THURSDAY, JULY 8, 2010
KLMNO POLITICS THE NATION &
Al-Qaeda operative led N.Y. subway plot, U.S. says
SAUDI AMERICAN IS CHARGED
Indictment points to
ongoing efforts by group Adnan G. El Shukrijumah
by Spencer S. Hsu A Saudi American al-Qaeda
operative based in Pakistan per- sonally directed a failed plot to bomb New York City’s subway last September, federal author- ities charged Wednesday, assert- ing that the same al-Qaeda unit helped plan an attack that was thwarted last year in Britain. Newly unsealed charges against Adnan G. El Shukriju- mah, 34, a naturalized U.S. citi- zen who lived in New York City and South Florida before fleeing after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, present the government’s clear- est case to date that the main al- Qaeda organization remains ac- tive in trying to attack U.S. tar- gets, alongside similar efforts by al-Qaeda affiliates. In addition to alleging Shukri-
jumah’s operational role, the su- perceding indictment returned in the Eastern District of New York identified five other sus- pects tied to the plot, led by Colo- rado airport shuttle driver Naji- bullah Zazi, to set off suicide bombs in New York’s transit sys- tem. Officials did not make pub- lic the name of one of the five and provided only aliases for an- other. The court filing comes as
President Obama and senior na- tional security aides have in- creasingly cited recent domestic terrorism cases as justification for the war in Afghanistan, not- ing that country’s border with uncontrolled tribal areas in Paki- stan where al-Qaeda is based and from which, U.S. officials say, threats continue to emanate. A coordinated series of bomb- ings in the London transit sys- tem in July 2005 was the last suc- cessful al-Qaeda attack in the West.
Besides Zazi, U.S. authorities
have cited Umar Farouk Abdul- mutallab, a Nigerian who alleg- edly tried to blow up an airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day using explosives provided by an al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen; U.S. Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, who allegedly killed 13 people last November at Fort Hood, Tex., af- ter communicating with Anwar al-Aulaqi, a U.S.-born cleric working with the Yemeni group; Times Square car bomber Faisal Shahzad, who sought training from the Pakistani Taliban; and David C. Headley, a Chicago- based Pakistani American who pleaded guilty to helping plan a
“These charges underscore the global nature of the terrorist
threat we face.” — David Kris, assistant U.S. attorney general for national security
November 2008 terrorist raid on Mumbai attributed to Lashkar-i- Taiba, a Pakistani group with ties to al-Qaeda.
Directly recruited But unlike the others, who be-
came radicalized on their own or through groups affiliated with al-Qaeda, Zazi was directly re- cruited by Shukrijumah, work- ing with senior al-Qaeda leaders, the indictment charged. Zazi allegedly communicated through an al-Qaeda facilitator in Peshawar, Pakistan, a defen- dant identified in the indictment only as “Ahmad” or “Zahid,” who also relayed messages by Abid Naseer, the alleged leader of a ring broken up in April 2009 that sought to bomb shopping cen- ters near Manchester, England. British authorities announced Naseer’s arrest Wednesday, and the U.S. government requested his extradition. Also charged are alleged Na- seer co-conspirator Tariq Ur Rehman, who is not in custody, and Adis Medunjanin, an alleged Zazi accomplice who has plead- ed not guilty. Each of the defendants faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of terrorism- related charges, which include training with al-Qaeda and con- spiring to use weapons of mass destruction, commit murder abroad and support the group. “These charges underscore the global nature of the terrorist threat we face,” David Kris, assis- tant U.S. attorney general for na- tional security, said in a written statement. U.S. prosecutors said both Zazi
and Naseer were directed by two top al-Qaeda leaders — Saleh al- Somali, al-Qaeda’s head of inter- national operations, and Rashid Rauf, a key operative — before they were killed in U.S. missile strikes. Authorities have identi-
Najibullah Zazi
fied Rauf, a Briton of Pakistani origin, as a key planner of an al- Qaeda plot foiled in August 2006 to blow up transatlantic jetliners using liquid explosives and a possible handler in the July 2005 transit bombings in London.
‘The 2.0 version’
Bruce Hoffman, a counterter- rorism analyst at Georgetown University, said the 2006 airline plot was noteworthy in part be- cause it was based in Britain and targeted at the United States. “Now we have the 2.0 version
of that, wherein attacks both in the U.K. and the U.S. are being coordinated and orchestrated by the same al-Qaeda leaders in Pa- kistan,” Hoffman said. The new charges “put the [Za- zi] plot as well as Shukrijumah closer to al-Qaeda’s inner circle, and certainly points to a more operational and lethal role for Shukrijumah in targeting the United States,” said Juan C. Za- rate, White House counterterror- ism adviser from 2005 to 2009 and a senior adviser at the Cen- ter for Strategic and Interna- tional Studies. U.S. officials launched a global manhunt for Shukrijumah in 2003, setting a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture and calling him an “im- minent threat to U.S. citizens and interests.” Identified by captured al-Qae- da planner Khalid Sheik Mo- hammed as a key operative, Shukrijumah has been described as Westernized, able to speak English with no discernible ac- cent and able to pass as Latino, Indian or Middle Eastern. Shuk- rijumah trained with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan before Sept. 11, 2001; met with Jose Padilla, the American accused of planning to detonate a radiological bomb in the United States; and has been suspected of traveling through Canada, Latin America and Trin- idad, U.S. officials have said. The U.S. indictment, released on the fifth anniversary of the London transit bombings, which killed 52 people, may help Brit- ain’s new coalition government bridge differences over the fate of Naseer, experts said. The 24-year-old Pakistani was among 11 men hastily arrested in April 2009 but never charged af- ter a government official was photographed with documents detailing investigators’ findings and arrest plans. A British court identified Naseer as a “serious and continuing threat” but de- clined to deport him to Pakistan, saying he could face torture. The two parties had differed over the validity of his detention under virtual house arrest.
