America's most wanted
Washington steps up the hunt for four Arab Al-Qa'eda suspects, writes Anayat Durrani
The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation has announced a worldwide hunt for four men they describe as "armed and dangerous".
The FBI posted a "seeking information" alert with photographs of the four men on its Web site Friday. The alert was signed by Director Robert Mueller under the warning, "These individuals should be considered armed and dangerous." The alert follows what officials say is an increase in intelligence chatter that suggests possible terrorist activity against the US and American targets overseas.
Two of the men mentioned in the alert, Adnan Al- Shukrijumah and Abdel-Raouf Jdey, have previously been named by the FBI as wanted suspects. Officials said that information on Al-Shukrijumah was gathered during interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohamed, believed to be the operational planner behind the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States. Al-Shukrijumah has been linked to American José Padilla, who allegedly plotted to launch a "dirty bomb" attack against the United States.
Al-Shukrijumah, 28, was born in Saudi Arabia and holds a passport issued by Guyana, a US Social Security number and a Florida driver's license. The FBI has been searching for him for months because of his familiarity with the United States, skill in faking documents and fluency in English. A material witness warrant has been issued for Al-Shukrijumah in Virginia.
Jdey, 38, was born in Tunisia and holds a passport issued by Canada in Montreal, Quebec, his last known residence. A recorded suicide message by Jdey on a videotape was recovered in the Afghanistan home of Mohamed Atef, Osama Bin Laden's military chief who was killed in a US air strike. A suicide note was also found in which Jdey vowed to die fighting non-Muslim infidels.
The other two men named in the FBI alert are Karim Al-Mejjati and Zubayr Al-Rimi. Al-Mejjati, 35, was born in Morocco and was issued a passport in France. He is known to have entered the United States between 1997 and 1999. Officials believe he may have taken part in the 16 May suicide bombings in Casablanca, Morocco, that killed 45 people.
Al-Rimi, 29, was born in Saudi Arabia and is married to a Moroccan woman named Hanan Raqib. The Associated Press reported that a Saudi Interior Ministry official said that Saudi authorities identified a photo of Al-Rimi as being that of Sultan Jubran Sultan Al-Qahtani. The FBI bulletin listed Al-Qahtani as an alias for al-Rimi. Al-Qahtani is included on a Saudi list of 19 alleged militants at large after a police discovery of a weapons cache near Riyadh in May, a week before the 12 May bombings that killed 25 victims and nine attackers. The 19 men are believed to be responsible for the Riyadh bombings and to have close ties with Al-Qa'eda.
The whereabouts of the four men being sought by the FBI are unknown. The FBI has asked the public and law enforcement for help in detaining or capturing these men, if found. The agency circulated photographs and other information about the alleged terrorists to 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies.
Meanwhile, the US Department of Homeland Security issued an advisory warning Thursday that threats from Al-Qa'eda against the US and American interests abroad remain very real. The warning came as the second anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attack approaches.
The advisory said that Al-Qa'eda has plans to conduct multiple attacks against US targets using commercial airliners flying internationally near or over the continental United States. In connection with these plans, Al-Qa'eda has been studying international airports to identify those with the least stringent security and entry requirements.
The bulletin said that Al-Qa'eda may try to target critical infrastructure such as nuclear plants, petroleum facilities, transportation systems, water reservoirs or dams, food supplies or the nation's electric grid. It also said that Al-Qa'eda may still harbor plans to execute chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear attacks.
The advisory cites recent mass-casualty car bomb style attacks in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Iraq, "suggesting that 'soft' targets with minimum physical security measures could be viewed as attractive options in the US". Among the types of soft targets mentioned in Al-Qa'eda's operational plans are apartment complexes, gas stations and restaurants. The government maintained it does not plan to raise the national terror threat level from its current elevated status.
