Top al-Qaida terrorist killed in Pakistan
Nuclear technician plotted next big terrorist attack on U.S.
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http://www.wnd.com/2014/12/top-al-qaida-terrorist-killed-in-pakistan/#bRMfGbdi5vbkpE2q.99When Adnan el Shukrijumah was killed in a raid in Pakistan today, he was not just another senior al-Qaida militant accused of planning to bomb trains in New York and London.
He was also a nuclear technician – one the FBI described as al-Qaida’s global operations chief, a position previously held by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, mastermind of the 9-11 attacks.
Shukrijumah was born in Saudi Arabia and lived for several years in the U.S. He was named in a U.S. federal indictment as a conspirator in the case against three men accused of plotting suicide-bomb attacks on New York’s subway system in 2009. He is also suspected of having played a role in plotting al-Qaida attacks in Panama, Norway and the U.K.
His death is the first major terrorist casualty since June, when the Pakistani military launched a major operation to clean up the largest militant sanctuary on the country’s soil.
It comes days after Pakistani army Chief Gen. Raheel Sharif returned from a week-long visit of the U.S., the first by an army chief in four years. On Thursday, the U.S. Congress extended $1 billion in operational support to the Pakistani army despite recent tensions and mistrust.
The killing also puts the spotlight back on the Western half of South Waziristan, the first militant sanctuary in Pakistan where al-Qaida and Taliban groups fleeing American bombing in October 2001 took shelter. Shukrijumah’s killing in an army raid in this region shows that it is now being used as a hideout by militants fleeing the military offensive in North Waziristan.
Shukrijumah was a trained nuclear technician and accomplished pilot who was singled out by Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri to serve as the field commander for the next terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
He had been identified as a key figure in what has been called the “American Hiroshima†plot – an al-Qaida plan to detonate one or more nuclear weapons in the U.S.Shukrijumah was born in Guyana, Aug. 4, 1975 – the firstborn of Gulshair el-Shukrijumah, a 44-year-old radical Muslim cleric, and his 16-year-old wife. In 1985, Gulshair migrated to the United States, where he assumed duties as the imam of the Farouq Mosque in Brooklyn.
The mosque, located at 554 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, has served as a hive for terrorist activities. It has raised millions for the jihad and has served as a recruiting station for al-Qaida. Many of the planners of the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, including blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, were prominent members of this notorious “house of worship.â€
In 1995, the Shukrijumah family relocated to Miramar, Fla., where Gulshair became the spiritual leader of the radical Masjid al-Hijah Mosque, and where Adnan became friends with Jose Padilla, who planned to detonate a radiological bomb in midtown Manhattan; Mandhai Jokhan, who was convicted of attempting to blow up nuclear power plants in southern Florida; and a group of other home-grown terrorists.
Adnan Shukrijumah attended flight schools in Florida and Norman, Oklahoma, along with Mohammad Atta and the other 9/11 operatives, and he became a highly skilled commercial jet pilot, although he, like Atta and the other terrorists, never applied for a license with the Federal Aviation Administration.
In April 2001, Shukrijumah spent 10 days in Panama, where he reportedly met with al-Qaida officials to assist in the planning of 9/11. He also traveled to Trinidad and Guyana, where virulent al-Qaida cells have been established. The following month, he obtained an associate’s degree in computer engineering from Broward Community College.
During this time, he managed to get passports from Guyana, Trinidad, Saudi Arabia, Canada and the United States. He also began to adopt a number of aliases, including Abu Arifi, Jafar al-Tayyar, Jaafar At Yayyar, Ja’far al-Tayar, and Mohammed Sher Mohammed Khan (the name that appeared on his official FBI file). He traveled to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, where he met with Ramzi Binalshibh, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and other members of the al-Qaida high command. He also spent considerable time within al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan, where he received training in explosives and special operations.
Following 9/11, el-Shukrijumah was reportedly singled out by bin Laden and al-Zawahiri to spearhead the next great attack on America. One plan was for a nuclear attack that would take place simultaneously in seven U.S. cities, leaving millions dead and the richest and most powerful nation on earth in ashes.Read more at
http://www.wnd.com/2014/12/top-al-qaida-terrorist-killed-in-pakistan/#bRMfGbdi5vbkpE2q.99
