|
Adnan
el Shukrijumah is a Most Wanted Terrorist
FBI
Seeking Information
- America's
Most Wanted
Arabic
Aliases: Adnan
G. El Shukrijumah, Adnan
G. El Shukri Jumah; Abu
Arif; Ja'far
Al-Tayar; Jaffar
Al-Tayyar; Jafar
Tayar; Jaafar
Al-Tayyar, Adnan
Al-Shukri Juma, Adnan
Jumaa, Adnan
Gulshair Muhammad el Shukrijumah, Mohammed
Sher Mohammed Khan
Also
Known As: "Jaffar
the Pilot"
From:
Saudi Arabia (Saudis
Deny Shukrijumah is a Citizen of Their Country)
Date
of Birth: August 4, 1975 (31 years
old)
Threat
Timeline
(Stories Related to Adnan G. El Shukrijumah)
February
27 , 2003 (CBS)
'High
Risk' Of Terror Attacks
added: 9/23/06
The
government raised its terror threat level
to "high risk" orange on Friday,
warning of a growing possibility that Osama
bin Laden's al Qaeda network would launch
an attack against the United States to coincide
with Muslim holy days.
Changing
the terror alert color from "yellow"
triggered tighter government security. Officials
also urged greater vigilance by all Americans.
...
A
few hours after the announcement, the FBI
issued an alert to law enforcement and the
public for help in finding a Pakistani man
identified as Mohammed Sher Mohammed
Khan*, 36, who it said may have
entered the United States illegally after
Sept. 1, 2001. The FBI said it had no specific
information that Khan was a terrorist —
his name and birthdate might be fictitious
— but that agents want to question
him.
*See:
March 21, 2003
(Top)
March
20, 2003 (US Dept. of Justice)
Be
on the Lookout (BOLO)
The
FBI has issued a "Be on the Lookout"
(BOLO) alert for Adnan G. El Shukrijumah
in connection with possible threats against
the United States. In the BOLO alert, the
FBI expresses interest in locating and questioning
El Shukrijumah, and asks
all law enforcement personnel to notify
the FBI immediately if he is located. El
Shukrijumah's current whereabouts
are unknown.
El
Shukrijumah is possibly involved
with al-Qaeda terrorist activities and,
if true, poses a serious threat to U.S.
Citizens and interests worldwide.
El
Shukrijumah is 27 years old and
was born in Saudi Arabia. He is approximately
132 pounds (but may be heavier today), 5
'3" to 5'5" tall, has a Mediterranean
complexion, black hair, black eyes, and
occasionally wears a beard. A photograph
of this individual is available on the FBI's
website, http://www.fbi.gov/.
(Top)
March
21 , 2003 (Washington Post)
FBI
on Global Hunt for Saudi Al Qaeda Suspect
added: 9/23/06
The
FBI launched a global manhunt yesterday
for a suspected Saudi al Qaeda member who
is feared to be planning terrorist attacks,
even as federal agents fanned out across
the country as part of a wartime plan to
interview Iraqi nationals and arrest those
in violation of immigration laws.
The
FBI called Adnan G. El Shukrijumah,
27, an "imminent threat to U.S. citizens
and interests" who is "suspected
of planning terrorist activities."
A senior law enforcement official described
him as a possible terrorism organizer in
the style of Mohamed Atta, the suspected
ringleader of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
But authorities said they have no details
on what kind of plot he might be involved
in.
...
The
public plea for information came after weeks
of investigation that centered on an alias
of El Shukrijumah that
the FBI had attached to another man, a law
enforcement official said. The bureau yesterday
rescinded a February alert issued under
that man's name, Mohammed Sher Mohammed
Khan. That earlier search was one
factor that led to the elevation of the
U.S. threat level last month.
(Top)
March
24, 2003 (TIME Magazine Online)
Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed Names Names
...
One
of the al-Qaeda operatives identified by
Mohammed is Adman G. El Shukrijumah,
a 27-year-old Saudi who went to college
in South Florida. Last week the FBI launched
a global manhunt for Shukrijumah, who, officials
say, Mohammed has dubbed a leader on a par
with Mohammed Atta, the top man on the 9/11
hijack team. Sources tell TIME that U.S.
intelligence agencies are urgently searching
for at least two other key lieutenants fingered
by Mohammed. Still other team names and
descriptions have been refined during Mohammed's
interrogation. This data has been dispatched
to allied intelligence and security services
to be placed on lookout lists.
