Terror Suspect Labeled Worst Threat to U.S. Each afternoon, the little boys in Medina, Saudi Arabia, zigzagged for hours across their neighborhood soccer fields. But not Adnan G. El’Shukri-Jumah. A few sprints toward the metal goalposts and he would start wheezing, leaving him groping for the inhaler that became his lifelong companion. Slightly built, he stood out from the rest of the boys. He was bookish, a perpetual champion of Koran memorization contests, the son of a pioneering Guyanese holy man who was the first westerner to graduate from Medina’s prestigious Islamic University. El’Shukri-Jumah’s weakened lungs soon sent him indoors to his much-thumbed copy of the Koran and his stacks of videotaped movies. The films were always American, pyrotechnic action flicks like “The Terminator,” or “anything with Sylvester Stallone,” said his younger brother, Nabil El’Shukri-Jumah. He wore a “Miami Vice” T-shirt; he longed to travel to the United States. The image of the frail child fascinated by American culture is difficult to reconcile with the description of El’Shukri-Jumah broadcast around the world last month, when authorities launched an intensive manhunt for him. The FBI has labeled El’Shukri-Jumah one of the five most dangerous fugitive terrorist suspects in the world and the most serious terrorism threat to the United States. Federal law enforcement sources have compared his organizational skills to those of Mohamed Atta, the leader of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Law enforcement sources believe El’Shukri-Jumah has gained widespread notoriety in terrorist circles, assuming the battle name “Ja’far the Pilot” because of an apparent interest in aviation. Full Story
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