Central American terrorists – what's going on? Questions remain over Honduras sightings

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Friday, July 2, 2004 | Sherrie Gossett

[JohnHuang2]

In a rapidly growing story, Honduran officials report that one of the top terrorist suspects in the world, Adnan G. Shukrijumah, was spotted in Honduras recently.

Adnan G. El Shukrijumah

Readers might want to reserve judgment, however, taking the reports with a grain of warm Honduran sand, since contradictions have become apparent. It's unclear whether the problematic elements to the story stem from inaccurate statements made by government officials, from inaccurate reporting of those statements, from a lack of forthcoming detail, from poor communications between international allies or a combination of these.

Here are some points to consider:

• The date: According to Leonel Sauceda, spokesman for the Honduran Security Ministry and another official with the ministry who spoke with WND today, the suspect was seen on May 27 at an Internet café in Tegulcigalpa.

  Hours after WND and the Miami Herald reported the date, the Associated Press reported that the date was not known, that Security Minister Oscar Alvarez declined to state the date "on security grounds" when being interviewed, leaving the interpretation open that he could have been referring to a more recent sighting.

• The timing: The question of why contradictory information is emanating from the same government agency (if that information was accurately reported) leads to the next question of why the information is just now being released, more than a month after the alleged sighting occurred.

• The escape: In addition, Alvarez told the Associated Press that the suspect fled after being sighted. "This man was seen at an Internet business in Tegucigalpa, and then he fled the country,'' Alvarez said, referring to Honduras' capital city.

  It's unclear how the Honduras government knows the suspect fled the country since they never were able to locate or apprehend the suspect in the first place.

• The alert: If the suspect fled Honduras over a month ago, why have Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama just now been put on alert by Honduras that the suspect may be trying to enter one of those countries?

• The previous stop: While the Associated Press reported that "El Shukrijumah … apparently entered Honduras illegally from Nicaragua or Panama," the Honduran Security Ministry told WND it was not known how or when the suspect entered the country. It's unclear, therefore, how it is known where the suspect was prior to arriving in Honduras. Before the Honduran sighting news, the suspect had last been seen in Guyana. It's also unclear why the suspect is thought to have entered from Nicaragua (a neighbor) or Panama (not on the border of Honduras). If the suspect arrived by sea, it's unclear why arrival from Costa Rica, Cuba, Belize or elsewhere is not thought possible, or by land from El Salvador or Guatemala.

• Late alert or late arrival? The AP reported that Alvarez implied the Honduran government received news of the man's sighting after it was too late to catch him. WND was told by the Security Ministry that police arrived at the Internet café after the suspect had left.

• Who said what?: This news follows a tangle of misreporting yesterday about an alleged plot to bomb the Panama Canal. Agence France-Presse published a story saying Leonel Sauceda, spokesman for the Honduran Security Ministry, had confirmed comments Security Minster Oscar Alvarez allegedly made to the Honduran press about the plot. Sauceda allegedly confirmed to AFP that Alvarez said Shukrijumah had been involved in a plot to use explosives to damage the Panama Canal. The AFP story was then picked up by Bloomberg News. But the bombing story was false. There are indications also that some journalists may have started off on the wrong foot by mistranslating some details that were in the Honduran press.

• What bomb plot?: After WND reported that neither FBI headquarters nor the U.S. Embassy in Panama nor the FBI legal attache in Panama knew anything about the allegations, and could not therefore confirm them, the Security Ministry told WND that Alvarez never made the comments, but simply referred to the May 27 sighting of the terrorist. The headline story in Panama today was that there was no bomb plot.

• What alert? What sighting?: While the FBI today said it had no further comment on Shukrijumah's case or the Central American alert – adding, "We're going to let what's already out there in the media stand" – Joe Reap, spokesman for the U.S. State Department Office of Counterterrorism told WND he had not heard of the sighting or the Central American alert. Ditto for another State Department official. So far, the information is being confirmed solely by Central American government sources, and U.S. Embassy officials are simply confirming that they've been told the same thing by those governments.

The U.S. Embassy in Panama told WND they are awaiting guidance from the State Department – the same State Department that apparently knows nothing about the situation.

So, stay tuned for more details. Oscar Alvarez, security minster for Honduras, has been in meetings all day with the president and various cabinet members. WND is expecting a call from him this evening.

[backhoe]

-The Fire Down South...( Latin America--)--

[roadrunner96]

Here, we are having the FBI say they have located this one terrorist in Honduras and I note, other Latin American newspapers besides this source, la Tribuna of Honduras.

http://tribuna.icomstec.com/news/index.php?id=46773&mode=2

Google translation:

" FBI locates terrorist of Al-Qaeda in Honduras TUCSON, Arizona (AP). - The FBI emitted an alert on a presumed member of al-Qaeda that would try to enter the United States by Arizona or Texas. Adnan G. the Shukrijumah is presumably head of a cell of al-Qaeda and is asked for by the American authorities from the 2003, said these. The most recent information locates it in Honduras with intention to cross United theMe'xico-Estados border, said Art Werge, spokesman of the office of the FBI in the Step, Texas. "we do not want that it enters the United States because its plan is to execute terrorist acts", Werge said, that it described to the Shukrijumah like one of the main leaders of cells in freedom. The Shukrijumah, a Saudi of 29 years of age, does not face criminal positions in the United States. The FBI said that the Shukrijumah speaks English and carries a passport guyanés, but its enter the United States with passports of Saudi Arabia, Canada or Trinidad could try.