A 51-year-old Department of Energy electrical engineer from Richland, Washington, was arrested Thursday and charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to the Houthis, the Iran-backed rebel group the United States has designated a foreign terrorist organization. Ashton Hamed Ellaboudy is accused of buying materials for homemade explosives and drones, traveling into Yemen, and offering technical help meant to boost the group's communications capabilities.
According to Spectrum News, the FBI arrested Ellaboudy on charges tied to providing support to the Houthi rebels, per the Justice Department. The Justice Department said Ellaboudy acquired materials for the construction of explosive material and drones capable of delivering those explosives, according to tri-cityherald.com. Prosecutors allege he purchased precursor chemicals, including acetone and sodium bisulfate, along with components and other materials commonly used in making homemade explosives, and that he separately bought parts used for the construction of drones and remotely operated aerial systems.
How the FBI Says the Scheme Unfolded
The FBI began investigating Ellaboudy after learning he had purchased precursor chemicals, the report notes. Investigators say he went on to communicate with multiple FBI informants, including one posing as a Houthi colonel, and was recorded telling informants that he had to be smuggled into and out of Yemen, per the affidavit described in the seed reporting. He reportedly hoped to reach Yemen's capital to make government-level connections but, per the FBI, was unable to reach Sanaa.
Court records describe Ellaboudy traveling from Richland to Oman and then crossing into Yemen with the intent of reaching Sanaa, which has been under Houthi control. The timing of that trip is disputed in the record: lynnwoodtimes.com and the same tri-cityherald.com report both place the travel in September 2025, with Ellaboudy allegedly using an official passport previously issued to him during his earlier employment with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. However, justthenews.com describes court records as placing the Oman trip in 2024, before the border crossing into Houthi-occupied Yemen. The dossier does not resolve which date is accurate.
Claims of Official Travel Questioned by His Own Supervisor
Ellaboudy allegedly told U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers that he had traveled overseas on official government business, telling officials he was returning from Oman on a work trip. He went further, per the seed reporting, claiming he was part of a U.S. government mission to inspect missile defense systems. But his supervisor reported having no knowledge of any Energy Department missile inspection program assigned to him and no knowledge of his international travel at all, according to the FBI affidavit cited in the seed story.
Once in the region, prosecutors allege, Ellaboudy provided electrical engineering expertise to help test and modify solar power generators and communications equipment, per homenewshere.com. He is also accused of providing guidance on how power and communications systems could be integrated, and of producing schematics and diagrams intended to improve the Houthis' capabilities. The seed reporting adds that Ellaboudy aimed to help the group improve its communications capabilities more broadly, per the FBI.
No Threat to Hanford Site, Energy Department Says
The Department of Energy's Hanford Field Office said the case did not involve any attempt to harm the Hanford Site or its workforce, stating that at no time was there a threat to the safety or security of the site, according to homenewshere.com's report. Ellaboudy was charged under a law prohibiting material support for a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization; the State Department has identified the Houthis, also known as Ansarallah, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
John Eisenberg, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's National Security Division, said the allegations are so deeply disturbing that they almost defy imagination, according to the seed reporting. Court records list no attorney available to speak on Ellaboudy's behalf. He is due to make his first court appearance on Friday.
A Years-Long War Still Raging
Yemen's conflict began in 2014, when Iran-backed rebels took over the capital, Sanaa, pushing the internationally recognized government into exile in Saudi Arabia. Renewed violence between Houthi rebels and Saudi-backed government forces has killed hundreds of people and displaced tens of thousands more, underscoring the stakes behind the federal charges now facing a Richland government employee accused of lending his technical skills to one side of that fight.
