Adnan Shukrijumah: In Central America???

[Sean Osborne]

FBI hunts Al Qaeda chief
Cops assist in search for T&T 'safe house'

Darryl Heeralal, Trinidad & Tobago Express


September 4, 2006

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index...s?id=161007813


ONE of world's most wanted terrorists, Al Qaeda operative Adnan Gulshair Muhammad el Shukrijumah, may be still hiding in Guyana and has, in his possession, a T&T passport.

Shukrijumah, 31, is one of the most wanted terrorists by the or United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the FBI says he is "wanted in connection with possible terrorist threats against the lace United States

He has several "personal ties" to both T&T and Guyana, the FBI says, according to an LA Times article written by Josh Meyer and carried yesterday. US law enforcement described the elusive terrorist as an "ultimate sleeper agent".

The LA Times report quoted FBI sources as saying that Shukrijumah could be anywhere, including Trinidad and Guyana, because of his ties in both places and the fact that he is believed to have the passports of both countries. The FBI also believes that Shukrijumah may attempt to enter the US using a T&T passport.

Several local Muslims have already been questioned by the FBI about their links to Shukrijumah.

Yesterday, local law enforcement officials said they were aware that Shukrijumah was in Trinidad and confirmed they were contacted by the FBI for assistance in the matter.

However, they declined to go further into the matter "because of the nature of it".

National Security Minister Martin Joseph has repeatedly spoken about terrorist activities here and the threat they pose, adding that the Government was working with both local foreign law enforcement to deal with the matter.

Shukrijumah, a computer engineer whose last known address was his parent's home at Miramar, South Florida, is believed to have been hand-picked by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks, "to keep the terrorist network alive in the US."

The LA Times story said that terrorism "authorities both inside and outside the government say they believe Shukrijumah is a major Al Qaeda figure, and the hunt for him is intense, with an FBI team tracking him virtually full time".

In 2004, United States Attorney General John Ashcroft described Shukrijumah "as the most dangerous of seven Al Qaeda operatives suspected of planning strikes in the US".

In July, the US government began handing green match boxes with a photograph of Shukrijumah and the offer of a US$5 million reward for information leading to his capture.

Shukrijumah, the son of a Guyanese Islamic, was born in either Guyana or Saudia Arabia and spent most of his youth in Trinidad.

His father was said to be linked with the mastermind behind the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993.

Shukrijumah grew up in Central Trinidad and has ties to a Trinidad-based, Guyanese-born Muslim cleric who was educated in Saudia Arabia, according to both local and US intelligence.

His father was said to be an "influential Islamic scholar" in Trinidad during his missionary work here in the 1980s.

In the lead up to September 11, 2001, during the last phase of planning, Shukrijumah spent several weeks in Trinidad and stayed at a "well established Islamic community" in Central Trinida, police sources say. His official reason for visiting the island was to "visit a friend".

Shukrijumah had also lived in South Florida where several of the 9/11 hijackers were based.

In 2003 ,Shukrijumah made local headlines after the FBI had reported that he had been to Guyana and Trinidad. The FBI have not so far been able to determine why Shukrijumah was in Trinidad, but say they he may have been "attempting to recruit" Al Qaeda fighters. FBI agents came to Trinidad in search of him then, questioning several local Muslims, but turned up nothing.

Since word that Shukrijumah was here, BWIA aircraft were subsequently featured on a terror website exploding, while fears of attacks to tankers carrying LNG from Trinidad to the eastern seaboard of the United States surfaced.

Earlier this year, the son of a Trinidadian-born doctor living in Canada was among 17 people held and charged in that country on suspicion that they were planning a terror attack. The group they belong to is linked with Al Qaeda.