FBI Informant Says Agents Missed Chance to Stop 9/11 Ringleader Mohammed Atta (Video)

ABCNews ^ | 9-10-09 | Brian Ross, Vic Walter

[STARWISE]

On the eve of the eight year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, an FBI informant who infiltrated alleged terrorist cells in the U.S. tells ABC News the FBI missed a chance to stop the al Qaeda plot because they focused more on undercover stings than on the man who would later become known as 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta.

Brian Ross reports on the undercover agent in al Qaeda.

In an exclusive interview to be broadcast tonight on ABC World News with Charles Gibson and Nightline, former undercover operative Elie Assaad says he spotted and became suspicious of Atta in early 2001, when he was sent by the FBI to infiltrate a small mosque outside Miami.

Atta was there with Adnan Shukrujuman, an al Qaeda fugitive who now has a $5 million U.S. reward on his head.

"There was something wrong with these guys," Assaad, a 36-year-old Catholic native of Lebanon who pretended to be an Islamic extremist, says.

[STARWISE]

I saw Brian Ross's report last night on Nightline and shuddered. Assaad was FURIOUS when he was told NOT to accept Shukrijumah's father's invitatioN .. said he about broke up his apartment furniture with the fury, as you'll see in the VIDEO. He's very believable.

I have NEVER forgotten Shukrijumah ..have him on my Yahoo News alerts. When I lived in Tampa, FL, there was a day when it was thought he was spotted there, and the FBI and police swarmed a strip shopping center, but he vanished.

He's always in the back of my mind as a very educated and committed key operative of Al Queda, who is still plotting evil against us. He can easily blend in with Latin, Muslim, Mediterranean cultures, and has been spotted in Honduras. It's been suspected that he would be one who could sneak over the Mexican border with a suitcase bomb. I put NOTHING past him.

REMEMBER THIS FACE

FBI Most Wanted List

Al Qaeda leader identified in 'dirty bomb' plot

Jerry Seper - The Washington Times - 10/5/2004

A top al Qaeda cell leader spotted in Mexico and Canada has been identified as an active player in a scheme to obtain radioactive materials for a so-called "dirty bomb" that could be smuggled into the United States, federal authorities said.

Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, who worshipped at the same South Florida mosque as Jose Padilla now being held as an enemy combatant in a plot to detonate a "dirty bomb" has attempted unsuccessfully to enter the United States using phony passports, authorities said.

The al Qaeda leader reportedly was observed last year during a trip to Canada, where authorities suspect he posed as a student at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. An FBI informant told authorities the terrorist leader was seeking material to build a dirty bomb, a conventional explosive laced with radioactive material.

McMaster University has a five-megawatt research reactor, whose uranium-based fuel rods come from the United States. Canadian officials have denied any security breach of the McMaster facility.

Authorities said El Shukrijumah lived in the same South Florida area as Padilla and that the two worshipped at the Darul Aloom mosque. It is not clear whether they knew each other, but authorities said their names surfaced during the interrogation of captured senior al Qaeda organizer Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, one of Osama bin Laden's closest advisers.

Mohammed has been called a mastermind of the September 11 attacks.

Meanwhile, a seven-count indictment unsealed yesterday in Boston accused a British man of conspiring with Richard C. Reid to use shoe bombs to blow up airplanes. Saajid Badat, 25, was charged with attempted murder and trying to destroy an aircraft. The indictment said bomb components similar to Reid's were found at his home.

El Shukrijumah, for whom the State Department has offered a $5 million reward, is being sought for questioning by the FBI in connection with terrorist threats against the United States. He was named in a March 2003 material-witness arrest warrant by prosecutors in Northern Virginia, where U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty said he is sought as a potential terrorism threat.

Known to law enforcement officials as the "diminutive terrorist" because of his 5-foot-4-inch stature, El Shukrijumah also is believed by authorities to have met with alien smugglers in Mexico and Honduras, seeking help in bringing al Qaeda members illegally into the United States.

Authorities said those meetings involved members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang, which U.S. immigration officials said has smuggled hundreds of Central and South Americans, mostly gang members, into the United States.

They said El Shukrijumah was spotted in July in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, meeting with leaders of the gang, which has been tied to alien, drug and weapons smuggling, along with numerous killings, robberies, burglaries, carjackings, extortions, rapes and aggravated assaults including at least seven killings in Virginia.

Padilla, a Muslim convert also known as Abdullah al Muhajir, was arrested by FBI agents on a material witness warrant in May 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport after a flight from Pakistan. He was carrying $10,000 in U.S. currency from his al Qaeda handlers.

El Shukrijumah also was friends in Florida with Imran Mandhai, one of two college students convicted of conspiring unsuccessfully to bomb electrical stations, a National Guard armory, Jewish businesses and Mount Rushmore.

Authorities said El Shukrijumah also is believed to have taken part in or directed surveillance efforts by al Qaeda members of the financial districts in New York which led this summer to an increase in the terror alert level from Code Yellow to Code Orange in New York City, Washington D.C., and Newark, N.J.

They said there were specific threats against the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in the District, the Prudential Building in Newark, and Citigroup and the Stock Exchange in New York City.

An FBI bulletin in March said El Shukrijumah was born in Saudi Arabia, although the Saudi government has denied that he is a Saudi citizen.