(Top)
March
26, 2003 (CBS News)
Most
Wanted: The Next Atta?
On
the day after America went to war in Iraq,
the FBI put out a bulletin that, as CBS
News Correspondent Jim Stewart reports for
60 Minutes II, reminds us the war on terrorism
is far from finished.
FBI
agents are desperately looking for a man
they say could be the next Mohammad Atta,
the ringleader of the 9/11 hijackers. Like
many other al Qaeda members, they say this
man was born in Saudi Arabia, attended terrorist
camps in Afghanistan and is an expert in
explosives.
But,
unlike others, he is believed to have been
tutored by some of the best minds in al
Qaeda. And what makes him really dangerous,
the FBI believes, is that he lived in America
for several years, which now makes him one
of the bureau’s most wanted men in
the world.
His
name is Adnan El-Shukrijumah,
a 27-year-old Saudi Muslim who, the FBI
fears, has been anointed the head of a new
cell with orders to attack targets inside
the United States. Pat D’Amuro is
the head of counter terrorism for the FBI
and the man who decided to ring the alarm
bell.
Of
all the suspected al Qaeda operatives out
there, where does El-Shukrijumah
fit on the FBI's scale?
Says
D;Amuro, "This individual would rate
in the top five with respect to protection
of the homeland... I would say, for domestic
reasons, within the continental United States,
this individual is very important for the
FBI to find."
(Top)
March
31, 2003 (Miami Herald)
FBI
sees terror; family sees good son
He
is now among the most hunted men in America.
But
to his family in South Forida, Adnan
Gulshair El'Shukri-jumah is the
son who -- at the age of 8 -- took over
as head of his home in Saudi Arabia in the
absence of his missionary father.
They
describe him as a brother who loved to picnic
in the desert outside Medina and enjoyed
American movies but not America's permissive
customs.
Though
the subject of a global manhunt for his
suspected involvement in possible terrorist
activities, family members say he was just
a normal, good-natured young man who dreamed
of a family of his own, whose young adult
years in Miramar were filled with driving
children to school, buying groceries and
taking college courses.
He
sometimes went with his father to lead Islamic
worship services and took his Muslim heritage
seriously. But by their account, Adnan
El'Shukri-jumah never showed any
signs of taking up the militant causes of
extremists.
(Top)
June
16, 2003 (USA Today)
Pursuit
of al-Qaeda keeps coming back to Fla.
This
spring, FBI agents searching for suspected
al-Qaeda terrorist Adnan El Shukrijumah
homed in on Hollywood/Pines Boulevard, a
leafy commercial strip in the suburbs of
Fort Lauderdale. El Shukrijumah, a trained
pilot who is the focus of a worldwide search,
attended college and a mosque on the boulevard
before disappearing in 2001.
...
Beginning
in the mid-1990s, the 45-mile strip between
Miami and Boca Raton was home to El
Shukrijumah; the two al-Qaeda wannabes,
Mandhai and Shueyb Mossa Jokhan; 12 of the
19 Sept. 11 hijackers; and Jose Padilla,
a suspected al-Qaeda operative who U.S.
investigators say once met with El
Shukrijumah overseas. Authorities
believe that Padilla, a Chicago native being
held by the U.S. military as an uncharged
"enemy combatant," was interested
in getting material for a radioactive "dirty
bomb."
Some
local Muslim leaders say the connections
are incidental and should be expected in
a community where men routinely visit several
mosques to pray and to socialize.
"I
saw (El Shukrijumah, Padilla
and Mandhai) at different times in different
mosques, and I always said hello,"
says Sofian Abdelaziz, director of the American
Muslim Association of North America, a community
services group in North Miami Beach. "Does
that make me a terrorist?"
(Top)
August
22, 2003 (Front Page Magazine)
CAIR
vs. the FBI
In
March of 2003, the Miami office of the FBI
held a joint press conference with the Council
on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) concerning
the FBI's search for suspected terrorist
Adnan El Shukrijumah. According
to the FBI, El Shukrijumah
was “identified by senior members
of the al-Qaeda organization as a very,
very, very serious threat to the United
States interests, both here and abroad.”
