Adnan el-Shukrijumah, who reports say was once spotted in Guyana and whose father was born here is the new head of al-Qaeda operations, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has told the Associated Press.
Shukrijumah, 35, has taken over a position once held by 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was captured in 2003, Miami-based FBI counterterrorism agent Brian LeBlanc told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview. That puts him in regular contact with al-Qaeda’s senior leadership, including Osama bin Laden, LeBlanc said.
According to AP, Shukrijumah and two other leaders were part of an “external operations council” that designed and approved terrorism plots and recruits, but his two counterparts were killed in U.S. drone attacks, leaving Shukrijumah as the de facto chief and successor to Mohammed — his former boss.
“He’s making operational decisions is the best way to put it,” said LeBlanc, the FBI’s lead Shukrijumah investigator. “He’s looking at attacking the U.S. and other Western countries. Basically through attrition, he has become his old boss.”
The FBI has been searching for Shukrijumah since 2003. He is thought to be the only al-Qaeda leader to have once held permanent U.S. resident status, or a green card.
Shukrijumah was named earlier this year in a federal indictment as a conspirator in the case against three men accused of plotting suicide bomb attacks on New York’s subway system in 2009. The indictment marked the first criminal charges against Shukrijumah, who previously had been sought only as a witness, AP said.
Shukrijumah is also suspected of playing a role in plotting of potential al-Qaeda bomb attacks in Norway and a never-executed attack on subways in the United Kingdom, but LeBlanc said no direct link has yet emerged. Travel records and other evidence also indicate Shukrijumah did research and surveillance in spring 2001 for a never-attempted plot to disrupt commerce in the Panama Canal by sinking a freighter there, LeBlanc told AP.
Shukrijumah, who trained at al-Qaeda’s Afghanistan camps in the late 1990s, was labeled a “clear and present danger” to the U.S. in 2004 by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft. The U.S. is offering a $5-million reward for information leading to his capture and the FBI also is releasing an age-enhanced photo of what he may look like today.
It’s natural he would focus on attacking on the U.S., LeBlanc said.
“He knows how the system works. He knows how to get a driver’s license. He knows how to get a passport,” LeBlanc told AP.
In their arrest warrants for Shukrijumah, the US authorities had indicated that he had in his possession Guyanese and Trinidadian passports, among others. While local authorities had indicated that an investigation would have been launched following the international arrest warrant for the Saudi Arabian-born man there were never any publicized findings of such an investigation.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) website, Shukrijumah speaks English and carries a Guyanese passport, but may attempt to enter the United States with a Saudi, Canadian, or Trinidadian passport. The website said the man is wanted in connection with possible terrorist threats against the United States and a US$5 million award is up for grabs for information leading directly to his capture.
JFK plot
It is believed that it was Shukrijumah’s reported presence in Guyana that propelled US authorities to send informant Steven Francis to Guyana in an attempt to lure the elusive terrorist into the trap of plotting to blow up the JFK airport in New York.
Reports are that while he was in Guyana, Shukrijmumah was once safe and secure under the protection of Swiss House Cambio boss Farouk Razac, who died in May 2007 under mysterious circumstances at his home.
According to reports Shukrijumah was spotted at the Swiss House Cambio by several witnesses, including self-proclaimed death squad informant George Bacchus. Bacchus himself was gunned down in 2006 following his many public statements about the existence and operation of a death squad.
And it was at the cambio he also allegedly became acquainted with Abdul Nur who recently pleaded guilty to plotting to attack the JFK airport. Nur ran errands for Razac and Kadir. Kadir was convicted last week in the JFK plot case.
The assumption by federal authorities that they might have lured Shukrijumah out of hiding was wrong as he failed to appear at any of the planning sessions in Trinidad and Guyana, and the federal officials were left only with a hefty bill.
Reports are that Shukrijumah’s father Gulshair was born in Guyana, where his grandfather Mohammad Jumah ran a general store. One of eleven children, Gulshair developed an interest in Arabic and began working as a tailor.
At the age of 32, he moved to Cairo where he studied at the al-Azhar University, and then Medina, where he enrolled at al-Madina al Manawarah (The Islamic University of Medina) and became steeped in the writings of Ibn Taymiyah and Sayyid Qutb.
In Saudi Arabia, Gulshair taught at several madrassahs, and at the age of 42 met and married Mareed Zubrah Abu Akmed.
Two years later, on August 4, 1975, Mareed gave birth to their first child Adnan. Three more children were born to the couple before the family moved to Trinidad, where Gulshair received a monthly stipend of $1,500 from the Saudi government to spread the doctrine of Wahhabism. The family later moved to the US.
Shukrijumah’s mother, Zurah Adbu Ahmed, told AP yesterday on the front step of her small home in suburban Miramar, Florida, that her son frequently talked about what he considered the excesses of American society — such as alcohol and drug abuse and women wearing skimpy clothes — but that he did not condone violence. She also said she has not had contact with her son for several years.
“This boy would never do evil stuff. He is not an evil person,” she said. “He loved this country. He never had a problem with the United States,” she told AP.
Mr. LeBlanc said the new charges were brought after the New York subway bomb suspects identified him to investigators as their al-Qaeda superior. The New York suspects provided other key information about his al-Qaeda status.
“It was basically Adnan who convinced them to come back to the United States and do this attack,” LeBlanc said. “His ability to manipulate someone like that and direct that, I think it speaks volumes.”
Before turning to radical strains of Islam, Shukrijumah lived in Miramar with his mother and five siblings, excelling at computer science and chemistry courses while studying at community college. He had come to South Florida in 1995 when his father, a Muslim cleric and missionary trained in Saudi Arabia, decided to take a post at a Florida mosque after several years at a mosque in Brooklyn, New York.
At some point in the late 1990s, according to the FBI, Shukrijumah became convinced that he must participate in “jihad,” or holy war, to fight perceived persecution against Muslims in places like Chechnya and Bosnia.
That led to training camps in Afghanistan, where he underwent basic and advanced training in the use of automatic weapons, explosives, battle tactics, surveillance and camouflage, AP said.
