TERRORISM: 'AL-QAEDA'S MR. NUCLEAR TO HEAD FRESH ATTACK ON U.S.'
Osama bin Laden is planning to carry out new, more destructive attacks inside the United States, and there is someone working on this terror plot currently in the US, according to Hamid Mir, the famed Pakistani journalist who obtained the only post-9/11 interviews with Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. In an interview quoted on the website of the al-Arabiya television network, Mir spoke about his last trip to Afghanistan and his meeting with al-Qaeda members and Taliban leaders.
In his interview with Al.Arabiya.net, Mir said that the al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters referred to attacks targeting the US-led coalition forces during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan which begins on 24 September, and that the al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden was in "good" health during a meeting he had recently with the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar.
Mir also said that bin Laden has assigned a man named Adnan Al-Shukri Juma to carry out a new attack within the US which is intended to be larger than the 11 September, 2001 attacks. According to Mir, Adnan Jumaa has smuggled explosives and nuclear materials into the US through the Mexican border over the last two years and is hiding somewhere in America where the FBI has not been able to locate him.
The Pakistani journalist also gave a brief background on Adnan Jumaa. Born in Saudi Arabia, he moved to the US where he met a group of a Al-Qaeda members in the Al-Farouq mosque in New York in 2000. He then traveled to an Arab state and from there to Pakistan then Afghanistan. He left there two years ago and since then has smuggled nuclear material from Mexico to the US. Jumaa has earned the nickname "Al-Qaeda nuclear whizz" and is tagged to play the same role in a future attack as Mohammed Atta did in the 9/11 attacks.
In March 2003 the FBI announced that it was seeking a link between Adnan and others accused of terroris, saying Adnan Jumaa "or maybe one of his several nicknames" had appeared in intelligence information gathered after the arrest of Khalid Sheik Mohammad.
Western media had reported in earlier times that Adnan Jumaa was a Saudi pilot, but the Saudi Ministry of Interior security spokesman lieutanent Mansour Al-Turki said in a statement to Al-Watan newspaper two months ago that Adnan Jumaa is not a Saudi citizen, he was living in the kingdom until he was eleven years old and left along with his parents, who are not Saudis, twenty years ago.
Adnan Al-Shukri's name has been mentioned in many Western media reports claiming that Al-Qaeda has acquired nuclear technology. The American writer, Paul Williams, in his book " The Al-Qaeda Connection: International Terrorism, Organized Crime, and the Coming Apocalypse", says he was among a number of Al-Qaeda members trained for the nuclear technology.
On another issue, Hamid Mir spoke to Alarabiya.net of his last trip to Afghanistan and his meeting with a leader of Taliban named "Khaibar" in Zabul who claimed that 300 Taliban suicide bombers had managed to sneak into Kabul and Jalalabad to carry out attacks against coalition troops during Ramadan.
Mir alleges that there was a meeting between Bin Laden and Mullah Omar several few weeks ago in the mountain area of Zabul where they planned more attacks, "I received this piece of information from one of the Taliban leaders who attended the meeting himself and I met him recently in Afghanistan" Mir said. "He told me that this was the second meeting between the two men since last year and that Bin Laden's health seemed good while he was eating with Mullah Mohammad Omar.
The Pakistani journalist expressed his surprise of the changing situation in Afghanistan; saying that the Taliban had come back to rule some areas and spread their special courts, their special administrations, nothing that even some police officials follow their orders.
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.338885348&par=0
Shukrijumah!! I pray for God's protection for US from this evil monster. He's determined to cause us severe damage, suffering and catastrophic loss.4/7/03 The global advisory issued by the FBI in late March gave no hint of the many twists and turns that led the bureau to Adnan Gulshair El Shukrijumah. But there was no doubting the urgency of the plea for help. Senior FBI officials tell U.S. News that they believe El Shukrijumah, 27, is a "grave danger" to the United States.
