JW Gets Records That Show Al Qaeda Terrorist May Have Been Govt. Source

 Judicial Watch has obtained records from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) that indicate an Al Qaeda terrorist who helped plan several U.S. attacks—including plots to bomb Oprah Winfrey’s studios and detonate nuclear devices in multiple American cities—was a Confidential Source/Informant for the government.

His name is Adnan G. El Shukrijumah (also known as “Javier Robles”) and for years he appeared on the FBI’s most wanted list. In December JW reported that, despite being sought by the FBI, Shukrijumah crossed back and forth into the United States from Mexico to meet fellow militant Islamists in Texas. In fact, he piloted an aircraft into the Cielo Dorado airfield in Anthony, New Mexico, according to JW’s law enforcement sources. In early December Shukrijumah was killed by the Pakistan Army in an intelligence-borne operation in South Waziristan.

But many questions remain about the U.S. government’s relationship with the Al Qaeda operative while he was still alive and months ago JW launched an investigation to uncover the details. As part of the ongoing probe JW requested FDLE records because Shukrijumah lived in South Florida’s Broward County and graduated from Broward Community College with a degree in computer engineering. Four months before the 9/11 terrorist attacks Shukrijumah fled the U.S. He was one of the suspected actors in a number of planned terror attacks in the U.S., including a plot to simultaneously detonate nuclear devices in several U.S. cities. Convicted terrorist Jose Padilla claimed to have trained with Shukrijumah to blow up U.S. apartment buildings using natural gas explosions.

In 2010 Shukrijumah was indicted in the Eastern District of New York for his role in a terrorist plot to attack targets in the United States—including New York City’s subway system—and the United Kingdom, according the FBI. The plot against New York City’s subway system was directed by senior Al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan, the FBI says, and was directly related to a scheme by Al Qaeda plotters in Pakistan to use Western operatives to attack a target in the United States.

A year earlier Shukrijumah helped plan a terrorist truck-bomb targeting Winfrey’s Harpo Studios in Chicago as well as the iconic Sears Tower. Two of his fellow conspirators—Emad Karakrah and Hector Pedroza Huerta—were arrested last year for unrelated state crimes in different parts of the country. Karakrah got busted in Chicago on charges of making a false car bomb threat after leading police on a high-speed chase with an ISIS flag waving from his vehicle. Huerta, an illegal alien twice convicted for driving intoxicated, got nabbed in El Paso for drunk driving.

The men formed part of a sophisticated narco-terror ring, exposed in a JW investigative series last year, with connections running from El Paso to Chicago to New York City. The operation includes an all-star lineup of logistics and transportation operatives for militant Islamists in the United State, drug and weapons smugglers for the Juarez drug cartel in Mexico, an FBI confidential informant gone rogue and two of the FBI’s most wanted terrorists. Shukrijumah was one of them and, though he’s dead, he is an important part of the puzzle and extremely relevant when connecting the dots in the narco-terror ring.

The FDLE records recently obtained by JW include source debriefing reports from 2003-2004 with redacted information and references to an unnamed “source” believed to be Shukrijumah. It’s not entirely clear which government or law enforcement agency he may have been a Confidential Source/Informant for but JW also has record requests pending with several federal agencies. Additionally, JW’s law enforcement sources confirm that in late 2003 Shukrijumah was using a restricted database that typically requires proof of legitimate business—such as a law enforcement agency, licensed private investigator or law firm—for subscription. Asked to confirm if the “source” listed in the recently disclosed records is in fact Shukrijumah, a spokesman for the FDLE told JW that the agency can’t disclose the identities of confidential informants or sources.