America just caught its own nuclear site engineer helping the Houthis build weapons

A Department of Energy employee from Richland, Washington just got arrested for trying to help the Houthis.

His name is Ashton Hamed Ellaboudy. He's 51. He's an electrical engineer at the Hanford nuclear site.

Federal prosecutors say he bought chemicals. He bought drone parts. And he flew to Yemen trying to reach Sanaa, the capital the Houthis control.

The case started with the FBI's Inland Northwest Joint Terrorism Task Force. They got a tip that Ellaboudy had bought precursor chemicals and materials people use to build homemade explosives. Court records name two of those chemicals: acetone and sodium bisulfate. Investigators also say he bought parts for drones and remote-controlled aircraft.

John A. Eisenberg is the Assistant Attorney General for National Security. He says quote "used his specialized expertise in an attempt to aid the Houthis".

But here's where the case really turns. The travel.

In September last year, Ellaboudy used an old passport. It was issued to him years earlier, back when he worked for the US Army Corps of Engineers. He flew from Richland to Oman. Then he crossed into Yemen, trying to reach Sanaa.

He never made it. He told FBI informants he had to be smuggled in and out of the country.

When he got back to America, he told border officers he'd been on official government business. His own supervisor at the Department of Energy later said that trip was never approved. One wire report adds a detail: Ellaboudy told border officers he was on a government mission to inspect defence facilities. His supervisor says no such mission existed.

So think about that. A government employee. Using a government passport. Lying to government border officers. About government work that never happened.

While the FBI was watching, Ellaboudy was talking to someone he believed was a Houthi colonel. That contact wanted communications equipment for a mobile communications centre in Yemen.

The contact was actually an FBI undercover source.

Ellaboudy used his engineering background to help anyway. He tested and modified solar power generators. He worked on communications equipment. He handed over schematics and diagrams. And he researched more gear that would boost the Houthis' ability to communicate.

Jarod Brown is an Assistant Director in the FBI's Counterterrorism Division. He says Ellaboudy allegedly betrayed the United States.

And there's an earlier detail in the court filing, too. Ten months before the arrest, back in December 2024, Ellaboudy took sick leave. He said he'd been exposed to highly concentrated nitric acid. That's a chemical used in making explosives.

Now, the Hanford connection. This is the part the Department of Energy moved fastest to address.

Hanford is one of the most sensitive nuclear sites in the country. It was built to make plutonium for the Manhattan Project. It still holds the largest store of radioactive waste in America.

Ray Geimer runs the DOE's Hanford Field Office. He says the case did not involve any attempt to harm Hanford or its workers. He says the site itself was never at risk.

W. Mike Herrington is the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Seattle office. He praised the partnership between the FBI and the Department of Energy in building the case.

The FBI searched a home on Oxford Avenue in Richland the day of the arrest. A federal affidavit was filed the day before that, on 30 September, in the Eastern District of Washington.

Ellaboudy is due in front of a federal magistrate tomorrow. 11:00 a.m., in Richland. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Court records list no attorney able to speak for him.

And remember, this is a complaint. That means it's an allegation. Ellaboudy is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

So what don't we know?

We don't know how much of what he worked on actually reached the Houthis. We don't know how long he'd been in contact with them before the FBI's source stepped in. We don't know who that source is. We don't know the status of his security clearance. And we don't know if anyone else is involved.

Here's what is confirmed. A man with a government engineering job, a government passport and a government security clearance tried to use all three to help a group the United States calls a terrorist organisation.