Al-qaeda conspirator’s mom calls son ‘kind’

The mother of a Saudi-born American and allegedly al-Qaeda’s new head of global operational planning, Adnan G Shukrijumah, whom the FBI has termed “dangerous” as he is using his unprecedented familiarity with American society to plot attacks, has said her son is kind, loving and caring.

“It’s not true, he’s a kind, loving, caring boy,” The New York Post quoted Shukrijumah mother, Zurah Adbu Ahmed, as saying. According to Zurah, Shukrijumah does have very strong feelings about US policy as it pertains to the Muslim world, but that “doesn’t make him a terrorist”.

She claimed that although she has not heard from her son in many years and has no clue about his whereabouts, she believes he would never kill anyone because she taught him not to. “If you kill one person it’s like you kill a whole nation. He knows that. He will not kill,” she added.

However, officials say the former Broward community college student who spent 15 years in South Florida with his mother and five siblings is in charge of planning attacks on the US and other countries, a position once held by 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was captured in 2003.

The FBI added that  Shukrijumah joined the jihad following conflicts in Bosnia and Chechnya in the 1990s.