NEW YORK — Counterterrorism officials have linked one of the nation’s most-wanted terrorists to last year’s thwarted plot by a Denver-area man to bomb the New York subway system.
Authorities believe that Adnan Shukrijumah met with one of the would-be suicide bombers in the plot, which Attorney General Eric Holder called one of the most dangerous since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. They did not name the would-be bomber.
Officials say Shukrijumah is among the top candidates to be al-Qaeda’s next head of external operations, the man in charge of planning attacks worldwide.
Federal prosecutors have named Shukrijumah in a draft indictment but were still discussing whether to pursue it. Some feared the extra attention would hinder efforts to capture him.
Najibullah Zazi, an airport shuttle bus driver from Aurora, pleaded guilty Feb. 22 for his role in the “martyrdom operation.”
Zazi, an Afghan immigrant residing legally in the U.S., traveled to an al-Qaeda stronghold in Pakistan in August 2008 to receive weapons training so he could fight alongside the Taliban, according to Justice Department and FBI officials. But jihadists redirected him and two confederates to focus their energies on a suicide attack on the U.S. mainland.
Zazi returned to Colorado in January 2009 with notes on how to mix explosive chemicals.
The final stages of the plot came into focus in September, Holder said, when Zazi drove a rented car to New York, days before the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Prosecutors say he and others involved in the plot scrapped their plans when they realized they had been discovered.
