THE TELEGRAPH: The FBI has warned that al-Qaeda’s new head of “global operational planning” is using his unprecedented familiarity with American society to plot attacks against the United States and other Western countries.
Investigators believe that Adnan Shukrijumah, 35, is “extremely dangerous” in part because of the experience he can draw on having lived in the US for 15 years.Shukrijumah has taken over a position once held by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the September 11 World Trade Center attacks, who was captured in 2003.
His role puts him in regular contact with al-Qaeda’s senior leadership, including Osama bin Laden, according to an FBI agent.
“He’s making operational decisions is the best way to put it,” said Brian LeBlanc, a Miami-based counter-terrorism agent. “He’s looking at attacking the US and other Western countries.”
“He knows how the system works. He knows how to get a driver’s licence, he knows how to get a passport,” he added. “He out there plotting the attacks and recruiting people.”
Shukrijumah is also suspected of playing a role in plots against the London Underground and in Norway that never came to fruition.
The son of a Saudi Arabian imam, he travelled to the US with his parents as a young child and lived in New York and Florida. He assumed his alleged new role in the terror group after two colleagues on an “executive operations council” were killed by suspected US drone attacks, the FBI said.
The suspect’s mother, Zurah Adbu Ahmed, who still lives in south Florida, said the authorities were using her son as a scapegoat. She said she had not spoken to her son since the September 11 attacks. >>> Alex Spillius in Washington | Friday, August 06, 2010