Before
the event, the FBI issued a press release,
claiming CAIR had “approached the
FBI and offered their assistance in reaching
out to the Arab-American community to encourage
them to provide any information they might
have concerning El Shukrijumah and
to address concerns within [sic.] community
regarding hate crimes.”
Three
days later, CAIR issued its own press release.
However, this one contradicted the FBI.
CAIR’s PR machine claimed that it
was not CAIR that approached the FBI, but
it was in fact the FBI that approached the
radical Islamic group. The CAIR press release
states, “The FBI approached us and
sought our help.” This may seem like
an honest mistake to some, but when CAIR’s
concerned, honesty rarely factors in on
the equation.
(Top)
September
5, 2003 (CBS News)
FBI
Hunts 4 Terror Suspects
The
FBI issued a bulletin Friday announcing
a worldwide search for four men in connection
with possible terrorist threats against
the United States.
One
of the four is a Saudi with family ties
in South Florida, who has previously
been described as a possible al Qaeda operative
in the mold of Mohammed Atta, ringleader
of the 9-11 attackers.
The
FBI posted the bulletin on its Web site
and circulated it among law enforcement
agencies after recent intelligence indicated
the four could be involved in an unspecified
plot against U.S. interests, said a law
enforcement official who spoke on condition
of anonymity.
The
FBI had been seeking information about all
four — two Saudis, a Moroccan and
a Tunisian — for months, but the new
information led officials to intensify the
search, said a second official, also on
condition of anonymity.
"These
individuals should be considered armed and
dangerous," the FBI bulletin reads.
None of the four are believed to be in the
United States.
(Top)
October
18, 2003 (Toronto Sun)
Was
he at Mac?
McMaster University officials say they
have no record of a suspected al-Qaida operative
posing as a student or casing their nuclear
reactor facility. Adnan El Shukrijumah,
who according to yesterday's Washington
Times, was seen last year searching for
nuclear material for a "dirty bomb"
in Hamilton, never enrolled under that name
or any of his aliases, a school official
said yesterday.
The
FBI issued a BOLO (Be on the Lookout) alert
for El Shukrijumah, 27,
in March.
He
is believed to be part of an al-Qaida cell
in Canada and the U.S. planning an attack
using a dirty bomb, a conventional weapon
laced with radioactive material.
El
Shukrijumah has been described
as a possible al-Qaida planner similar to
Mohamed Atta, a key organizer of the Sept.
11 attacks.
A
university spokesman said he has complete
confidence in safety and security at McMaster's
five-megawatt research reactor.
(Top)
March
21, 2004 (Fox News)
FBI
Issues Alert for Suspected Terrorist
WASHINGTON
— A Saudi man being sought by the
FBI because he may be plotting terrorist
attacks against U.S. targets has been linked
to Jose Padilla, an American citizen charged
with plotting to detonate a radiological
"dirty bomb" in the United States.
The
FBI on Thursday asked law enforcement agencies
and the public to be on the lookout for
Adnan G. El Shukrijumah,
27, who senior law enforcement officials
said has received flight training and possesses
a Florida driver's license.
"El
Shukrijumah is possibly involved
with Al Qaeda terrorist activities and,
if true, poses a serious threat to U.S.
citizens and interests worldwide,"
the FBI said in a statement.
Officials
said El Shukrijumah's organizing
capabilities are comparable to those of
Mohammed Atta, the suspected organizer of
the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Fifteen of
the 19 hijackers were Saudis and some, including
Atta, received flight training in Florida.
A
federal law enforcement official, speaking
Friday on condition of anonymity, said authorities
were tipped to El Shukrijumah
by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Al Qaeda's chief
operational planner who was arrested March
1 in Pakistan.
Information
recovered after Mohammed's capture includes
references to Padilla and El Shukrijumah,
who at one time lived near each other in
the Miami area, according to the official.
(Top)
May
26, 2004 (CNN)
Ashcroft
- al Qaida Intends to Attack US
Intelligence
from multiple sources indicates that al
Qaeda intends to attack the United States
in the coming months, U.S. Attorney General
John Ashcroft said Wednesday.
