A man who worked as a federal informant on terrorism set himself on fire in front of the White House on Monday, hours after announcing his suicide attempt and citing his growing despondency over how the FBI managed his case. Mohamed Alanssi, 52, of Falls Church, Virginia, approached the northwest guardhouse on Pennsylvania Avenue about 2:05 pm and asked the security detail to deliver a note to President Bush. When uniformed Secret Service officers turned him away, he stepped about 15 feet from the guard post and used a lighter to ignite his jacket, according to the US Park Police. Secret Service officers wrestled him to the ground and doused the flames with fire extinguishers. Alanssi was taken to Washington Hospital Center, where he was listed in critical condition with burns over about 30 percent of his body, authorities said. Alanssi, who is from Yemen and also uses the name Mohamed Alhadrami, recently discussed his work as a federal informant in a series of interviews with The Washington Post. Monday morning, he informed the newspaper by faxed letter and by telephone that he was going to ‘‘burn my body at unexpected place.’’ He also sent a copy of a letter he said he had faxed to the FBI agent in New York who is handling his case. The Post alerted the agent and provided a copy of the letter. In two telephone conversations on Monday, Alanssi told a Post reporter that he would provide 10 minutes’ advance notice of his suicide attempt and that only then would he reveal the location. When he called a third time, Alanssi said he had poured gasoline and would be setting himself on fire in two minutes, not 10, and it would take place by the White House. The newspaper informed District of Columbia police, who notified the special operations unit and the US Park Police, which has jurisdiction over Lafayette Square across from the White House. In the interviews, Alanssi expressed anguish over not being able to visit his family in Yemen. He said that he suffers from diabetes and heart problems and that his wife is seriously ill with stomach cancer. Alanssi said he could not travel to his native country because he has no money and because the FBI, which is expecting him to testify at a terrorism trial in New York, was keeping his Yemeni passport. ‘‘I must travel to Yemen to see my sick wife and my family before I testify at the court or any other places,’’ Alanssi wrote to FBI agent Robert Fuller in New York. ‘‘Why you don’t care about my life and my family’s life? Once I testify my family will be killed in Yemen, me too I will be dead man.’’ —LAT-WP
