Replies

Al Qaeda agent smuggles people into United States
IAN BRUCE, Defence Correspondent

September 29 2004
AN al Qaeda agent who helped plan the September 11 attacks has met leaders of a Salvadorean crime syndicate which controls the smuggling of illegal immigrants across the Mexican border into the US, according to intelligence sources.
The CIA fears Adnan el Shukrijumah, 29, a Yemeni with a £3m bounty on his head, is negotiating a deal to infiltrate terrorist network members into American cities to stage attacks in the run-up to the presidential elections in November.
El Shukrijumah was identified during surveillance of a meeting of Mara Salvatrucha gang leaders in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, where security forces are on alert for al Qaeda operations against British, Spanish and US embassies.
Mara Salvatrucha, whose first name is taken after a breed of soldier-ants, runs a base in Matamoros, Mexico, just south of the Texas state line, and controls street gangs in Los Angeles, Washington and New York.
The al Qaeda agent is known to have crossed into Honduras illegally from Nicaragua this summer to meet the gang.
El Shukijumah was identified in 2001 and from interrogation of captives at Guantanamo Bay as a key "fixer" who had a hand in the preparations for the hijacking of the aircraft used on September 11.
At that time, he lived in Florida and had a pilot's licence. He was named in May as one of seven al Qaeda suspects wanted in connection with new plots for attacks in the US.
In 2003, he escaped from Canada after authorities there claimed he was seeking radioactive material for a "dirty bomb".
John Ashcroft, the US attorney-general, described him earlier this year as "a clear and present danger to the US and a major threat to homeland security".
More than 60,000 illegal immigrants of non-Mexican origin were picked on the border along the Rio Grande River last year.
An intelligence source said the gang had been responsible for hundreds of murders, robberies and drug-related criminal activity as well as people-smuggling.
"It has a foothold in just about every Hispanic community across the US. A tie-up would give al Qaeda access to any city with minimal risk of discovery."
In another development in the war on terror, the Pakistani president said it would be won only if the Islamic world rejected extremism and if the West resolved its political disputes with Muslim nations.
Pervez Musharraf, who is visiting Italy, said the West must turn its attention to the causes of terrorism.
"The Muslim world needs to reject extremism and militancy and go on the path of social and economic development," he said after talks with Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, the president.
He added, however, that the West had to play its part.
"We expect of the West – the European Union and the United States – to resolve all political disputes involving Muslims and also assist us in our social and economic development," he said.
Musharraf, speaking two days after the killing of an al Qaeda militant in Pakistan, said he had told Ciampi of his nation's efforts to combat terrorism.
"But I did indicate to him that the core issues which give rise to extremism, militancy and terrorism need to be addressed by the world," he said.
"Because if we don't do that, we may be winning the battle against terrorism but maybe we won't succeed in winning the war against terrorism, which [is caused by] the core issues of political disputes, poverty and illiteracy," he added.
An American survey, meanwhile, has found a 10% drop in the number of Americans who view international terrorism as a "critical threat". The Chicago Council on Foreign Relations found that 78% said the government's main objective should be protecting jobs.

Source: http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/24961-print.shtml