Informant: Torched self to get noticed

February 22, 2005, 10:04 PM EST

An FBI informant said yesterday he wanted to put "the world on notice" but not actually commit suicide when he set himself on fire outside the White House in November.

Testifying at the Brooklyn federal trial of two Yemeni men accused of plotting to help terrorism, informant Mohamed Alanssi said his suicidal gesture was actually designed to try and get more money from his FBI handlers.

"It was my right to get as much money as I can," Alanssi said under questioning by defense attorney Howard Jacobs, who is representing Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad, a Muslim cleric.

"I was very upset and I had no money," Alanssi, 53, explained later under cross-examination by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Moore. "My wife is sick. She has cancer. I can't go back to Yemen because my life is in danger in al-Yemen."

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhattan/nyc-terr0223,0,765874.story?coll=nyc-moreny-headlines

I've wondered what happened to him.