Plotting Attacks for al Qaeda
HOLMES: Bottom of the hour here now. CNN is recovering new details about a man who authorities believe is plotting attacks for al Qaeda. The say he spent much of his life right here in the U.S. Now he seems to have just vanished. Our Susan Candiotti talked exclusively with his mother and the FBI.</s>SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): The FBI says that after he left America, Shukrijumah started off as an al Qaeda dishwasher, doing menial tasks at training camps. But it believes he's much more than a dishwasher now.</s>BRIAN LEBLANC, SPECIAL AGENT, FBI: Just like any other business, he would be equated with a chief of operations.</s>CANDIOTTI: Investigators have revealed to CNN they believe Adnan Shukrijumah is now directing al Qaeda's overseas operations. (on camera): How dangerous is he?</s>LEBLANC: He may not be somebody that's going to come into the United States to conduct the attack, but what makes him more dangerous is that he's out there plotting the attacks and recruiting people to actively do that.</s>CANDIOTTI (voice-over): The break-through came when FBI counterterrorism agent Brian LeBlanc linked Shukrijumah to the thwarted New York subway suicide mission last fall, the biggest post- 9/11 terror investigation. Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay admit they plan to blow themselves up using homemade bombs. Prosecutors say it was Shukrijumah who called the shots, probably from somewhere along the Afghan-Pakistan border. (on camera): What did Zazi that he, Shukrijumah, told him to do?</s>LEBLANC: Adnan was the one that convinced the three of them to come back to the United States and conduct the attack here.</s>CANDIOTTI: He told them you go there and you blow up the subways.</s>LEBLANC: Yes.</s>CANDIOTTI: There are a lot of people that are saying now that he's involved in evil things, planning attacks on the United States. Can you imagine this?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. That is not my son. My son is not a violent person. He is very kind, generous.</s>CANDIOTTI (voice-over): In her only televised interview since her son was indicted in the New York plot, his mother insists he's incapable of doing harm.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The way you call it -- the scapegoat.</s>CANDIOTTI: The eldest son of a Saudi imam, Shukrijumah came to America as a young child. His mother shared exclusively this beloved photo of the two of them. They settled in Brooklyn, New York. CNN has learned that his Shukrijumah's father preached at this mosque. They lived at this house nearby before moving to Florida in the mid-'90s. His father, who is now dead, opened a small mosque near Fort Lauderdale. (on camera): In the late '90s, Shukrijumah worked several odd jobs, including selling used cars. His family says that's how he paid for courses, including chemistry and computers, at this small college in south Florida. He even took classes to speak better English. Well, a few years later, when the FBI began looking for him, his English professor remembered videotaping him at one of those classes and turned over the tape to the FBI. The FBI says that professor's actions proved crucial to their investigation some six years later. (voice-over): On a hunch, LeBlanc asked agents in New York to show that video of Shukrijumah to would-be bomber Zazi.</s>LEBLANC: From that video, he was able to make an identification.</s>CANDIOTTI: The FBI says it now has a more detail profile of Shukrijumah in part from 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Just before 9/11, Shukrijumah crossed the U.S. by train. Later, he scoped out the Panama Canal as a target. He went to Trinidad, London and by June 2001, Afghanistan. On 9/11, his mother, who doesn't want to be named, says he called home for the last time.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He called me and he said, "Oh, maybe you'll hear what happened so on and so on and so on. They say they put it in -- they're putting it on the Muslims." I say, "Yes." I tell him do not come. "Do not come because they're looking at all the Muslim people." And he was arguing with me. He said, "No, I didn't do nothing. I will come. Don't worry about it."</s>CANDIOTTI (on camera): And after that?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After that, I don't hear about him.</s>CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Shukrijumah's mother adamantly denies her son is directing al Qaeda attacks. But when I asked about the admitted Times Square car bomber, she said this --</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some time you have to do something very alarming for the people to wake up. It's not because you hate them or you want to destroy them or you want to hurt them.</s>CANDIOTTI (on camera): Is there anything that you would tell your son about what he should do or not do?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. I don't have nothing to tell him. He have his own guide and his own heart.</s>CANDIOTTI (voice-over): For the FBI, it is all about staying one step ahead. Where will al Qaeda and Shukrijumah strike next? (on camera): What do you think he's doing now?</s>LEBLANC: He's definitely focused on attacking the United States and other western countries.</s>CANDIOTTI: Shukrijumah's meteoric rise in al Qaeda's ranks may be thanks to both talent and luck. Two of his high-level colleagues were killed in U.S. drone attacks. Susan Candiotti, CNN, Miami.</s>BOLDUAN: And now something you truly don't see every day. A waterspout popped up on Lake Okeechobee in Florida. You can see this one form into a funnel on the lake's surface in a process that under the right circumstances, only takes a few seconds. That's pretty amazing. And that's a pretty remarkable sight.</s>BOLDUAN: So they're called Web series, and they're attracting a lot of attention from entertainment execs, of all people. And we'll try to tell you why just ahead. Stay here.