"This
disturbing intelligence indicates al Qaeda's
specific intention to hit the United States
hard," Ashcroft said in a news conference.
"Beyond this intelligence, al Qaeda's
own public statements indicate that it is
almost ready to attack the United States."
Ashcroft
said that after the March 11 train bombings
in Madrid, Spain, "an al Qaeda spokesman
announced 90 percent of the arrangements
for an attack on the United States were
complete."
Ashcroft
cited a number of upcoming events that could
be potential targets, including the Group
of Eight economic summit on Sea Island,
Georgia, and the Democratic and Republican
national conventions in Boston, Massachusetts,
and New York, respectively.
He
also warned that terrorists may not have
a typical look and that "the face of
al Qaeda may be changing."
...
Among
the seven were suspected al Qaeda operatives
Adnan G. El Shukrijumah
and Aafia Siddiqui, two law enforcement
sources said.
(Top)
May
27, 2004 (Sun-Sentinel.Com)
Miramar
Mother Insists Her Son is Not a Terrorist
For
El'Shukri-Jumah's family,
Ashcroft's announcement served only to renew
the despair they have endured since a similar
FBI announcement brought the world's attention
to their doorstep in March 2003. The family
last saw the eldest son in 2001, before
the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and
the World Trade Center. His mother said
he has called once since then. He said he
was teaching English in Morocco, had married
and had a son; she warned him to stay away,
telling him that the U.S. government was
imprisoning Arab and Muslim men without
letting them see a lawyer, Ahmed said.
...
He
may have been uncomfortable with the open
expression of sexuality in the American
public, but her son never expressed hatred
or the desire to harm anybody.
He
appreciated this country, its cultural diversity
and the kindness of its people, she said.
"You
know something," she said, "he
and I used to say, `If this country had
Islamic law it would be the best country
on the Earth.'"
(Top)
May
28, 2004 (Denver Post)
2
suspected al-Qaeda agents dropped in for
meal, says Denny's manager in Avon
The FBI office in Denver has received
"numerous" calls about the seven
people believed to be associated with al-Qaeda
pictured Wednesday in newspapers.
Monique
Kelso, spokeswoman for the Denver office,
wouldn't characterize the calls as "sightings,"
but at least one was reported as such.
Samuel
Mac, manager of the Denny's in Avon, isn't
happy with the response he got from the
FBI when he reported that two of them ate
at his restaurant Wednesday.
...
Mac said two men - he subsequently identified
them from their photographs as Adnan
G. El Shukrijumah and Abderraouf
Jdey - came into Denny's, which
is just off Interstate 70, about 8 p.m.
One
ordered a chicken sandwich and a salad,
the other just a salad, Mac said. They were
demanding, rude and obnoxious, he said.
They
said they were from Iran and were driving
from New York to the West Coast.
(Top)
July
1, 2004 (World Net Daily)
Police
Searching for Next Mohammad Atta
Costa
Rica, Nicaragua and Panama are on alert
for the possible entry of suspected terrorist
Adnan G. El Shukrijumah,
after Honduran authorities warned that the
29-year old suspect, referred to by law
enforcement sources as "the next Mohammed
Atta," may be seeking to cross into
one of the countries.
Costa
Rica is bordered on the north by Nicaragua
and on the south by Panama.
Shukrijumah,
who is considered one of the FBI's "top
5" terrorist concerns, allegedly was
spotted in Honduras on May 27 at a Tegucigalpa
Internet cafe
"We
found out that this man was in Tegucigalpa
at the end of May," Leonel Sauceda,
spokesman for the Honduran Security Ministry
told media. "He was seen in an Internet
cafe in the city and we confirmed that he
made phone calls to France and the United
States from there."
Calls
were also made to Canada, according to the
Security Ministry.
An
official with the Honduran Security Ministry
told WND the female Internet café
owner recognized Shukrijumah
from photos in the newspaper. Police arrived
at the café just after the suspect
had left.
He
apparently was speaking in English, and
a little in Spanish and French. The suspect
was seen with two bearded individuals who
"had a rough appearance," according
to the government official. Information
from the cafe's phone records has been relayed
to various allied foreign intelligence agencies.
