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Report: Al Qaeda planning nuke attack for Ramadan
Yeah, I know 4:55 pm on September 12, 2006 by Allahpundit “alarmism.

A couple of points:
1. Hamid Mir, the reporter with whom this story originated, is the only journalist to have interviewed Bin Laden after 9/11. Obviously, his sources would be in a position to know what the top ranks of AQ are thinking. He’s been consistent, too: I wrote a post in late May about an interview Mir had given in which he identified Al Qaeda’s nuclear ambitions and even the operative they’ve entrusted to mastermind the attack — Adnan al-Shukrijumah, who inspired a special national terror APB by the FBI back in 2002. Mir’s story is the same today as it was four months ago. The only difference is that now he’s got a target date for the attack. Ramadan, 2006.

2. Would AQ really leak news of a massive attack before it happened? See for yourself. It’s about 30 seconds in, right after the segment on Shanksville. I’d completely forgotten until I saw the footage again yesterday.

3. The Blotter has run not one but two stories about Shukrijumah in the past five days. The only “news” in both stories was that the FBI is looking for him but still hasn’t found him. From September 7th:
Shukrijumah is suspected to have had contacts with 9/ll hijack leader Mohammed Atta before leaving the United States shortly before the attacks…
Virtually every one of the FBI’s 56 field offices are involved in the hunt, according to Stuart McArthur, the assistant Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Miami field office, who heads up the bureau’s hunt for Shukrijumah.
And from yesterday:
A one-time Florida chemistry student has the FBI worried and working overtime…
[A]s the clock ticks they fear he will help guide al Qaeda to another terrorist attack somewhere inside the United States. “He has a knowledge base of the U.S. that he can share with other al Qaeda operatives,” the FBI’s McArthur said.
Why would they run two stories when there’s no actual news to report?

The Blotter has good sources inside the intelligence community and likes to be ahead of the curve with terrorism scoops. Last month, they ran a piece on alleged UK terror plot mastermind Matiur Rehman the day before arrests were made and the plot was publicly revealed. Clearly they’d been tipped to the impending raids and wanted to get in on the ground floor of the story. The fact that they’re putting Shukrijumah’s name out there when there is, to all appearances, no new information about him makes me think their sources are very concerned about him right now, and Brian Ross and co. either don’t know why or they do know and are sitting on sensitive details while the feds try to break up the plot.
Keep your eye on this one. It’s still probably a false alarm, but I’d raise the worry meter from blue to yellow.
Update: Forgot to mention that Mir thinks the nuclear material/device is already in the U.S., and was smuggled in … from Mexico. Our friends in the undocumented community had better hope that’s not true, because if it is, not even Jorge Bush will be able to resist the political pressure in the aftermath to make the southern border airtight.

Update: Dan Riehl points me to this editorial from Investor’s Business Daily a few days ago:
Detainees have told investigators that al-Qaida leaders plan to use new cells of second-generation immigrant Muslims who have lived in the U.S. and can blend in and not attract as much suspicion. They’re being held in reserve for larger attacks.

One such Americanized operative, Adnan El-Shukrijumah, has reportedly been scouting potential targets in New York, Washington and Chicago. He’s on the FBI’s most wanted list.
Update: Dan’s found a report that Shukrijumah was spotted in Trinidad, Guyana, as recently as a week ago.
http://hotair.com/archives/2006/09/12/report-al-qaeda-planning-nuke-attack-for-ramadan/

Map at link...
dont miss this middle of page..."Smiling, he told me: “Yes, I’ve met bin Laden in the past. People say he’s here but I say he’s in US.”

So where is bin Laden?
Hunt ... goes on for world's most evil man bin Laden

By OLIVER HARVEY
Reporter Of The Year
September 09, 2006

WHEN a journalist took his family for lunch recently in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, he was surprised to see two of Osama bin Laden’s bodyguards.

