-related information.
Mobley, 26, grew up in Buena, NJ, 30 miles south of Philadelphia, and later lived in Newark, Del.
A former neighbor said Mobley moved to Yemen about two years ago, supposedly to learn Arabic and study Islam. m