As a result, the officials say, the FBI, the CIA, and several foreign intelligence services have begun a worldwide search for the elusive young man who once resided in South Florida and is known to carry multiple passports. "We are very worried," says a U.S. official. "Wherever he is in the world, we think he might be a key al Qaeda operative targeting U.S. interests."
On March 19, intelligence and law enforcement officials conclusively identified El Shukrijumah--described by one counterterrorism specialist as possibly the next Mohamed Atta, the lead 9/11 hijacker.
Top-tier al Qaeda detainees, including the alleged key planner of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, helped make the identification, government officials say. "We can't possibly overstate," a U.S. intelligence official said, "the value that Khalid Shaikh Mohammad has been to us."
A wide array of other intelligence information and sources indicate that El Shukrijumah may have been asked by al Qaeda to lead a new "suicide squad," like that led by Atta.
The Saudi Arabia-born El Shukrijumah is also suspected of having ties to former Chicago gang member Jose Padilla, now being detained as an "enemy combatant" because authorities believe he wanted to detonate a "dirty bomb" on American soil.
Law enforcement officials are not sure what exactly El Shukrijumah may be planning, but they say he could target gas stations, fuel trucks, subway systems, trains, or bridges. "Our No. 1 priority," Larry Mefford, assistant director of the FBI's counterterrorism division, told U.S. News, "is to find sleeper cells if they exist. If El Shukrijumah were to be in the U.S., he would possibly be in that category."
The story of the hunt for El Shukrijumah is a tale of cryptic tips, false leads, and wasted time and effort. But it also offers a rare glimpse into the twilight world of terrorists that law enforcement officials must penetrate in order to prevent another major attack on America.
The story starts in 2001. El Shukrijumah appeared as a blip on the FBI's intelligence radar screen in March of that year, after special agents in Miami used an informant to penetrate a local mosque.
The agents were interested in a man named Imran Mandhai, who frequented the mosque. The informant recorded Mandhai repeatedly vowing to create a jihad cell, consisting of 25 or 30 men, including El Shukrijumah.
The cell, Mandhai said, would target electric substations, Jewish institutions, a National Guard armory, even Mount Rushmore. "It was no secret that [El Shukrijumah] was pretty radical," says a federal law enforcement source, "and that Mandhai thought he would be interested in what they were doing."
But El Shukrijumah was suspicious. He declined to join the jihad plans, correctly surmising that the feds were on to Mandhai.
But they were more worried about keeping tabs on Mandhai and his coconspirator, Shueyb Mossa Jokhan, than they were about El Shukrijumah.
During this period, family members say, El Shukrijumah was attending Broward Community College and working as a freelance computer technician. The only thing the feds had on El Shukrijumah, sources say, was a lie on his green-card application regarding a prior arrest. So his name went into a file, and that was that.
Much more at link
TERRORISM: 'AL-QAEDA'S MR. NUCLEAR TO HEAD FRESH ATTACK ON U.S.' There has been considerable RUMINT about this the past couple of years too. Mir has a little credability, although I wonder just how much AQ is willing to tip their hand to a journalist who will publish their discussions. I would think that AQ would have better OPSEC regarding an operation larger than 911.
I am still skeptical whether or not AQ has a functional nuke. If they do, it would exceed 911 as bragged about. However, I think it more likely a dirty bomb(s) would be used at this stage. Much easier to produce, hide and handle. Incorporated in multiple vehicle bombs at the abundance of soft targets here would generate a great deal of fear.
Timing? We've seen how they were willing to time the attack in Spain to swing the election to a more favorable government. Would they bet that an attack before the November elections would help or hurt them. They would have to target and spin the attack(s) in such a manner to deflect American anger away from Republicans (whom voters generally favor on the WOT/Security issues)and toward the Dems (Bush's plans have failed, and the Pubbies have failed...etc). Do they think the 5 years of the MSM hammering on the WOT has set them up to pull off a power change in Washington? Big gamble for them as it has been made clear by the Bush administration that AQ will continue to probe for a weakness in our security system and are bound to find one sooner or later.