hsus@washpost.com
Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
DIGEST PENNSYLVANIA
2 missing after barge hits Philly duck boat
Authorities halted an hours- long search for two people miss- ing Wednesday after a barge hit a tourist boat carrying 37 people on the Delaware River, author- ities said. The search will resume Thurs-
day morning for the 20-year-old man and 16-year-old girl, both from Hungary, officials said. They were among 35 passengers and two crew members aboard the amphibious “duck boat,” which gives tourists a water-and-land view of Philadel- phia, Coast Guard Senior Chief Bud Holden said Holden said he did not know
whether the missing were pas- sengers or crew members. Ten people were sent to hospi- tals with minor injuries. The duck boat had driven into
the water just after 2:30 p.m. and suffered a mechanical problem and a small fire, officials said. It was struck about 10 minutes lat- er by a barge used to transport sludge, then sank. —Associated Press
W.Va. governor may run for Byrd seat: West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin III (D) called Wednes- day for a special election to fill the late Democrat Robert C. Byrd’s Senate seat and said he will consider running for it. He is awaiting an opinion from Attor- ney General Darrell McGraw, also a Democrat, on whether the election can be held this year in- stead of 2012, when Byrd would have had to run again. Manchin said he won’t arrange to have himself appointed to Byrd’s seat. But he had long been expected to run for it in 2012, and asked at a
JOSEPH KACZMAREK/ASSOCIATED PRESS
A child is escorted from the scene after a tourist boat with 37 people aboard was hit by a barge in the Delaware River.
press conference Wednesday if he would be a candidate in a spe- cial election in November, he re- plied: “I would highly consider that.”
Lawsuit filed against Chicago’s new gun laws: A group of Chica- goans filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the city’s new gun-control ordinance, saying that it infringes on their consti- tutional rights. The plaintiffs want the city prohibited from en- forcing the new measure. Chica- go aldermen passed the ordi- nance Friday, and officials de- fended the ordinance as balancing the rights of individu- als with the risks associated with “the proliferation of firearms.”
S.C. Senate hopeful wants an ac- tion figure: Alvin Greene, a Dem- ocratic nominee for the U.S. Sen-
ate, believes that selling action figures of himself could put more South Carolinians back to work in a state with one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates. Greene said Wednesday that the toy-line idea shows he’s thinking outside the box to create jobs. The 32-year-old unemployed vet- eran won a surprise victory in South Carolina’s Democratic pri- mary June 8.
Earthquake jolts Southern Cali- fornia: A moderate earthquake jolted Southern California on Wednesday, rattling buildings in downtown Los Angeles. There were no reports of immediate in- juries or major damage from the magnitude-5.4 quake. It struck at 4:53 p.m. and was centered about 130 miles east of Los Angeles, the U.S. Geological Survey said. —Associated Press
Guantanamo detainee pleads guilty
Conviction is first for Obama administration in military tribunals
Reuters
A Sudanese man accused of guarding Osama bin Laden and helping him escape U.S. forces in Afghanistan pleaded guilty at Guantanamo Bay on Wednesday, giving the Obama administration its first conviction in the contro- versial war crimes court. Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi pleaded guilty to conspiring with al-Qaeda and providing ma- terial support for terrorism, said Guantanamo Bay court spokes- man Joe DellaVedova. Qosi, who ran the kitchen and provided supplies at bin Laden’s Star of Jihad compound near Jala- labad, Afghanistan, has been held at the U.S. military prison in Cuba for more than eight years.
His sentence could range from no additional time to life impris- onment. A panel of U.S. military officers will be assembled at Guan- tanamo to hear evidence and de- liberate his sentence at a hearing set for Aug. 9. The terms of his plea agreement were not disclosed, but it seemed unlikely that he would have plead- ed guilty to both charges without some limit on his sentence. Qosi is only the fourth prisoner
convicted in the controversial military tribunals since the Guan- tanamo Bay detention camp opened in January 2002. Two were sent home to Aus-
tralia and Yemen. One other, al- Qaeda videographer Ali Hamza al- Bahlul of Yemen, remains at Guantanamo serving a life term on the same charges to which Qosi pleaded guilty. Shortly after taking office, Presi- dent Obama signed an order to close the detention camp by Janu- ary 2010 and said terrorism sus-
pects should be tried in the U.S. courts or in regular courts-mar- tial.
But his efforts to shut down the camp have been stymied by Con- gress, including some members of his own party, and his administra- tion opted to tweak the Guanta- namo court system rather than scrap it. The detention camp now holds 181 prisoners. The Obama admin- istration plans to try about three dozen of them at the prison or in federal courts, including five ac- cused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, while holding 48 others indefinitely and repatriating or re- settling the rest.
Qosi, 50, was charged by the
U.S. military with acting as a driv- er and bodyguard for bin Laden and helping the al-Qaeda leader escape to the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. He was also ac- cused of being part of an al-Qaeda mortar crew.
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