FBI in Trinidad to hunt suspect

THE Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) is in Port-of-Spain searching for 27-year-old terror suspect Adnan Muhammed El Shukrijumah, who may be hiding in Trinidad and whose Guyana-born father worked as an Islamic Missionary in Central Trinidad.

The Legal Attache of the FBI, based in Barbados came to Trinidad yesterday and met with US Embassy officials and Head of the Police Special Branch Frank Diaz, where a file on the wanted man was handed over. Diaz confirmed that he met with the FBI agent, but declined to give any details. But Newsday was informed that based on intelligence reports, El Shukrijumah could be in Trinidad and searches have begun for the wanted man in Central and South Trinidad, and in particular, Palo Seco.

The file brought by the FBI agent contains photographs and a detailed account of the reasons why the wanted man is being sought by the United States. Born on August 4, 1975 in Saudi Arabia, El Shukrijumah went to the United States in November 1995 when he was just 19 so he could attend college and also learn English. He obtained a computer engineering degree from the Broward Community College in Fort Lauderdale. This was confirmed yesterday by his father, 72-year-old Shaykh Gulshari Muhammed El Shukrijumah, who was born in Guyana and who worked for years as an Islamic Missionary in Central Trinidad, on behalf of the Saudi Arabian Government.

The father said Adnan graduated in 2001 and left for Arabia. “The last time we saw him was in May 2001. He calls sometimes and sends letters, but not regularly,” said Shaykh from his home in Miramar, Florida, where FBI agents converged searching for the man suspected of having links with Osama Bin Laden’s al Qaeda network. Shaykh confirmed that five FBI agents visited his home on Thursday for more than an hour asking for his son. He said the FBI wanted to know about his son’s friendship with Imran Mandhai, the 19-year-old Pakistani student who was convicted with Trinidadian Shuyeb Mossa Jokhan in 2002 for conspiring to bomb South Florida electrical stations, a National Guard Armory, and Jewish businesses in 2001. Jokhan, 24, formerly of St Joseph, was jailed for close to five years for his role in the conspiracy. Mandhai was imprisoned for 12 years. Shaykh confirmed that Mandhai came to him for spiritual leadership and for lessons in Arabic at the neighborhood mosque in Miramar called Masjid El-Hijrah. “My son knew him yes. I would not say he was a close friend, but they would go to restaurants and things like that. As far as I knew, he was a good Muslim, too.”

FBI agents are conducting a global search for Adnan with suspected ties to al Qaeda and ‘’wanted in connection with possible terrorist threats’’ against the United States. Adnan has been the focus of an intensified manhunt since the March 1 arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, believed to be al Qaeda’s chief operational planner and suspected mastermind of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Shakyh said Thursday’s visit by the FBI agents was the sixth time they visited the family since the terrorist attacks that killed 3,000 people in New York, Washington DC and a Pennsylvania field. ‘’Each time I tell them the same thing: I do not know the whereabouts of my son and he is not a violent person,’’ said Shaykh Investigators are trying to determine whether he had connections to the 19 September 11 hijackers — 13 of whom lived and trained in South Florida.

The father said his son could never be involved in terrorism. ‘’He has no involvement with al Qaeda and he doesn’t know how to drive a plane. I don’t know where any of these things come from,’’  he said. Adnan carries several aliases — Adnan G El Shukri Jumah, Abu Arif, Ja’far Al-Tayer, Jaffar Al-Tayyar, Jafar Tayar and Jaafar Al-Tayyar. Thursday’s news release caused teams of reporters to descend on the family’s tan-colored, single-story, fenced house. Their front door has Police Benevolent Association stickers and a sign directing visitors to www.masterarabic.com, a website for Arabic language lessons taught by the father. Friends say they doubted El Shukrijumah was involved in terrorism. “There is absolutely, emphatically, no way these people could be  involved in anything like that,’’ said Una Kahn, a family friend from Trinidad. “They are the most beautiful people you could meet.’’ Adnan was known in Broward as a quiet man and a bit of a  loner. Florida motor vehicle records show he had two speeding tickets in 1996 and a violation for running a red light in 1997.

Adnan has a record in Florida. On October 12, 1997, El Shukrijumah was charged with domestic battery and cruelty to a child by Miramar Police for allegedly biting his 15-year-old sister Hanna. The charges were turned over for investigation by Florida’s Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services and later dropped, according to their father. State records show the charges were abandoned in November 1997. He was an occasional worshiper at the Islamic Movement of Florida mosque in Davie but hadn’t been seen there in the last two years. When Adnan attended mosque, he’d come in, say his prayers, then leave, said Edwin Hazrat Ali, of Miramar, who knew El Shukrijumah when the now-wanted man was a youth in Guyana and later in Miramar.