TargetRichEnvironment

According to the FBI, Al Qaeda operative Adnan Shukrijumah, who is a concern because of his skillset and familiarity with the United States, is the new head of AQ global operations. Of course, his mommy doesn’t believe it (link):

By CURT ANDERSON, AP Legal Affairs Writer Curt Anderson, Ap Legal Affairs Writer   – 2 hrs 58 mins ago

MIAMI – A suspected al-Qaida operative who lived for more than 15 years in the U.S. has become chief of the terror network’s global operations, the FBI says, marking the first time a leader so intimately familiar with American society has been placed in charge of planning attacks.

Adnan Shukrijumah, 35, has taken over a position once held by 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was captured in 2003, Miami-based FBI counterterrorism agent Brian LeBlanc told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview. That puts him in regular contact with al-Qaida’s senior leadership, including Osama bin Laden, LeBlanc said.

Shukrijumah (SHOOK’-ree joohm-HAH’) and two other leaders were part of an “external operations council” that designed and approved terrorism plots and recruits, but his two counterparts were killed in U.S. drone attacks, leaving Shukrijumah as the de facto chief and successor to Mohammed — his former boss.

“He’s making operational decisions is the best way to put it,” said LeBlanc, the FBI’s lead Shukrijumah investigator. “He’s looking at attacking the U.S. and other Western countries. Basically through attrition, he has become his old boss.”

The FBI has been searching for Shukrijumah since 2003. He is thought to be the only al-Qaida leader to have once held permanent U.S. resident status, or a green card.

Shukrijumah was named earlier this year in a 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. The indictment marked the first criminal charges against Shukrijumah, who previously had been sought only as a witness.

Shukrijumah is also suspected of playing a role in plotting of potential al-Qaida bomb attacks in Norway and a never-executed attack on subways in the United Kingdom, but LeBlanc said no direct link has yet emerged. Travel records and other evidence also indicate Shukrijumah did research and surveillance in spring 2001 for a never-attempted plot to disrupt commerce in the Panama Canal by sinking a freighter there, LeBlanc said.

Shukrijumah, who trained at al-Qaida’s Afghanistan camps in the late 1990s, was labeled a “clear and present danger” to the U.S. in 2004 by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft. The U.S. is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture and the FBI also is releasing an age-enhanced photo of what he may look like today.

It’s natural he would focus on attacking on the U.S, LeBlanc said.

“He knows how the system works. He knows how to get a driver’s license. He knows how to get a passport,” LeBlanc said.

Shukrijumah’s mother, Zurah Adbu Ahmed, said Thursday on the front stoop of her small home in suburban Miramar, Fla., that her son frequently talked about what he considered the excesses of American society — such as alcohol and drug abuse and women wearing skimpy clothes — but that he did not condone violence. She also said she has not had contact with her son for several years.

“This boy would never do evil stuff. He is not an evil person,” she said. “He loved this country. He never had a problem with the United States.”

Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt.

A friend returned from the Afghanistan theater recently got the “scrambled” look on his face when I asked if the Taliban had leftover CIA stinger missiles.  By “scrambled” I mean the look that friends in “alphabet agencies” get when you wind up asking them something that’s a bridge too far about their work.  It’s kind of a pained expression, as if you’ve triggered a painful memory of the promise of federal penitentiary if they lapse and let it out.

He changed the subject and I didn’t push (I don’t want my friends to go to jail or break oaths), I figured it wasn’t an unreasonable question because some Stinger missiles had to have been left there in the 1980′s and I would guess that if they were distributed to rebel groups they’d be tough to track down.

Anyway, among the Wikileaks document leaks (via Daily Mail) about Afghanistan comes this answer on the question (link):

The Taliban has acquired surface-to-air missiles and used them to shoot down a coalition helicopter, the logs reveal.

A British Army photographer, Corporal Mike Gilyeat, 28, was among seven soldiers killed when a Chinook was blasted out of the skies over Helmand in May 2007.

The leaked documents also report coalition aircraft coming under fire from Stinger missiles – supplied to Afghan rebels by the CIA to help them fight the Soviet invaders in the 1980s.

Several Soviet Hind helicopters were brought down – one of the reasons the Kremlin decided to withdraw troops and abandon the country in 1989.

U.S. and British commanders have been accused of covering up the fact that the deadly missiles had fallen into the hands of insurgents.

The leaked documents record at least ten near-misses by surface-to-air weapons fired at coalition aircraft in the last four years. However, top brass have insisted that missiles passing within yards of allied helicopters were actually rocket-propelled grenades.

Insurgent leaders, who have no aircraft, are known to prize the downing of allied planes as part of their propaganda war. Colonel Stuart Tootal, who commanded the 3rd Battalion Parachute Regiment in Helmand Province in 2006, has warned it is a case of ‘when, not if’ a UK helicopter packed with troops is shot down by insurgents.

Helicopter pilots who saw the CH-47 Chinook carrying Cpl Gilyeat, of the Royal Military Police, five U.S. crew and a Canadian soldier nosedive to the ground reported that it had been hit by a ‘Manpad’ – a military term for a shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile.

The fears were apparently confirmed by two Apache attack helicopters hovering over the crash site which also came under fire from missiles 30 minutes later.

While both devices missed, the pilots reported that they were ‘not an RPG’ but a ‘probable first-generation Manpad’.

The entry added: ‘Clearly the Taliban were trying to down an Apache after downing the CH-47.’

In June 2006, a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter evacuating casualties came under fire 25 miles from Kandahar but evaded the missile.

The log report read: ‘The crew chief saw only the smoke trail due to evasive manoeuvring but determined that the missile was a type of Manpad.’

Maybe they could have a Stinger missile buyback program. Offer them a virgin goat for each missile or something.