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06-01-2004, 07:49 AM
Global Terrorist Hunt May Head Off Attack
By JUAN ZAMORANO
The Associated Press
Thursday, May 27, 2004; 5:21 PM
PANAMA CITY, Panama - Global intelligence and police agencies are on a worldwide
hunt for terrorists with ties to places as disparate as Boston, Islamabad, and
Panama City, part of a U.S. scramble to head off what officials fear could be a
massive attack this summer.
The U.S. Justice Department released a list of seven people wanted for
questioning Wednesday after authorities received a stream of credible
intelligence reports pointing to a terror attack of Sept. 11 proportions in the
United States this summer. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft asked American
citizens to give any information they can, and foreign governments have been
recruited.
Those on the list include a man who grew up on a goat ranch in California before
converting to Islam; a Tunisian who obtained Canadian citizenship; a Tanzanian
who goes by the names "Foopie," "Fupi" and "Ahmed the Tanzanian;" a Pakistani
woman who received a biology degree in Boston; and a native of the Comoros
Republic in the Indian Ocean who is believed to be al-Qaida's point-man in
eastern Africa.
The Californian, 17-year-old Adam Yahiye Gadahn, was named as one of seven
suspected al-Qaida operatives sought by the FBI. Records show that Gadahn, who
was expelled from a California mosque after attacking an employee, pleaded
guilty to assault and battery charges in June 1997 and was sentenced to two days
in jail and 40 hours of community service.
Even Panama, a country known more for its canal than terrorism, has been
included in the search. Officials said Wednesday they are trying to track down a
man identified as Adnan Gulshair El Shukrijumah, of Saudi Arabia.
Panamanian Security Council Chief Ramiro Jarvis said El Shukrijumah arrived in
Panama legally from the United States in April 2001 - five months before the
Sept. 11 terror attacks - and stayed in Panama for 10 days. He also visited
Trinidad and Tobago for six days the next month.
"We don't know exactly what he did during his stay and it is important to find
out," Jarvis said.
Migration records show El Shukrijumah returned to the United States, Interior
Department spokesman David Salayandia said. The last place he was seen, however,
was in Panama.
The revelation was one of the few indicators that have tied Latin America to the
global terrorism threat. Officials have long worried that terrorists would use
the region to attack the United States, but so far there has been little
evidence to support that fear.
Two of the suspects were also from Canada, according to Canadian Deputy Prime
Minister Anne McLellan. She said there was no evidence they are currently in the
country, but she urged Canadians to report suspicious activity.
"We know that we are not immune to terrorism, and that we must be vigilant," she
said.
One of the men, Abderraouf Jdey, a Tunisian who obtained Canadian citizenship in
1995, was among five people who left suicide messages on videotapes recovered in
Afghanistan at the home of Mohammed Atef. Atef, reportedly Osama bin Laden's
military chief, was killed in a U.S. airstrike in 2001.
Pakistani security officials are also looking for information on Aafia Siddiqui,
32, a Pakistani woman who received a biology degree from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and wrote a doctoral thesis on neurological sciences at
Brandeis University, outside Boston, in 2001.
Authorities say she returned to Pakistan shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks with
her husband and three children. Her whereabouts have been a mystery since March
2003, when the FBI issued a global alert for her arrest for possible links to
al-Qaida. The FBI also wants to talk to her husband.
U.S. authorities have not alleged that Siddiqui is a full-fledged member of al-Qaida,
but believe she could be a "fixer" - someone with knowledge of the United States
who can support and help get things done for other operatives.
A senior Pakistani security official told The Associated Press on Wednesday that
the United States had made no new request for Pakistan to find Siddiqui but that
one issued last year was still in effect despite turning up nothing at the time.
The official said she had gone underground, and it wasn't even known if she was
still in Pakistan.
Another suspect is Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, under indictment in the United States
for the 1998 al-Qaida bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The
Tanzanian also goes by the names "Foopie," "Fupi" and "Ahmed the Tanzanian."
A 25-year-old U.S. citizen, Adam Yahiye Gadahn, is also a suspect. He goes by
the names Adam Pearlman and Abu Suhayb Al-Amriki. FBI Director Robert Mueller
says he attended al-Qaida training camps and has served as an al-Qaida
translator.
Gadahn says on an Islamic Internet site that he grew up on a goat ranch in
Riverside County, Calif., and converted to Islam in his later teenage years
after moving to Garden Grove, Calif.
Although El Shukrijumah appears to have left Panama, the tiny country is still
looking for evidence he might have returned.
"His whereabouts are unknown, but we are on alert," Jarvis said, adding that
authorities were tightening security at airports and along the country's
borders.
Believed to be 29 years old, El Shukrijumah was once a legal U.S. resident of
the United States and his father lives in Florida.
In March 2003, the FBI said it wanted to question El Shukrijumah on suspicion of
involvement in plotting al-Qaida attacks on the United States, but that he faced
no formal charges.
The attention last year led to the firing of El Shukrijumah's father, Gulshair
Muhammad El Shukrijumah, from a leadership position at a U.S. mosque in Miramar,
Florida. His father said then that when he last talked to his son, in 2002, he
was teaching English in Morocco.
U.S. authorities have said they are working to establish links between El
Shukrijumah and other terror suspects, including Jose Padilla, an American
arrested in 2002 for allegedly plotting to detonate a radioactive bomb. The two
apparently both lived in south Florida in the 1990s.
U.S. authorities have said El Shukrijumah has many aliases and may be carrying
passports from Saudi Arabia, Trinidad and Canada. Police in Guyana have said he
also holds a valid passport from that South American country, where his father
was born.
"It's incredible how these people move from place to place," said Panamanian
housewife Irma Rivas, 37, after she heard the news. "Now it's not safe
anywhere."