(Top)
August
9, 2004 (NY Times)
Tourist
Copters in NYC a Terror Target
...
The
authorities now believe that one of the
men who conducted the surveillance at the
New York Stock Exchange was Adnan
G. el-Shukrijumah, who was born
in Saudi Arabia, has relatives in Florida
and on May 26 was the subject of an F.B.I.
bulletin seeking information about seven
men with suspected ties to terrorists.
Some
intelligence officials believe that Mr.
Shukrijumah is a close associate
of Abu Issa al-Hindi, a suspected operative
of Al Qaeda who was one of the men arrested
last week in Britain and who was believed
to have traveled to the United States at
the direction of senior terrorist leaders
to supervise and take part in the surveillance
of the financial institutions.
There
are no charges in the United States against
Mr. Shukrijumah, but officials
said investigators had been seeking him
since shortly after the Sept. 11 terror
attacks because he is believed to have taken
flight training and is fluent in English.
The
F.B.I. said in its bulletin that Mr.
Shukrijumah carried a Guyanese
passport but might try to enter the United
States with a Saudi, Canadian or Trinidadian
passport. One law enforcement official said
recent sightings had suggested that he has
been in Mexico and Honduras, but those have
not been confirmed.
...
(Top)
August
14, 2004 (Dallas Morning News)
Border
breaches stir fears
Fears that terrorists might enter the
United States via remote stretches of the
border with Mexico are not based on idle
chatter, according to authorities on both
sides.
Dozens
of bulletins and requests for help have
been forwarded by U.S. intelligence agencies
to their Mexican counterparts in the last
year. The information triggered searches
and investigations into a number of incidents.
They include:
•
The possible entry from Belize into Mexico's
Quintana Roo state, south of Cancún,
of a Middle Eastern migrant named Adnam
Gushair Shukrijumah. His name reportedly
matches one on a U.S. law enforcement watch
list, Mexican officials said. Published
reports in Mexico said the nation's law
enforcement agencies have been warned by
U.S. authorities that Mr. Shukrijumah previously
had been tracked in Honduras and Panama.
•
Flight plans in December by two men –
listed by Mexican authorities as Ali M.
Safia and Can Azif – whose names also
scored hits on U.S. watch lists. The pair
arrived in Mexico in the winter of 2003
on one-way tickets from Europe, Mexican
officials said. While in Europe they also
had purchased one-way tickets for a flight
from the western Mexican city of Culiacán
to Los Angeles. The pair failed to show
for the flight and have not been seen since.
•
The arrest in Tijuana in November of Imelda
Ortiz Abdala, a former Mexican diplomat
in Lebanon. Ms. Ortiz Abdala is accused
of participating in a ring that prepared
faked Mexican travel documents for migrants
from Middle Eastern countries and helped
smuggle them into the U.S.
...
"Mexicans
are jumping all over" the intelligence
reports, said the U.S. official, referring
to heightened fears among Mexicans that
their country could be used as a conduit
for terrorism or that terrorists could strike
against U.S. interests in Mexico.
For
example, reports that Mr. Shukrijumah
had crossed into Mexico from Belize last
month are being taken seriously, said José
Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, chief of Mexico's
organized crime task force.
"We
don't have objective evidence to confirm
that he is in Mexico ... but the alert was
sounded, and we are looking for him,"
Mr. Santiago Vasconcelos said in an interview.
"Our starting point is our national
security, and that's why we moved immediately
to the search. ... Secondarily, it's about
solidarity, more than anything, with the
United States."
(Top)
August
15, 2004 (Gaurdian Unlimited)
Countries
Run Drills for Panama Attack
...
In
April 2001, a suspected al-Qaida figure
identified as Adnan Gulshair El
Shukrijumah arrived in Panama legally
from the United States and stayed for 10
days, said Panama's security council chief,
Ramiro Jarvis.
Immigration
records show that El Shukrijumah
then apparently returned to the United States,
Panama Interior Department spokesman David
Salayandia said. Authorities have been looking
for him since.
Last
year, the FBI said it wanted to question
El Shukrijumah on suspicion
of involvement in plotting al-Qaida attacks
on the United States or its interests abroad.
