New Al Qaeda leader is former US resident

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New Al Qaeda leader is former US resident​

The FBI provided these undated images of Adnan Shukrijumah, the new chief of Al Qaeda's global operations. (FBI via Associated Press)

MIAMI — A suspected Al Qaeda operative who lived for more than 15 years in the United States has become chief of the terrorism network's global operations, the FBI says, marking the first time a leader so intimately familiar with American society has been placed in charge of planning attacks.Adnan Shukrijumah, 35, has taken over a position once held by 9/11 coordinator Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was captured in 2003, said Brian LeBlanc, a Miami-based FBI counterterrorism agent, in an exclusive interview. That puts Shukrijumah in regular contact with Al Qaeda's senior leadership, including Osama bin Laden, LeBlanc said.

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 US drone attacks, leaving Shukrijumah as the de facto chief.

"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 US 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 US 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 as a witness.

Shukrijumah's mother, Zurah Adbu Ahmed, said Thursday outside her home in Miramar, Fla., 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 said she has not had contact with her son for several years.

 

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Adnan Shukrijumah, believed to be the new head of global operations for Al Qaeda, FBI says​

Osama Bin Laden's new chief planner of terror attacks knows his enemy well - he's even got a green card.

Adnan Shukrijumah, whose dad was a Brooklyn imam and who was raised for 15 years in a Miami suburb, takes his orders directly from Bin Laden.

"He's making operational decisions is the best way to put it," Brian LeBlanc, the FBI's lead investigator into Shukrijumah, told the Associated Press.

"He's looking at attacking the U.S. and other Western countries. Basically through attrition, he has become his old boss."

His old boss is none other than Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

What makes Shukrijumah especially dangerous is that he knows how America works, LeBlanc said.

"He knows how to get a driver's license," he said. "He knows how to get a passport."

Shukrijumah is also a master manipulator. He was pulling the strings of Najibullah Zazi and the other New York-based terrorists involved in a failed plots to bomb the subway.

"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."

Shukrijumah's dad was a Muslim missionary, born and raised in Guyana, who was assigned to the Al Farouq Mosque in Brooklyn. The father, who died in 2004, also served as translator for blind Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center attack.

Now his son is on the FBI's most wanted list, with a $5 million bounty on his head, believed to be hiding out in northwest Pakistan.

His mom told the Daily News last month he didn't hate the U.S. or Americans but said she hadn't heard from him in years.

"He hates the way the world is corrupting human nature," Zuhrah Ahmed, 49, said at her home in Miramar, Fla. "Maybe he was chosen by God to make people realize that Islam is a better way of life?"

Slight, asthmatic and one of five kids, the Saudi-born 35-year-old Shukrijumah lived in the U.S. for 15 years. He studied chemistry and computer science at a local community college before leaving - just before the Sept. 11 attacks - for an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan.

There, Shukrijumah met another American-raised terrorist, Jose Padilla.

Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft called Shukrijumah a "clear and present danger" to the country in 2004.

Shukrijumah's anger over attacks against Muslims in Chechnya and Bosnia prompted to chose a life of "jihad" in the 1990's, the FBI says.

He is also a suspect in terror plots against Norway and the United Kingdom and is believed to have hatched a plan to bomb the Panama Canal.



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