By JUAN ZAMORANO
The Associated Press
Thursday, May 27, 2004; 5:21 PM
PANAMA CITY, Panama - Global intelligence and police agencies are on a worldwide
hunt for terrorists with ties to places as disparate as Boston, Islamabad, and
Panama City, part of a U.S. scramble to head off what officials fear could be a
massive attack this summer.
The U.S. Justice Department released a list of seven people wanted for
questioning Wednesday after authorities received a stream of credible
intelligence reports pointing to a terror attack of Sept. 11 proportions in the
United States this summer. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft asked American
citizens to give any information they can, and foreign governments have been
recruited.
Those on the list include a man who grew up on a goat ranch in California before
converting to Islam; a Tunisian who obtained Canadian citizenship; a Tanzanian
who goes by the names "Foopie," "Fupi" and "Ahmed the Tanzanian;" a Pakistani
woman who received a biology degree in Boston; and a native of the Comoros
Republic in the Indian Ocean who is believed to be al-Qaida's point-man in
eastern Africa.
The Californian, 17-year-old Adam Yahiye Gadahn, was named as one of seven
suspected al-Qaida operatives sought by the FBI. Records show that Gadahn, who
was expelled from a California mosque after attacking an employee, pleaded
guilty to assault and battery charges in June 1997 and was sentenced to two days
in jail and 40 hours of community service.
Even Panama, a country known more for its canal than terrorism, has been
included in the search. Officials said Wednesday they are trying to track down a
man identified as Adnan Gulshair El Shukrijumah, of Saudi Arabia.
Panamanian Security Council Chief Ramiro Jarvis said El Shukrijumah arrived in
Panama legally from the United States in April 2001 - five months before the
Sept. 11 terror attacks - and stayed in Panama for 10 days. He also visited
Trinidad and Tobago for six days the next month.
"We don't know exactly what he did during his stay and it is important to find
out," Jarvis said.
Migration records show El Shukrijumah returned to the United States, Interior
Department spokesman David Salayandia said. The last place he was seen, however,
was in Panama.
The revelation was one of the few indicators that have tied Latin America to the
global terrorism threat. Officials have long worried that terrorists would use
the region to attack the United States, but so far there has been little
evidence to support that fear.
Two of the suspects were also from Canada, according to Canadian Deputy Prime
Minister Anne McLellan. She said there was no evidence they are currently in the
country, but she urged Canadians to report suspicious activity.
"We know that we are not immune to terrorism, and that we must be vigilant," she
said.
One of the men, Abderraouf Jdey, a Tunisian who obtained Canadian citizenship in
1995, was among five people who left suicide messages on videotapes recovered in
Afghanistan at the home of Mohammed Atef. Atef, reportedly Osama bin Laden's
military chief, was killed in a U.S. airstrike in 2001.
Pakistani security officials are also looking for information on Aafia Siddiqui,
32, a Pakistani woman who received a biology degree from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and wrote a doctoral thesis on neurological sciences at
Brandeis University, outside Boston, in 2001.
Authorities say she returned to Pakistan shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks with
her husband and three children. Her whereabouts have been a mystery since March
2003, when the FBI issued a global alert for her arrest for possible links to
al-Qaida. The FBI also wants to talk to her husband.
U.S. authorities have not alleged that Siddiqui is a full-fledged member of al-Qaida,
but believe she could be a "fixer" - someone with knowledge of the United States
who can support and help get things done for other operatives.
A senior Pakistani security official told The Associated Press on Wednesday that
the United States had made no new request for Pakistan to find Siddiqui but that
one issued last year was still in effect despite turning up nothing at the time.
The official said she had gone underground, and it wasn't even known if she was
still in Pakistan.
Another suspect is Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, under indictment in the United States
for the 1998 al-Qaida bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The
Tanzanian also goes by the names "Foopie," "Fupi" and "Ahmed the Tanzanian."
A 25-year-old U.S. citizen, Adam Yahiye Gadahn, is also a suspect. He goes by
the names Adam Pearlman and Abu Suhayb Al-Amriki. FBI Director Robert Mueller
says he attended al-Qaida training camps and has served as an al-Qaida
translator.
Gadahn says on an Islamic Internet site that he grew up on a goat ranch in
Riverside County, Calif., and converted to Islam in his later teenage years
after moving to Garden Grove, Calif.
Although El Shukrijumah appears to have left Panama, the tiny country is still
looking for evidence he might have returned.
"His whereabouts are unknown, but we are on alert," Jarvis said, adding that
authorities were tightening security at airports and along the country's
borders.
Believed to be 29 years old, El Shukrijumah was once a legal U.S. resident of
the United States and his father lives in Florida.
In March 2003, the FBI said it wanted to question El Shukrijumah on suspicion of
involvement in plotting al-Qaida attacks on the United States, but that he faced
no formal charges.
The attention last year led to the firing of El Shukrijumah's father, Gulshair
Muhammad El Shukrijumah, from a leadership position at a U.S. mosque in Miramar,
Florida. His father said then that when he last talked to his son, in 2002, he
was teaching English in Morocco.
U.S. authorities have said they are working to establish links between El
Shukrijumah and other terror suspects, including Jose Padilla, an American
arrested in 2002 for allegedly plotting to detonate a radioactive bomb. The two
apparently both lived in south Florida in the 1990s.
U.S. authorities have said El Shukrijumah has many aliases and may be carrying
passports from Saudi Arabia, Trinidad and Canada. Police in Guyana have said he
also holds a valid passport from that South American country, where his father
was born.
"It's incredible how these people move from place to place," said Panamanian
housewife Irma Rivas, 37, after she heard the news. "Now it's not safe
anywhere."