TEGUCIGALPA – A man the U.S.government has identified as a top al-Qaeda terrorist was in Honduras for severaldays in May and reportedly plotted tobomb the Panama Canal, Security MinistryOscar Alvarez said in a news report publishedWednesday in the Honduran dailyLa Tribuna.The Security Minister warned thatintelligence forces have established theexistence of other terrorists from theMiddle East in Honduras.The alleged al-Qaeda member, identifiedas a 38-year-old Egyptian nationalwho goes by the names Adnan Guishar ElShakri Jumah or Adnan G. El Shukrijumahand Yafar al-Taya or Ja Far Al Tayyar, wasreportedly seen May 27 in an Internet caféin the capital, Alvarez said.Authorities are coordinating with otherCentral American countries in an attemptto locate the suspect.“HE was detected in Panama and laterhere in Honduras,” the Minister told thepress. “According to intelligence, he wasplanning on putting explosives in thePanama Canal to block the traffic of shipsthrough the area.“He is a supposed high criminal of al-Qaeda who was in Panama, trying to organizea criminal act, and then later in ourcountry, but he has now been identified,”Alvarez said.The Minister said terrorists are enteringHonduras both legally, across theNicaraguan border, and illegally throughmafia contacts. Once in the country, theyare moving around “like common citizens,even going to Internet cafés to communicatewith other terrorists,” Alvarez added.The Minister charged that the terroristshave been attempting to recruit Honduranyouth to carry out bombings in CentralAmerica and the United States.“THESE are not inventions of theSecurity Minister,” Alvarez said. “I wantthe Honduran people to know there existsthe possibility that our country is beingused as a base for international terrorists.”The Minister said he was not trying tocause panic in Honduras, but warned thatterrorists might be planning something inthe country as a response to Honduras’support for the U.S. war on terrorism.He said the Honduran SecurityMinistry is currently monitoring severalforeigners in the country to determine ifthey have links with foreign terrorist organizations.He reminded Hondurans that theinternational bounty for a terrorist is ashigh as $5 million.IN Costa Rica, the Public SecurityMinistry announced that border police areintensifying their normal duties to preventthe Egyptian from entering the country.Costa Rican Security Minister RogelioRamos asserted in a statement Wednesdaythat the suspected terrorist had not steppedonto Costa Rican soil.
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