He WAS ID'd
In this image from video a man screams after being burned outside the northwest gate of the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington Monday, Nov. 15, 2004. The man had burns to his head, back, arms and face but was conscious when medics took him to Washington Hospital Center, emergency spokesman Alan Etter said. The 52-year-old has not been identified. (AP Photo/ APTN)
{{{Mohamed Alanssi, 52}}}
A Falls Church man who worked as a federal informant on terrorism set himself on fire in front of the White House yesterday, hours after announcing his suicide attempt and citing his growing despondency over how the FBI managed his case.
Mohamed Alanssi, 52, approached the northwest guardhouse on Pennsylvania Avenue about 2:05 p.m. 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 U.S. Park Police
Alanssi said that he went to the FBI in New York shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and offered information on alleged financers of al Qaeda working in Yemen. He said he quickly became a major informant for the FBI, on occasion traveling to Yemen to gather intelligence.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51575-2004Nov15?language=printer