US Says It Halted Al-Qaeda Radioactive Bomb Plot

NUKEWARS

forget the suitcase the immediate danger is already on the roads - AFP File photo.

Hunt launched for sources of radiation in Georgia
Tbilisi (AFP) June 10, 2002 - An international team of experts and trackers launched a massive hunt Monday for potentially hazardous sources of radiation abandoned in a remote area of Georgia, Georgian officials said.

The United Nations's nuclear watchdog body, which assembled the 80-strong team, warned that the situation in Georgia could be just the tip of an iceberg.

"It may just be an indication of the serious safety and security implications (radiation) sources may have elsewhere in the world," said Abel Gonzalez of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The team will spend two weeks searching a 550 square kilometer (215 square mile) area of western Georgia, where two Strontium 90-fueled generators are believed to remain active.

The Tsalendzhikh region "is an ecologically unfavorable zone with high radiation," where many Soviet-made generators were left lying about unattended, Georgia's ecology ministry spokesman said.

In February experts recovered two such devices after local woodsmen suffered severe burns and radiation sickness when they found them in the forest. Two victims are still being treated in France and Russia.

The IAEA said six of the devices have so far been recovered. "It is believed that there are two more at large in the designated area to be surveyed," an IAEA statement said.

Experts will travel on horseback, on foot and by car to search extremely remote areas of the ex-Soviet republic. Most will be from Georgia, but they will also include experts from France, India, Turkey and the United States.

The sources, some of which were found on abandoned Soviet military bases, were used as thermo-electric generators for communications stations in remote areas, according to the IAEA.

The IAEA-led search is the first operational phase of an IAEA plan to survey selected parts of Georgia, where more than 280 pieces of radioactive material have been recovered since the mid-1990s.

Experts will use sensitive radiation detectors to locate so-called "orphan" radiation sources.

"The IAEA's work in Georgia is part of a comprehensive plan that includes agency assistance to states to help them regain control of such orphan sources," said Gonzalez, IAEA director of radiation and waste safety.

The second phase of the search, after the current two-week operation, is scheduled for early September, the statement from the Vienna-based IAEA said.

Washington (AFP) June 10, 2002
Investigators thwarted a plot to detonate a radiation-laced dirty bomb in the United States by arresting a US "terrorist" linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Monday.

"I am pleased to announce today a significant step forward in the war on terrorism," said Ashcroft in a television address live from Moscow.

"We have captured a known terrorist who was exploring a plan to build and explode a radiological dispersion device, or 'dirty bomb' in the United States."

Ashcroft said Abdullah al-Muhajir, 31, a US citizen born in New York as Jose Padilla, who was allegedly plotting the attack, was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare international airport on May 8, after flying in from Pakistan.

"We know from multiple, independent and corroborating sources that Abdullah al-Muhajir was closely associated with al-Qaeda and that as an al-Qaeda operative he was involved in planning future terrorist attacks on innocent American civilians in the United States."

A radioactive or dirty bomb is a conventional explosive device containing radioactive material toxic to humans, that can be fatal to people in the vicinity of the blast. It is also seen as an effective weapon for disseminating panic.

Top law enforcement and military officials said they foiled the plan before a target was selected.

"It was still in the initial planning stages, it certainly wasn't at the point of having specific targets," said Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who appeared at a press conference with Federal Bureau of Investigation chief Robert Mueller.

Al-Muhajir did however have some knowledge of the Washington area, Wolfowitz said, adding that he had researched nuclear weapons and received training in wiring explosives while in Pakistan.

"He was instructed to return to the United States to conduct reconnaissance operations for al-Qaeda."

President George W. Bush said al-Muhajir was a "threat to the country," during a joint press availability with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

"Thanks to the vigilance of our intelligence-gathering and law enforcement he is now off the streets, where he should be."

FBI officers handed Al-Muhajir into the custody of the Defense Department in South Carolina, after designating him an "enemy combatant."

That categorisation permits officials more latitude in questioning al-Mujahir.

Ashcroft said al-Muhajir made several visits to Afghanistan and Pakistan from 2001 and met senior officials from bin Laden's al-Qaeda network -- chief suspect in the September 11 terror attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

"Al Qaeda officials knew that as a US citizen holding a valid US passport, al-Muhajir would be able to travel freely in the United States without drawing attention to himself," said Ashcroft.

Al-Muhajir was intercepted by federal agents working on information provided from captured al-Qaeda leader Abu Zabaydah, US television networks quoted sources as saying.

Al-Muhajir joins two other Americans and hundreds of foreigners detained by the Pentagon in a legal no-man's land under designation as an "enemy combatant" -- a categorisation that permits officials more latitude in questioning al-Mujahir.

"Enemy combatants do not adhere to the laws of war, do not wear uniform, do not wear legitimate insignias, do not carry weapons openly and are not from recognized nations, governments," said Rivers Johnson, a Pentagon spokesman.

That term, or "illegal combatant," has been used by US authorities to describe prisoners held at a US Navy base in Guantanamo, Cuba, where 409 fighters from the US-led war on Afghanistan are being held.

And the announcement of his arrest comes at a time of increasing criticism of the FBI and Central Intelligence Agency, for perceived lapses which prevented them halting the September 11 terror attacks.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Al-Muhajir's arrest was a sign of good synergy between different law enforcement agencies.

"This is a case of a government whose actions worked and worked well," he said.

Al-Muhajir had several run-ins with US authorities in his younger days.

In Florida in the early 1990s, he was placed on a year's probation for aggravated assault and firing a weapon, according to the Florida Department of Corrections, but "satisfactorily" completed his probation in August 1993.

It was in Florida where he reportedly converted to Islam sometime in the mid 1990s. He apparently dropped out of view after leaving the country in 1998.

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TERRORWARS

Seismic Stations Record Useful Information on Terrorist Bombings

Tucson - Jun 03, 2002
The growing world network of seismic stations is increasingly useful for monitoring more than earthquakes, say university geoscientists who are developing a new specialty called "forensic seismology."

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