Central Intelligence Agency: Report on al-Qaeda operative Illyas el Shukrijumah Illyas el Shukrijumah is a known al-Qaeda planner stationed at an al-Qaeda

base near Quetta, Pakistan. El Shukrijumah was born in Afghanistan in 1965, and fought alongside US and Saudi-sponsored mujahedeen groups that fought against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the early 1980s. He trained with covert CIA operatives in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets, but after the Taliban took control of Kabul in the 1990s, el Shukrijumah severed ties with the CIA, and began working as a courier for Osama bin Laden. El Shukrijumah worked his way up through the al-Qaeda ranks, eventually becoming a strategic planner for al-Qaeda in May 2010. El Skukrijumah established relationships with Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov shortly after, pledging support to help Muslims fight against Russian injustices. It is believed that his initial experiences with Soviet troops in Afghanistan have soured him to the Russian state. CIA cell phone intercepts between el Shukrijumah and Umarov from May 2010-June 2011 confirm that the two were in extensive contact. El Shukrijumah also established formal ties with an alQaeda splinter group that operates in the northeast United States in late June 2010. Known Afghan mujahedeen fighters that fought alongside el Shukrijumah in the 1980s, moved to New York in the early 1990s. Their whereabouts are unknown, but the FBI has evidence to suggest that these former mujahedeen helped establish the al-Qaeda splinter cell in the northeast. They also seem to be the link between el Shukrijumah and the splinter cells leadership. It is believed that el Shukrijumah, after purchasing a nuclear warhead from Doku Umarov, organized his cohorts in the US to carry out the actual nuclear attack in Chicago.