U.S. authorities say suspected al-Qaeda operatives Adnan El Shukrijumah and Jose Padilla might have been part of a plan for a wave of terrorist strikes in the USA that was to have followed the Sept. 11 attacks. El Shukrijumah, a Saudi national and a former resident of suburban Miami, has become the focus of a worldwide manhunt since his name was found in material confiscated during the arrest of al-Qaeda operations chief Khalid Shaikh Mohammed last month in Pakistan. Law enforcement sources say the materials also mentioned Padilla, a former Chicago-area gang member who was arrested in that city last May. Authorities say Padilla, who also once lived in South Florida, was plotting to get materials to carry out bombing attacks, possibly involving a radioactive ”dirty bomb,” a conventional explosive that spreads radioactive material. Padilla, 31, a U.S. citizen, has not been charged but is being held indefinitely as an ”enemy combatant” in the U.S. Navy brig in Charleston, S.C. It’s unclear whether El Shukrijumah and Padilla have ever met. But information from Mohammed’s arrest, combined with work by a team of about 25 agents that continues to examine the Sept. 11 attacks, has led agents to theorize that El Shukrijumah and Padilla might have been part of another round of attacks al-Qaeda was planning. Full Story
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