U.S. border agents track militant

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U.S. border agents and inspectors have ramped up efforts to locate a suspected al Qaeda terrorist cell leader believed to be seeking entry into the United States along alien-smuggling routes on the U.S.-Mexican border, authorities said yesterday.

Authorities said Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, a Saudi Arabian national for whom the U.S. government has offered a $5 million reward, was in Canada last year looking for nuclear material for a "dirty bomb," a conventional explosive laced with radioactive material, and could be carrying passports from Saudi Arabia, Trinidad or Canada.

They confirmed yesterday that increased enforcement efforts were under way along the U.S.-Mexican border in the wake of a rise of arrests of border jumpers from Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Syria.

U.S. intelligence officials said El Shukrijumah is believed to have been spotted in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in July, having crossed the border illegally from Nicaragua after a stay in Panama. They said al Qaeda operatives have been in Tegucigalpa planning attacks against British, Spanish and U.S. embassies.

El Shukrijumah was named in a March 2003 material witness arrest warrant by federal prosecutors in Northern Virginia. U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty said the suspected al Qaeda terrorist is being sought in connection with potential terrorist threats against the United States.

El Shukrijumah, 29, a former South Florida resident and pilot thought to have helped plan the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, was the subject of an FBI alert last month, which described him as "armed and dangerous" and a major threat to homeland security.

Last year, the U.S. Border Patrol apprehended more than 900,000 illegal aliens trying to sneak across the U.S.-Mexican border. Some federal law-enforcement officials have estimated that for every alien caught, as many as four make it into the United States and disappear.

El Shukrijumah was among seven suspected al Qaeda operatives identified in May by Attorney General John Ashcroft who were believed to be involved in ongoing plans to strike new targets in the United States. Saying they "posed a clear and present danger to America," Mr. Ashcroft cited "credible intelligence from multiple sources" that the al Qaeda terrorists intended to "hit the United States hard."

Mr. Ashcroft identified the other suspected al Qaeda operatives as:

• Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman who studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and also lived in Maryland, identified by the FBI as an al Qaeda "fixer," someone knowledgeable of U.S. procedures and fluent in English.

• Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a native of the Comoros Republic named as al Qaeda's leader in eastern Africa, who was indicted in this country in the 1998 al Qaeda bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 persons, including 12 Americans.

• Ahmed Khalfan Ghailiani, a Tanzanian also under U.S. indictment in the embassy attacks.

• Amer El-Maati, a Kuwaiti and Canadian citizen wanted by the FBI for questioning about ties to al Qaeda.

• Abderraouf Jdey, a Tunisian and Canadian citizen, who left a suicide message on videotapes recovered in Afghanistan at the home of bin Laden's military chief, Mohammed Atef.

• Adam Yahihyi Gadahn, a U.S. citizen and Muslim convert who attended al Qaeda training camps and has served as a translator for the network.

A report this year by the International Institute of Strategic Studies in Canada said al Qaeda had more than 18,000 potential attackers worldwide, was working on plans for major strikes on the United States and Europe, and might be seeking weapons of mass destruction. The report said the United States was al Qaeda's prime target.

The FBI has said al Qaeda terrorists and associates operate through "sleeper cells" scattered throughout the United States, are continuing to recruit new members, have assisted in the acquisition of safe houses and equipment, and have conducted pre-attack surveillance.