But he faces no formal charges, officials
said.
U.S.
authorities said they are investigating
whether there are any links between El
Shukrijumah and other terror suspects,
including Jose Padilla, an American arrested
in 2002 for allegedly plotting to detonate
a radioactive bomb. The two apparently both
lived in South Florida in the 1990s.
Panama
has taken steps to ensure that the canal
is protected. In May, it signed an agreement
allowing U.S. officials to board Panamanian
flagships and search them for weapons of
mass destruction.
(Top)
August
16, 2004 (The Australian)
Fears
summit foreshadows US blitz
Participants
included Abu Issa al Hindi, an Indian convert
to radical Islam and surveillance specialist
living in Britain; Adnan el Shukrijumah,
a commercial pilot and bombmaker of Arab-Guyanese
origin; and Mohammed Junaid Babar, a Pakistani-American
who arrived at the summit with cash, sleeping
bags and ponchos, Time reported.
Al
Hindi is now under arrest in Britain, and
Mohammed Babar was arrested in New York
in April.
Others,
including Shukrijumah,
29, are still at large. Shukrijumah
"speaks English and has the ability
to fit in and look innocuous", an FBI
agent told Time.
Shukrijumah
was born in Guyana and raised in Florida,
where his late father, a Saudi-Yemeni cleric,
preached hardline Wahhabism at a small mosque.
He reportedly holds passports from Guyana
and Trinidad, and may also have Canadian
and Saudi passports. He can easily pass
for Hispanic and authorities fear he may
cross the Canadian or Mexican borders.
The
FBI said Shukrijumah could
be the "next Atta", a reference
to Mohamed Atta, the Egyptian ringleader
of the September 11 attacks.
(Top)
August
17, 2004 (El Paso Times Online)
FBI
looks for possible terrorists along the
border
A
Saudi terrorist suspect might be making
his way to the U.S.-Mexico border amid groups
of undocumented immigrants, officials with
the FBI and the U.S. Embassy said.
Officials
on both sides of the border have asked law
enforcement officials, including Border
Patrol agents and El Paso¹s bridge
inspectors, as well as the community at
large to be on the lookout for Adnan
G. El Shukrijumah, 29, a native
of Saudi Arabia who may be using a Guyanese,
Canadian or Trinidadian passport.
Shukrijumah
was spotted in Honduras earlier this year,
FBI officials said, and used to reside in
Trinidad and Tobago, off the coast of Latin
America. "He is believed to be one
of the most dangerous cell leader below
the leadership of al-Qaeda who plans to
hurt the United States," Art Werge,
spokesman for the FBI in El Paso, said.
Officials
said Shukrijumah might
be using immigrant-smuggling routes through
Central America and Mexico to get to the
border.
(Top)
August
20, 2004 (Charleston.Net)
Glimpses
of a Gathering Storm
Recent
arrests in Britain appear to have broken
up a terrorist ring. What remains unclear,
however, is whether authorities have stopped
a major plot or just exposed one facet of
a still dangerous terrorist operation aimed
at a number of nations. Now is not the time
to relax our guard.
...
But
still at large is a third person who was
at the Waziristan meeting, Adnan
el-Shukrijumah. He is described
by Time and the newspaper The Scotsman as
a skilled bomb-maker and pilot with multiple
passports and identities, who grew up in
Florida, speaks excellent English and can
pass as Hispanic. Last May, FBI Director
Robert Mueller appealed for any information
on this man, and Mr. Ashcroft said he is
a possible "future facilitator of terrorist
acts."
As
long as Shukrijumah is
at large, it is too soon to assume that
the British arrests have put an end to a
plot against American targets. Meanwhile,
other evidence suggests that al-Qaida has
been planning a major offensive this fall.
(Top)
Book:
Osama's Revenge
Adnan
el Shukrijumah was also mentioned in Osama's
Revenge, a recent book focusing on
the possibility of nuclear terrorism in
the United States : Quotes
Possible
operatives in the nuclear plot:
"Four
purported al Qaeda operatives - Adnan
el Shukrijumah, Anas al Liby, Jaber
A. Elbaneh, and Amer el Maati - had been
sent to Hamilton, Ontario, where they either
enrolled or posed as students at McMaster
University, a state-of-the-art technological
institution that housed a 5-megawat nuclear
research reactor."
