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"When asked which operative was most likely to launch a U.S.-based attack, many captives mentioned one particular figure with an almost mythical reputation as a ruthless jihadist. His nom de guerre was Jaffar al Tayyar, a reference to an Islamic hero who had fought beside the prophet Muhammad.

But his identity, too, was a mystery.

Foreign-born, U.S.-educated

The pieces began to come together in early March when Mohammed was captured in Pakistan and his computers, phones and other electronic gear were seized.

The evidence confirmed that Mohammed had been sending “Westernized” al-Qaida soldiers on missions into the U.S. and other countries.

And when Mohammed was shown a photograph of Shukrijumah, he identified him as Tayyar, U.S. counterterrorism officials said.

By then, U.S. authorities were concluding that Shukrijumah was also the shadowy South American, an apparent reference to his time spent in Trinidad and nearby Guyana.

To their dismay, they realized that one of al-Qaida’s best-trained operatives had been lurking – and perhaps plotting – in the United States since long before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Adnan Gulshair Muhammad el Shukrijumah was born in June 1975 in either Saudi Arabia or Guyana. After his family moved from New York to Florida, he attended Broward Community College, where he excelled in chemistry, biology and computers, according to the FBI.

He also suffered from asthma, which required him to use an inhaler, his mother said in a recent interview. As a result, he often remained indoors, she said, tending to his studies, his computer business and his scholarly work.

Sometime in the late 1990s, Shukrijumah started leaning toward more radical Islamist views, authorities say. The FBI believes he was inspired by a group of Muslim men in South Florida who gave him books and videotapes about jihad in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kashmir and Afghanistan.