____________________________________________________

Aliases:

Adnan G. El Shukri Jumah, Abu Arif, Ja'far Al-Tayar, Jaffar Al-Tayyar, Jafar Tayar, Jaafar Al-Tayyar

DESCRIPTION

Date of Birth Used:	August 4, 1975	Hair:		Black
Place of Birth:	Saudi Arabia	Eyes:	Black
Height:	5'3" to 5'6"	Sex:	Male
Weight:	132 pounds	Complexion:	Dark, Mediterranean
Build:		Average
Remarks:	El Shukrijumah occasionally wears a beard. He has a pronounced nose and is asthmatic. El Shukrijumah speaks English and carries a Guyanese passport, but may attempt to enter the United States with a Saudi, Canadian, or Trinidadian passport.

DETAILS

Adnan G. El Shukrijumah is wanted in connection with possible terrorist threats against the United States.

REWARD

The Rewards For Justice Program, United States Department of State, is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading directly to the capture of Adnan G. El Shukrijumah.

SHOULD BE CONSIDERED ARMED AND DANGEROUS

IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION CONCERNING THIS PERSON, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL FBI OFFICE OR THE NEAREST AMERICAN EMBASSY OR CONSULATE.

ROBERT S. MUELLER, III DIRECTOR FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON, D.C. 20535 TELEPHONE: (202) 324-3000

[STARWISE]

~~Related

http://thelastcrusade.org/2009/09/11/key-911-operative-remains-at-large-in-america/

[dusttoyou]

The timing of this from the state run media is suspect.

[STARWISE]

~~PING!

[Doc Savage]

I have video of Brian Ross with a donkey in Mexico. Well, hell, he gets away with it!

[parsifal]

Hindsight is always 20-20. What always bothered me was when the airplane instructor contacted the FBI about Arab guys learning how to fly airliners without wanting to know how to take off or land.

parsy, who says “Duh!”

[Sparko]

STARWISE, no offense to you, but it took everything I had to continue reading when I saw the name of Richard "Tiny Tool" Clarke:

Former national security official Richard Clarke, now an ABC News consultant, said the case is "yet another example of the way the system broke down prior to 9/11."
"If the system had worked," Clarke said, "we might have been able to identify these people before the attacks."

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/richardclarke/index?tab=articles

[happygrl]

This disturbs me deeply, and hints of infiltration of the FBI. Someone wants to run small fry operations, while letting the big fish go.

Also noting that the informant was a Catholic Arab...well aware of the threats of Islam.

[edcoil]

The video of airport security letting them go by was damming as well.

[potlatch]

 

[sissyjane]

This just seems like another let’s bash Bush gotcha. I can’t stand Richard Clark. He’s a word I can’t say in this forum.

[Roccus]

Two Words....

ABLE DANGER

[Soothesayer9]

“This disturbs me deeply, and hints of infiltration of the FBI. Someone wants to run small fry operations, while letting the big fish go.”

-It is that way in most governmental organizations that have been around for decades..that is, to do the least amount of work possible.

I think to improve, they should hire a hell of a lot more Marines.

[MestaMachine]

He’s a b@st@rd, always was, and always will be. We hated him. He was a jealous, smug, political freakin’ hack bent any way the wind blew, then directly helped get the bin ladens out of the country.
He screwed us soooo bad..and J O’N is dead. May he Rest In Peace, but I don’t know how....

[MestaMachine]

“Two Words....”
“ABLE DANGER”

Two more words. bill clinton
I will never, never, never forgive him. Never.

[98ZJ USMC]

I think there are two names to associate with this:

Teddy Kennedy
Jamie Gorelick

Gee, what’s with the timing of this......

:eyeroll:

[mojitojoe]

He could easily pass for a Cuban in the South Florida area. In the photo without the beard, he looks Cuban to me.
We have friends in Tampa. There is a mosque between Hwy. 301 and 56th St. It’s near King High School, I think on Sligh Avenue. but not sure.
I don’t know if this is still happening but for years, late at night, anywhere from between 10-11 PM to 2AM, lots of cars would show up. They would meet for 30 minutes or so and scatter. Many people that lived around it moved because of the activities there.
We went up there for 2 weeks a year or so ago and I can tell you this, there are A LOT of Muslims in that area and they wear typical Muslim clothing and they are not very friendly.

[dixiechick2000]

That was absolutely breathtaking, potlatch!

“The day the world cried” is the day that I got really pissed off!

Listen to the words of the song...that’s what’s happening today.

We’re taking a stand!

[VOA]

“FBI Informant Says Agents Missed Chance to Stop 9/11
Ringleader Mohammed Atta”

I’m sympathetic to Mr. Assaad.
But he shouldn’t kick himself.

Atta and one of his co-conspirators (Marwan?) stalled a small plane
during some training flight...left it the middle of the runway and
just walked off. At the Miami International Airport!!!
And even this sort of weird behaviour didn’t set off alarm bells.

And there were also all the multiple drivers licenses, even a speeding
ticket for Atta. Then IIRC, the hijackers bought one-way tickets
for their final run.
I did buy a few one-ways over the years...and suspect that’s why
I usually get the “sir, could step aside for some additional screening?”
when I catch a ride via commercial aviation.
But somehow Atta and his fellow conspirators got hustled on board
even though they were at or a few minutes late for their flight.
When I saw that I realized that airport professionals DO PROFILE...
average looking Northern Europeans such as myself.
But not foreign visitors it would seem.

A major reason Atta and Co. succeeded (IMHO) is that Americans
are pretty generous and forgiving of foreign nationals...
and treat them like guests...and tend to dismiss any sort of critical
thought of “hey, there’s something weird about that guy”.

To some degree, I feel it was political correctness that assisted
The Talented Mr. Atta and his fellow savages.

[potlatch]

[That was absolutely breathtaking, potlatch!]

Thank you so much DC. I cried when I heard about Barbara Olson, had watched her so much on TV and really liked her.