McMaster
University Rebuts Report of Nuclear Theft
(Top)
September
03, 2006 (Los Angeles Times)
A
Mystery Man Who Keeps the FBI Up at Night
Five years ago, as 19 Al Qaeda operatives
in the United States put the finishing touches
on what would become the Sept. 11 attacks,
a frail, asthmatic computer engineer from
South Florida paid a visit to this tiny
Muslim enclave where he'd lived as a boy.
Adnan
Gulshair Muhammad el Shukrijumah,
then 25, kept a low profile over the course
of the week. He hung out with a small circle
of devout older men who were leaders of
the local Islamic community. They prayed
in mosques, went fishing and enjoyed long
walks and leisurely dinners, recalled one
of the hosts, Imtiaz Mohammed.
...
Law
enforcement officials and terrorism experts
now believe Shukrijumah
is one of several young, street-smart leaders
of Al Qaeda handpicked by Khalid Shaikh
Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11
attacks, to keep the terrorist network alive
and humming in the face of U.S.-led efforts
to unravel it.
....
Whereas
Al Qaeda's core followers are young, poor
and relatively uneducated, Shukrijumah
has attended college and is comfortable
with technology. He's also a naturalized
U.S. citizen whose appearance would allow
him to pass as Latino, Indian or Middle
Eastern and who speaks English with no discernible
accent, officials say.
...
Investigators
also believe he was present at a meeting
of Al Qaeda leaders in March 2004 near the
Pakistan-Afghanistan border, where it appears
attendees discussed upcoming terrorist operations
in Europe and the United States.
...
By
early 2003, detainees held overseas and
at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
were telling interrogators that Al Qaeda
leaders had sent new terrorist operatives
into the United States to launch follow-up
attacks.
Unlike
the Sept. 11 hijackers, the detainees said,
these new teams included second-generation
immigrant Muslims who had lived in the U.S.,
understood its customs and could operate
under the radar of law enforcement.
When
asked which operative was most likely to
launch a U.S.-based attack, many captives
mentioned one particular figure with an
almost mythical reputation as a ruthless
militant. His nom de guerre was
Jaffar al Tayyar, a reference to an Islamic
hero who had fought beside the prophet Muhammad.
...
His
father, Sheik Gulshair el Shukrijumah, was
a Muslim missionary from Guyana who worked
for the government of Saudi Arabia.
In
the early 1990s, Sheik Gulshair was assigned
to the Al Farouq Mosque in Brooklyn, some
of whose congregants were soon linked to
two Islamist terrorist plots: the first
World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and an
unsuccessful conspiracy to blow up the United
Nations, Holland Tunnel and other landmarks.
...
When
Shukrijumah reemerged in
the FBI's consciousness in March 2003, Pasquale
"Pat" D'Amuro, then the FBI's
senior counter-terrorism official and a
veteran Al Qaeda tracker, felt an acute
sense of dread.
"We
thought he was a grave danger to the security
of the United States," D'Amuro recalled
recently. "We thought he could be anywhere."
On
March 20, 2003, the same day the U.S. began
bombing Iraq, the FBI went public. With
TV news crews on their heels, more than
50 federal agents and local police officers
descended on Shukrijumah's
neighborhood.
...
In
March 2004, after a year of inconclusive
leads, the FBI got wind of a Shukrijumah
sighting. Intelligence had placed
him at a summit of the so-called second-generation
Al Qaeda leaders in the rugged mountains
of Waziristan, an area along the Pakistan-Afghanistan
border where much of the Al Qaeda brain
trust — including Osama bin Laden
— was believed to be hiding.
Working
together, authorities in Pakistan, Britain
and the United States arrested some of the
attendees and seized several computers.
The
evidence indicated the attendees were discussing
future terrorist operations in Europe and
the U.S. At least one had compiled video
footage of the New York Stock Exchange,
a Newark, N.J., insurance building and the
World Bank and International Monetary Fund
buildings in Washington.
...
More
tips and rumors continued to pour in. Most
were maddeningly vague. They persisted through
the elections in November, but nothing ever
happened.
