Broward man sought as terror suspect

FBI agents are conducting a global search for a Broward County man with suspected ties to al Qaeda and ''wanted in connection with possible terrorist threats'' against the United States.

Adnan Gulshair Muhammad El'Shukri-jumah, 27, a Saudi Arabian who lived with his parents in Miramar, has been the focus of an intensified manhunt since the March 1 arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, believed to be al Qaeda's chief operational planner and suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

FBI agents interviewed his parents Thursday at their home and asked them about his whereabouts and connection to a fellow college student convicted last year of plotting to blow up South Florida electrical stations.

The family said it was the sixth time agents visited them since the terrorist attacks that killed 3,000 people in New York, Washington, D.C., and a Pennsylvania field.

''Each time I tell them the same thing: I do not know the whereabouts of my son and he is not a violent person,'' said Shaykh Gulshari Muhammad El'Shukri-jumah, his 72-year-old father, adding that he last saw his son four months before the attacks. ``He is a very good Muslim, a very good person. I have always taught my children that Islam is a religion of peace and submission.''

Their latest visit came the same day FBI officials in Washington, D.C., released a statement asking the public to help them find the younger El'Shukri-jumah.

''El Shukrijumah [sic] is possibly involved with al Qaeda terrorist activities and, if true, poses a serious threat to U.S. citizens and interests worldwide,'' the FBI said Thursday in a statement.

But federal law enforcement investigators familiar with the probe said his aliases have come up during interviews with Mohammed and were found in documents of the Oklahoma flight school where Zacarias Moussaoui, charged in the United States as a conspirator in the Sept. 11 attacks, trained. Agents have no proof El'Shukri-jumah received flight training there.

''He is someone we want to speak with,'' Miami FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said. ``We don't know where he is and we have been unable to locate him yet.''

Since Mohammed's arrest in Pakistan, the FBI has intensified its efforts to find El'Shukri-jumah.

Investigators are trying to determine whether he had connections to the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers -- 13 of whom lived and trained in South Florida.

They're also examining any relationship he may have had to Jose Padilla, an American now being held in a Navy brig in South Carolina for allegedly trying to acquire and use a dirty bomb -- conventional explosives packaged with radioactive material.

The father said Thursday evening that his son could never be involved in terrorism.

''He has no involvement with al Qaeda and he doesn't know how to drive a plane. I don't know where any of these things come from,'' he said.

The elder El'Shukri-jumah, spiritual leader of a neighborhood mosque in Miramar called Masjid El-Hijrah, said he brought his children to the United States in November 1995 when Adnan Gulshair Muhammad El'Shukri-jumah was 19 so they could attend college. The son obtained a computer engineering degree from Broward Community College.

''He graduated in 2001 and left for Arabia,'' the father said. ``The last time we saw him was in May 2001. He calls sometimes and sends letters, but not regularly.

''The last time we heard from him was about five months ago. He was in Morocco teaching English,'' his father said.

The father, a retired Islamic missionary who worked in Trinidad and the United States for the Saudi government, said five FBI agents were in his home Thursday for more than an hour asking about his son.

He said they wanted to know about his son's friendship with Imran Mandhai, a 19-year-old Broward Community College student from Hollywood sentenced last October to almost 12 years in federal prison for a terrorist plot.

Mandhai, a Pakistani immigrant, was a codefendant, along with Trinidadian immigrant Shueyb Mossa Jokhan, in the conspiracy to bomb South Florida electrical stations, a National Guard Armory, Jewish businesses and Mount Rushmore. Jokhan, 24, is serving nearly five years for his part in the conspiracy.

The father said Mandhai came to him for spiritual leadership and for lessons in Arabic. ''My son knew him, yes,'' El'Shukri-jumah said. ``I would not say he was a close friend, but they would go to restaurants and things like that. As far as I knew, he was a good Muslim, too.''

Unable to find the younger El'Shukri-jumah, agents released his picture and a description: five-feet-three to five-feet-five tall, 132 pounds, but possibly heavier, black hair and an occasional beard.

He carries a passport from Guyana but could try to enter the United States with passports from Saudi Arabia, Canada or Trinidad. He speaks English.

El'Shukri-jumah, the FBI said, also uses these aliases: Adnan G. El Shukri Jumah, Abu Arif, Ja'far Al-Tayer, Jaffar Al-Tayyar, Jafar Tayar and Jaafar Al-Tayyar.

The news release caused teams of reporters to descend on the family's tan-colored, single-story, fenced house. Their front door has Police Benevolent Association stickers and a sign directing visitors to www.masterarabic.com, a website for Arabic language lessons taught by the father.

''There is absolutely, emphatically, no way these people could be involved in anything like that,'' said Una Kahn, a family friend from Trinidad. ``They are the most beautiful people you could meet.''

Florida motor vehicle records show he had two speeding tickets in 1996 and a violation for running a red light in 1997.

On Oct. 12, 1997, El'Shukri-jumah was charged with domestic battery and cruelty to a child by Miramar Police for allegedly biting his 15-year-old sister Hanna. The charges were turned over for investigation by Florida's Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services and later dropped, according to their father.

''In Arabia, he was like a father to the children, scolding and spanking them when they misbehaved,'' said the father. ``I spoke with him about it and told him he couldn't do that in this country.''

Federal sources said that the son failed to acknowledge the arrest when he applied for permanent-resident status with the former Immigration and Naturalization Service.

He was an occasional worshiper at the Islamic Movement of Florida mosque in Davie but hadn't been seen there in the last two years.

When El'Shukri-jumah attended mosque, he'd come in, say his prayers, then leave, said Edwin Hazrat Ali, of Miramar, who knew El'Shukri-jumah when the now-wanted man was a youth in Guyana and later in Miramar.

He is a very good Muslim, a very good person. I have always taught my children that Islam is a religion of peace and submission.''

"The father a spirtual leader, who worked for the Saudi government..." Is there anything else to say? Someone in the government had better make a full and complete study of what the "HEdouble hockey stick" is going on. The Saudi government is or has been sending spiritual leaders to various countires and that thses conutries are now inflamed with anti-American groups.

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