( CNN ) -- In August 2008 , Najibullah Zazi , an Afghan-American , and two friends from his high school in Queens flew from Newark , New Jersey , to Peshawar , Pakistan , where they hoped to join the Taliban . In Peshawar , the trio met with `` Ahmad , '' an al Qaeda operative who put them in touch with two al Qaeda leaders . Those leaders asked the three from Queens to participate in attacks against the United States . Zazi refused . He wanted to fight the U.S. military in the fields and mountains of his homeland , not to kill American civilians in the streets of his adopted country . So , according to American prosecutors , al Qaeda 's leaders brought in someone more persuasive -- someone who could speak to Zazi in his own language , someone who had also grown up on the streets of New York City in the 1990s , a man who had had a meteoric rise in the ranks of al Qaeda over the past decade from camp dishwasher to the leader of the group 's operations in the West . His name was Adnan Shukrijumah . Eventually Shukrijumah would be added to the FBI 's `` Most Wanted Terrorists '' list and a $ 5 million reward would be put on his head . And on Saturday , Shukrijumah was killed in Pakistan by the Pakistani military . Shukrijumah was born in Saudi Arabia in 1975 , but his family moved to Trinidad in the '80s and then to Brooklyn in the early '90s . In 1995 , Shukrijumah 's family left New York for the Fort Lauderdale area in Florida , where he did odd jobs like selling used cars , earning money that he used to pay for his studies in chemistry and computer science at Broward Community College . Some Muslim men in Florida gave Shukrijumah books and videos about the holy wars in Kashmir and Afghanistan , and he was so moved by these stories of holy war that in late 1999 he traveled to Afghanistan to attend an al Qaeda training camp . Around this time , Shukrijumah told his mother that he was opposed to what he considered the excesses of the West , such as alcohol and drug abuse as well as the skimpy clothes that women wore in Florida . In May 2001 , he left Florida again , and by June he was back in Afghanistan . Shortly after the 9/11 attacks , Shukrijumah called his mother in Florida , saying , `` Did you hear what happened ? They are putting it on the Muslims . '' His mother advised him not to come back to the States , and she said in 2010 he did not contact her again . It was Shukrijumah who , in late 2008 , made the pitch to Zazi and his buddies from Queens -- Zarein Ahmedzay , another Afghan-American , and Adis Medujanin , a cab driver of Bosnian descent -- that they could help the cause of holy war best if , instead of fighting alongside the Taliban 's tens of thousands of fighters , they went back to the States after their training by al Qaeda 's bomb-makers and launched attacks there . At the time that Shukrijumah was making his pitch to the trio from Queens , the CIA drone war in the tribal regions of Pakistan was heating up . It was the last six months of President George W. Bush 's second term , and the Bush administration had significantly amped up the drone program . Angered by the CIA drone program , Zazi agreed to return to the States to launch an attack . He also volunteered to be a suicide bomber , as did his two friends . They discussed with Shukrijumah potential targets such as the New York Stock Exchange and Times Square , as well as a Walmart store . Zazi returned to New York in mid-January 2009 . He had been living on the Afghan-Pakistan border for five months , during which time he had been in almost continuous contact with members of al Qaeda . He was now ready to launch what al Qaeda 's leadership hoped would be the most lethal terrorist attack in the States since 9/11 . Luckily , Zazi 's plan to blow up bombs in the Manhattan subway around the time of the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks was detected by U.S. intelligence agencies that were monitoring the email account of a known al Qaeda operative in Pakistan who was in touch with Zazi . Zazi and his two friends were arrested before they could carry out the plot . It was Shukrijumah who oversaw this plot . After all , who better to oversee al Qaeda plots to attack the States than someone who had grown up in Brooklyn and Florida ? A Pakistani army spokesman said on Twitter on Saturday that Shukrijumah was killed in South Waziristan along Pakistan 's border with Afghanistan . The fact that Shukrijumah is now dead makes the United States a little bit safer from al Qaeda 's plotting . And the fact that Shukrijumah was killed in a Pakistani military operation is a sign that Pakistan continues to expand its operations against militants based on its border with Afghanistan in a meaningful way , which has long been a demand of the United States . Finally , Shukrijumah 's death is indicative of how al Qaeda 's core organization that launched the 9/11 attacks continues to dwindle in size and capacity , because almost all of its leaders are now dead or captured . The elimination of almost all of al Qaeda 's leaders in Pakistan suggests that the once-global organization may become just another Pakistani-based jihadi group with limited or no ability to operate outside of South Asia .
Pakistan kills an American al Qaeda commander who was on FBI `` Most Wanted '' list . Peter Bergen says the death of Adnan G. El Shukrijumah makes U.S. safer . Score: 6 He says al Qaeda continues to dwindle as a threat due to elimination of most of its leaders .