Writer Hamid Mir — who has interviewed the al-Qaeda chief three times — pretended not to recognise the duo as he enjoyed the meal.

Their boss is, after all, the world’s most wanted man, with a $25million bounty on his head — and Hamid did not want the pair to feel uneasy about the chance of being arrested.

But they had no such fears.

As Hamid chatted with his wife and children, the two well-built men approached him and said: “Nowadays you are ignoring us.”

The chance meeting is one of the few clues to emerge about the whereabouts of history’s most infamous fugitive.

Despite a billion-dollar manhunt, 9/11 mastermind bin Laden is still at large. So how does a 6ft 5in middle-aged terror chief evade a superpower which is searching for him with the latest technology and crack special forces?

Five years after 2,973 innocents perished in the Twin Towers attack, military officials and terror experts firmly believe bin Laden is alive — and still the figurehead for a global holy war.

The US says four audio tapes released by bin Laden this year appear genuine. And an archive video of him meeting 9/11 plotters as they trained for the attacks, released two days ago, has brought the question back to the fore. Many experts believe he is hiding in the tribal areas of Pakistan which border Afghanistan.

I visited this remote region of snow-capped mountains and plunging valleys last month.

It is the perfect bolthole for the world’s most wanted man.

This wild territory — near al-Qaeda’s birthplace in Peshawar in the North-West Frontier Province — is ruled by fierce Pashtun tribesmen who run the tribal zones as personal fiefdoms, keeping order with AK-47s.

The Pashtuns have a fierce code of honour which allows them to protect fugitives — and they cannot be bought off. The Pakistani government has no influence among the mountain peaks and US troops are not welcome.

Photo reconnaissance by unmanned spy drones and satellites have not captured any “signatures” showing regular movement by guards or vehicles that might belong to bin Laden.

He is rumoured to communicate only by personal couriers who ride humble motorcycles and buses to pass messages from the tribal areas to al-Qaeda enclaves in cities including Peshawar and Karachi.

US experts suspect his presence is known only to a hardcore of no more than 20 guards who have pledged to die rather than reveal his whereabouts.

The last time bin Laden’s location was known for certain was in December 2001. Holed up in the caves of Tora Bora in Afghanistan, he narrowly escaped being bombed by US B52s. But US forces at the time relied too much on Afghan commanders who accepted bribes to let al-Qaeda slip through.

Respected Peshawar opposition politician Abdul Lateef Afridi, 62, told The Sun: “I believe bin Laden is here in Pakistan.

“Pakistan is a bastion of terrorism. It encourages militancy, fundamentalism and allows terrorism to flourish.”

Some locals accuse elements of the Pakistani secret service — the ISI — of aiding al-Qaeda and its allies.

I asked General Hamid Gul, ex-head of the ISI, where he though bin Laden was holed up.

$25m bounty ... but no one will give him up

Gul — who has met bin Laden twice — said: “Search me. He could be in Afghanistan or Iran. Some of his family certainly fled to Iran.”

According to a US military intelligence official, bin Laden is likely to be hiding in an area called Chitral in the far north of Pakistan.

It is bounded by Afghanistan to the west and China to the north.

He cited as evidence the trees found only in Chitral which can be seen in a 2003 video of bin Laden walking in a mountainous region.

Amid the high peaks of Malakand — close to Chitral in north-west Pakistan — I met Maulana Mohammad Alam, a Taliban warlord who fought alongside bin Laden in Afghanistan.

If anyone knows where bin Laden is, it should be this tribal chief.

Smiling, he told me: “Yes, I’ve met bin Laden in the past. People say he’s here but I say he’s in US.”

Despite some criticism of Pakistan’s efforts in the hunt, Mahmud Durrani, Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, said recently that his nation remains “fully committed” to the war on terrorism.

He added: “I would like to see bin Laden strung up from the tallest pole.”

But as Monday’s anniversary of 9/11 approaches, it is a prospect that seems further away than ever.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006410854,00.html