What Is This Man Plotting?

The terrorist who worries Washington most is el-Shukrijumah, 29, chiefly because he is still at large but also because he is practically homegrown. Born in Guyana and reared in Miramar, Fla., where his father, a Saudi-Yemeni cleric now deceased, preached hard-line Wahhabism at a small mosque, el-Shukrijumah took computer classes at Broward Community College in Florida. He holds Guyanese and Trinidadian passports, may also have Canadian and Saudi passports and can easily pass for Hispanic. "He speaks English and has the ability to fit in and look innocuous," says an FBI agent. "He could certainly come back here, and nobody would know it." U.S. authorities have put his name on domestic and international watch lists but fear he will travel to Mexico or Canada on phony documents and then sneak across the border into the U.S.

Since last May, when FBI director Robert Mueller held a televised news conference to plead for news of el-Shukrijumah, tips have poured in placing him everywhere from Niagara Falls, N.Y., to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. "He's kind of like Elvis," an intelligence official told TIME. "He seems to pop up all over the place." The last place he can credibly be traced to, however, is Waziristan. FBI agents call el-Shukrijumah the next Atta--after Mohamed Atta, the Egyptian ringleader of the 9/11 attacks. Investigators are trying to learn whether the versatile el-Shukrijumah helped case the buildings featured on recently retrieved computer discs and are hoping al-Hindi can shed more light on what happened at the summit. Exactly what was discussed isn't known yet, officials say.

An aide to President George W. Bush came close last week to boasting that authorities had busted up more than just a plot. "I believe that the string of arrests represents a strategic success against al-Qaeda as opposed to the wrapping up tactically of a single cell," said a senior White House official. But others found that view premature. "We know we've disrupted a plot, but we don't know that we've derailed it," said a senior counterterrorism hand. "And we certainly don't know that it's the only plot." --With reporting by Massimo Calabresi/Washington