Report: Al-Qaida Agent Adnan Shukrijumah Met With Subway Bomb Plotter Najibullah Zazi

(July 1) -- One of the three men involved in the thwarted suicide plot to bomb New York City subway lines last year consulted with a senior al-Qaida operative in Pakistan who is considered one of the most wanted terrorists in the nation, according to reports.

Pakistani-born Najibullah Zazi, 24, and one of his high school classmates from Queens pleaded guilty to terrorism charges for plotting to carry out the attack last year. Citing counterterrorism officials, The Associated Press reported that Zazi met with top al-Qaida operative Adnan Shukrijumah.

The 34-year-old Saudi-born leader spent time in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Florida, speaks fluent English and is believed to have received flight training in the U.S. around the same time as the 9/11 hijackers, The New York Times reported.

Najibullah Zazi, left, and Adnan Shukrijumah.

Najibullah Zazi, left, was convicted in a plot to bomb New York subway lines. Authorities believe that he met with Adnan Shukrijumah, right, a rising al-Qaida figure.

The State Department has offered a reward of up to $5 million for information that could lead to Shukrijumah's capture. He was also identified as a leading presence in al-Qaida during the interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one of the architects of the 9/11 attacks.

Shukrijumah's link to the botched subway plot highlights its importance to the terror organization, which may have already promoted him to replace al-Qaida's chief of external operations, Salah al-Somali, the New York Daily News reported.

Justice Department officials are deliberating whether to cite Shukrijumah's role in what U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has called one of the most dangerous attack on the U.S. since 9/11, according to the AP.

Zazi and co-defendant Zarein Ahmedzay are cooperating with the FBI and the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, The New York Times reports. A third suspect, Adis Medunjanin, awaits trial.

Zazi and Ahmedzay have admitted they traveled to tribal areas of Pakistan for weapons and explosives training in 2008, according to the Times reports. There, they also met with two senior al-Qaida operatives -- al-Somali, who has since been killed in a CIA drone strike, and Rashid Rauf, both of whom urged Zazi and Ahmedzay to carry out the subway plot, the AP reported.

Zazi returned to the U.S. in early 2009, moving to Denver. He drove from Colorado to New York in September with intent to detonate explosives in three subway lines packed with rush-hour commuters. But he drove back to Denver, spooked after being told he was being watched by federal agents who had discovered suspicious e-mails about an "Operation High Rise," the AP reported.