The US has become much more forthcoming about a long-sought al-Qaeda associate, Adnan Shukrijumah, who had at one time held an American green card. Both CNN and the AP feature stories today about the one-time “dishwasher” of AQ, who the FBI now considers the chief operations officer of the terrorist network. The DoJ indicted Shukrijumah as part of the conspiracy that plotted attacks on the New York subway system, and now it looks as though the government wants to make the threat from Shukrijumah very public:

A suspected al-Qaida operative who lived for more than 15 years in the U.S. has become chief of the terror network’s global operations, the FBI says, marking the first time a leader so intimately familiar with American society has been placed in charge of planning attacks.

Adnan Shukrijumah, 35, has taken over a position once held by 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was captured in 2003, Miami-based FBI counterterrorism agent Brian LeBlanc told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview. That puts him in regular contact with al-Qaida’s senior leadership, including Osama bin Laden, LeBlanc said.

Shukrijumah (SHOOK’-ree joohm-HAH’) and two other leaders were part of an “external operations council” that designed and approved terrorism plots and recruits, but his two counterparts were killed in U.S. drone attacks, leaving Shukrijumah as the de facto chief and successor to Mohammed — his former boss.

“He’s making operational decisions is the best way to put it,” said LeBlanc, the FBI’s lead Shukrijumah investigator. “He’s looking at attacking the U.S. and other Western countries. Basically through attrition, he has become his old boss.”

Be sure to watch the interview with Shukrijmah’s mother, who insists that her son isn’t violent and that the 9/11 attack was “put on the Muslims.” She also claims that her son doesn’t have a violent bone in his body. When it comes to the Times Square bombing attempt, however, Mom says you gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette:

“Sometimes, you have to do something very alarming for the people to wake up. It’s not because you hate them or you want to destroy them or you want to hurt — you want to hurt them.”

The FBI has searched for Shukrijumah for the past several years and has been featured on their most-wanted lists most of that time, but it seems that the US is stepping up its campaign after the indictments. However, the AP’s description of Shukrijumah seems somewhat faulty. Anwar al-Awlaki also had involvement in attacks (although the extent to which he may or may not have “plotted” them is debatable), and Awlaki has US citizenship and lived in the US for quite a long time. The US considers Awlaki a leading figure in AQ, at least in its Yemen branch. Shukrijumah may outrank Awlaki, but he’s not unique in its leadership.