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Dirty bomb: No specific targets
10/06/2002 19:44 - (SA)
Washington - US officials said on Monday they had thwarted an al-Qaeda plan to
detonate a "dirty" radioactive bomb in the United States.
"It was still in the initial planning stages, it certainly
wasn't at the point of having specific targets," said Deputy
Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.
Attorney General John
Ashcroft earlier announced the arrest in Chicago on May 8 of Abdullah Al
Mujahir, a US citizen who was allegedly planning the attack.
Although no target had been selected, the man had indicated some
knowledge of the Washington DC area, Wolfowitz said.
"There was not an actual plan ... we stopped this man in the
initial planning stages," he added.
Wolfowitz said Abdullah 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."
Abdullah, born Jose Padilla, had been handed by Federal Bureau
of Investigation officers to the custody of the Defence Department
in South Carolina, after being designated an "enemy
combatant." - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA
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