The Iraqi smuggling scare surfaced two weeks ago when the Mexican informant reported that he learned from a contact in a “human smuggling” organization that a group of a half-dozen Iraqi nationals had recently paid more than $5,ooo apiece for help in crossing the U.S.-Mexican border near Laredo, Texas, law-enforcement sources told NEWSWEEK. The informant said he was told the unidentified Iraqis “may have some chemicals.” That claim was included the next day in the daily “threat matrix” of terrorist threats presented to President Bush. Mexican agents, working closely with the FBI, tracked down the Mexican smuggler who the informant claimed had provided him with the information. The smuggler denied the informant’s claim and passed an FBI polygraph. But officials say the claim still had to be taken seriously because of fresh intelligence suggesting that terrorist groups are concentrating on the notoriously porous U.S.-Mexican border. In debriefings since his recent capture in Pakistan, NEWSWEEK has learned, 9-11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed has told interrogators he discussed bringing operatives through the Mexican border. Officials are concerned that the United States remains dangerously unprepared for terrorist attacks on several fronts. One fear is lone-wolf suicide bombings of soft targets like malls and public transportation. Another big worry: terrorists could acquire shoulder-fired missiles and shoot them at passenger planes.
While some U.S. intelligence officials think Al Qaeda has been seriously disrupted by Mohammed’s arrest, there is deep anxiety that some seasoned operatives are still on the loose. Late last week the FBI launched a worldwide manhunt for a 27-year-old Saudi, Adnan al-Shukrijumah, who officials say has the organizational abilities to become another Muhammad Atta. Al- Shukrijumah had lived in south Florida until the spring of 2001–and then left the country. Officials say Qaeda documents seized overseas suggest he was trying to attend the same Oklahoma flight school as Zacarias Moussaoui. Concern about him increased when Mohammed identified him as one of his operatives. The problem is, one official said, “we don’t know where he is.”
