"very few people" in Mombasa or, wider, across East Africa had heard of her. And then another twist. The next day, The Daily Telegraph learnt of reports, from credible sources, that Lewthwaite and her co-accused, Jermaine Grant, were linked to two men who were last week added to Washington's terror sanctions list. Aboud Rogo Mohammed and Sheikh Abubaker Shariff Ahmed, the US says, are the chief "radicalisers and recruiters" in Mombasa for Somalia's Islamist army, al-Shabaab. And the money needed to pay for Mombasa's incensed young Muslims to be sent to Somalia to train was funnelled to the two men by Samantha Lewthwaite, an anti-terror officer and a security source separately said. Another denial followed: "That is ridiculous," Sheikh Abubaker told The Daily Telegraph in his first interview with Western media. "I have never met this Samantha, I have never heard of her apart from in the newspapers. Her friend Grant, I met him in prison, he was quiet and we said nothing to each other really. There is no connection, even though the authorities want to create one." Perhaps this is the reality of Samantha Lewthwaite, that she truly is hidden away somewhere on the East African coast, with her children, lying low, no threat to anyone bar herself. But at the same time, perhaps to camouflage weak policing, or gaps in terrorism intelligence, or to garner headlines, it has helped a wide cast of characters to link the name Samantha Lewthwaite to every actual and suspected terror outrage,