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WASHINGTON – An accused war criminal living in the United States is now working as a security guard at Dulles International Airport near Washington, DC. Yusuf Abdi Ali, who is accused of committing atrocities while he was a military commander during Somalia’s brutal civil war, has been living a quiet life near the nation’s capital for about 20 years, according to a CNN investigation.

The thing is, Yusuf Abdi Ali is just one of more than 1,000 accused war criminals living and working in the United States.

Yusuf Abdi Ali served as a commander in the Barre regime and is accused of terrorizing the Isaaq people, torturing clan members, burning villages and conducting mass executions.

Several villagers described these atrocities in a documentary that aired on the Canadian network CBC in 1992. One witness claimed Ali captured and killed a family member.

“He tied (my brother) to military vehicle and dragged him behind. He said to us, ‘If you’ve got enough power, get him back,”‘ the villager said. “He shredded him into pieces. That’s how he died.”

CNN found that, today, Ali is living a normal suburban life just outside of the nation’s capital, in Alexandria, VA. He shares an apartment with his wife and works as a security guard at Dulles, one of the busiest airports in the country.

As a result of CNN’s investigation, Ali has been placed on administrative leave.

Ali’s employer Master Security has a contract with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) to provide unarmed security services. Ali passed a “full, federally mandated vetting process” that included an FBI background check and a TSA assessment.

Read more here on Yusuf Abdi Ali at CNN.com.

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