9/11 Report: Al-Qaeda in the U.S.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/23/al.quaeda.tm/
...excerpt... ***more on Shukrijumah***
As it shut down formal operations on Saturday, the September 11 Commission released a pair of staff monograph reports that reveal tantalizing and important new nuggets about the 9/11 plot ? including the possibility that 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta and another hijacker visited an INS office in Miami together in May 2001 with Adnan Shukrijumah, a trained pilot who today remains one of the most wanted al-Qaeda terrorists with a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head.
The commission also revealed new but ambiguous evidence of a financial connection between one of the hijackers and a Saudi national in San Diego, and declares that this is the only known instance of a hijacker potentially receiving a noteworthy sum of money from someone inside the U.S.
Atta visited the INS in May 2001 looking for a visa extension for one of his companions, but ended up with the INS discovering Atta himself had improperly received an eight-month visa, until Sept. 8, 2001, that was then rolled back to July 9. INS personnel who dealt with the Atta group then could not identify one of the men with him.
But the "Terrorist Travel" staff monograph released yesterday said that, based on other evidence, the commission believes that fellow hijacker Ziad Jarrah "may have been" with Atta.
More significant is that an INS officer who dealt with the group said she was "75 percent sure" that one of Atta's companions ? "a great looking kid," as she described him ? was Shukrijumah, based on the photos released along with his "wanted" notice after September 11.
The APB for Shukrijumah has been renewed this year, with Attorney General John Ashcroft calling attention to him in a press conference in May and officials sounding the alarm again in connection with the recent "Orange Alert" for sites in New york, New Jersey and Washington, D.C.
There is a particular alert for Shukrijumah along the U.S.'s southwest border, and officials in Mexico and Central America are on the lookout for him ? especially after he was reportedly sighted earlier this year in a Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Internet café.
UK arrests show terrorist planners avoid US
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=570231§ion=news
...excerpt...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - High-profile terror arrests like those recently made in Britain are unlikely in the United States as militants hatch their plans abroad in hopes of evading U.S. detection, experts and former officials say.
While some critics say a lack of similar high-caliber swoops in the United States indicates the Bush administration isn't doing enough to hunt terrorists at home, a range of experts and former officials across the political spectrum say key militants simply stay away because the danger of getting caught is greater in America.
They say insight gleaned from arrested al Qaeda suspects in Pakistan and elsewhere showed militants took advantage of more freedom of movement in Europe, historically more generous asylum laws and proportionally larger immigrant communities they can hide in while planning attacks.
"I believe the higher-level operatives simply view it as too risky to be operating here. Even in the September 11 plot, the hijackers were the footsoldiers rather than the major planners," said Kenneth Katzman, a terrorism expert with the Congressional Research Service.
"After 9/11, with vastly increased vigilance by U.S. law enforcement, intelligence and border control authorities, I think many terrorists quite wisely believe they can lay their plans more easily abroad," said Philip Wilcox, a former counter-terrorism chief at the State Department.
The only other big militant Islamic attack in the United States -- the 1993 World Trade Center bombing -- was probably planned in the suburbs of New York, but experts say this kind of activity would no longer go unnoticed.
Terror suspects arrested in Britain this month were charged in a plot linked to security alerts at U.S. financial targets. They made their first court appearance last Wednesday, and are due to return to court this week.
Among the suspects is a man American officials say is a key al Qaeda operative who played a central role in conducting surveillance of financial buildings for the plot.
Arrests in the United States have mainly involved lower-level militant suspects with questionable ties to the global al Qaeda movement. Both European and U.S. prosecutors have found it hard to turn terror-related indictments into convictions.
As I read that I thought that Shukrijumah probably is in drag these days to avoid detection ( he's got the right height to pull it off well.) I wonder if there is a way to show him all dolled up.