Terrorist fugitive
Adnan G. El Shukrijumah was indicted in the Eastern District of New York in July of 2010 for his alleged role in a terrorist plot to attack targets in the United States and the United Kingdom. The charges reveal that the plot against New York City's subway system, uncovered in September of 2009, was directed by senior Al-Qaeda leadership in Pakistan, and was also directly related to a scheme by Al-Qaeda plotters in Pakistan to use Western operatives to attack a target in the United States. El Shukrijumah is thought to have served as one of the leaders of Al-Qaeda's external operations program.
He was born in Saudi Arabia in 1975. His father is from Guyana, and his mother from Yemen. He speaks nearly perfect English. He has a U.S. social security card and a Florida driver's license. In short hair, he looks Hispanic. With a beard, he could pass for a Saudi or South Asian.
He's the eldest of six kids. His father, who ran a mosque in Brooklyn in the 1990s, was the interpreter for the man known as the Blind Sheik, who was convicted of planning the 1993 World Trade Center attacks.
In the late 1990s, U.S. authorities believe that he may have been trained at an Afghan training camp.
He is alleged to have received assistance from American neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui.
Before 9-11, he disappeared totally, and I think that was about May month. The last we saw him around here was around May of 2001.
On June 30 2004, it was announced by the Honduran Security Ministry that el Shukrijumah had been in Honduras during the previous month meeting with members of the Mara Salvatrucha street gang.
Last known to have lived with his family in Miramar, Florida, Shukrijumah is known to have a Guyanese passport but might also use a Saudi, Canadian, or Trinidadian passport.
Under torture, Jose Padilla claims to have been partnered with Shukrijumah in the summer of 2001, and that the pair were taught how to seal natural gas into apartment complexes and detonate explosions in a course they received at the Kandahar airport. Padilla claims that the two men constantly fought, and he eventually went to Mohammed Atef to complain that he could not work with Shukrijumah and the training was canceled.
Atta and Alshehhi attend the Al Hijrah mosque run by Gulshair Shukrijumah in Miramar, Broward County, Florida. After 9/11, the FBI will visit the mosque. Gulshair previously served as an imam at the Al Farouq mosque in Brooklyn. In addition to working as a translator for Sheikh Abdul-Rahman, he also testified as a character witness at the WTC bombing trial for one of the defendants, Clement Rodney Hampton-El, who attended Al Farouq. Gulshair Shukrijumah is receiving money from the Saudi embassy in Washington at this time.