Then
Shukrijumah appeared to
drop off the radar screen again. There hasn't
been a publicly disclosed sighting since.
Nearly
two years later, senior FBI and intelligence
officials say they still debate where Shukrijumah
might be. Their best guess is that he remains
in Waziristan.
(Top)
September
6, 2006 (Forbes)
CIA
Connects Dots to Nab Terrorists
Zubaydah
"soon began providing accurate and
timely actionable intelligence," according
to the intelligence summary. His information
led authorities in September 2002 to Ramzi
Binalshibh, another suspected 9/11 plotter,
who is believed to be a lead operative for
foiled plans to crash aircraft into Heathrow.
Zubaydah also tipped investigators to Adnan
G. El Shukrijumah, whom he [the
CIA's inspector general] described as one
of the most likely people to be used by
al-Qaida for terror operations in the United
States or Europe.
(Top)
September
7, 2006 (The Blotter - ABC)
FBI:
Two U.S. Residents Help Run al Qaeda
Two
men who grew up in the U.S. are now believed
to be in the top ranks of al Qaeda, operating
out of Pakistan.
U.S.
officials say the alleged turncoats, from
California and Florida, work closely with
al Qaeda's No. 2 leader, Ayman al Zawahiri,
in planning attacks on their home country.
FBI
officials identify the men Adam
Gadahn of Orange County, Calif., and
Adnan Shukrijumah of Broward
County, Fla.
(Top)
September
12, 2006 (The Blotter - ABC)
Former
Florida Resident and al Qaeda Operative
Eludes FBI's Net
added:
9/23/06
A
one-time Florida chemistry student has the
FBI worried and working overtime.
When
he attended Broward Community College in
Fort Lauderdale, Adnan El' Shukrijumah
excelled in chemistry and computer classes.
...
And
as the clock ticks they fear he will help
guide al Qaeda to another terrorist attack
somewhere inside the United States. "He
has a knowledge base of the U.S. that he
can share with other al Qaeda operatives,"
the FBI's McArthur said.
(Top)
September
12, 2006 (Adnkronos International)
Al-Qaeda's
Mr. Nuclear to Head Fresh Attack on U.S.
Osama
bin Laden is planning to carry out new,
more destructive attacks inside the United
States, and there is someone working on
this terror plot currently in the US, according
to Hamid Mir, the famed Pakistani journalist
who obtained the only post-9/11 interviews
with Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri.
In an interview quoted on the website of
the al-Arabiya television network, Mir spoke
about his last trip to Afghanistan and his
meeting with al-Qaeda members and Taliban
leaders.
In
his interview with Al.Arabiya.net, Mir said
that the al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters referred
to attacks targeting the US-led coalition
forces during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan
which begins on 24 September, and that the
al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden was in
"good" health during a meeting
he had recently with the Taliban leader,
Mullah Mohammed Omar.
Mir
also said that bin Laden has assigned a
man named Adnan Al-Shukri Juma
to carry out a new attack within the US
which is intended to be larger than the
11 September, 2001 attacks. According to
Mir, Adnan Jumaa has smuggled
explosives and nuclear materials into the
US through the Mexican border over the last
two years and is hiding somewhere in America
where the FBI has not been able to locate
him.
(Top)
September
17, 2006 (WorldNetDaily)
Al-Qaida
warning: Muslims leave U.S.
The
new al-Qaida field commander in Afghanistan
is calling for Muslims to leave the U.S.
– particularly Washington and New
York – in anticipation of a major
terror attack to rival Sept. 11, according
to an interview by a Pakistani journalist.
Abu
Dawood told Hamid Mir, a reporter who has
covered al-Qaida and met with Osama bin
Laden, the attack is being coordinated by
Adnan el-Shukrijumah and
suggests it may involve some form of weapon
of mass destruction smuggled across the
Mexican border.
"Our
brothers are ready to attack inside America.
We will breach their security again,"
he is quoted as saying. "There is no
timeframe for our attack inside America;
we can do it any time."
(Top)
September
18, 2006 (Strategic Forecasting [STRATFOR])
El
Shukrijumah and the 'Dirty Bomb' Threat.
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