Searching for 'Dirty Bombs'

For at least the second time since terrorists attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, elite U.S. counterterrorist units have been put on a heightened state of alert in response to intelligence worries that the al-Qaeda network has obtained one or more weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), including biological and/or nuclear materials.

Published reports, along with new information obtained by Insight from U.S. intelligence and military sources, point to a growing body of evidence that terrorists associated with and/or sympathetic to Osama bin Laden are planning a significant attack on U.S. soil. Also targeted are allied countries that have joined the worldwide hunt for the radical Muslim cells hell-bent on unleashing new waves of terrorist strikes.

The U.S. government's activation of antiterrorist forces comes as the FBI issued a warning Nov. 14 that a "spectacular" new terrorist attack may be forthcoming -- sooner rather than later. This alert, among others about which Insight has learned, coincides with the conclusion by top U.S. intelligence officials that bin Laden is alive and in control of a revitalized al-Qaeda network with new cells operational in the United States. Both the CIA and the National Security Agency (NSA) conducted tests of a newly surfaced audiotape featuring the international terrorist leader and concluded it is genuine. In the tape, bin Laden promised new attacks.

Concerns about possible terrorist strikes are centered not only on the United States but also on Canada. Canadian officials are worried that there might be a hotbed of terrorist cells planning attacks, as evidenced by Canadian Solicitor General Lawrence MacAulay's Sept. 3 hand-delivered directive to Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Director Ward Elcock telling him to put the prevention of terrorists from getting their hands on a "dirty bomb" or other nuclear weapon among the highest priorities of Canada's spy service.

The CSIS increasingly has been concerned about extremist Islamic groups operating in Canada that have had dealings with known al-Qaeda operatives, including some of the 9/11 hijackers. They are mindful that terrorists have entered the United States from Canada with plans to carry out bombings.

Elsewhere, the Australian government issued an unprecedented warning to its citizens that al-Qaeda terrorists there might launch attacks within the next two months. Prime Minister John Howard made the extraordinary declaration recently that he is prepared to make pre-emptive military strikes against terrorists in neighboring Asian countries planning to attack Australia. Australian intelligence agencies also are very worried about the likelihood of an al-Qaeda attack using nuclear weapons.

The FBI's latest warnings are unusually dire. They state that bin Laden's terrorist organization may be planning an unprecedented attack to cause "mass casualties, severe damage to the U.S. economy and maximum psychological trauma" on a scale far greater than the attacks on the World Trade Center's twin towers and the Pentagon.

Senior U.S. intelligence analysts who spoke to Insight say they fear such an attack would involve a nuclear device. They say a nuclear dirty bomb is the ideal weapon to accomplish the magnitude of carnage and mayhem of which the FBI has warned. They point to intelligence that indicates a nuclear weapon of some sort already may be in the hands of al-Qaeda, which has or is attempting to deliver the device or devices to terrorists operating here.

"To me, 'spectacular' indicates a very serious attack against a very serious target near-term," said former FBI counterterrorism analyst Matthew Levitt. CIA Director George Tenet warned in October that "you must make the assumption that al-Qaeda is in an execution phase and intends to strike us [again]." Tenet and other senior U.S. national-security officials have stated publicly that al-Qaeda is likely to launch another spectacular attack against the United States.

Senior U.S. military and intelligence sources began telling Insight more than a month ago that they had "warnings and indications" of a major new attack, possibly involving a nuclear weapon. Intelligence sources tell Insight that the details were of sufficient concern to activate a special antiterrorist unit -- the Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST), a 30-year-old federal organization whose mission it is to find and disarm nuclear weapons [see "Your Life May Depend on the Woman From NEST," Oct. 23, 1995]. NEST was activated shortly after 9/11 in response to a similar state of high alert that also was based on intelligence indicating al-Qaeda had plans to detonate a nuclear device in Washington or New York City.

The earlier "plot" is believed to have been thwarted by the massive roundup of suspected terrorists in the weeks after 9/11, according to top-secret briefings given to senior members of Congress late this summer, Insight is told by Capitol Hill staffers and intelligence officials familiar with the briefings.

That a nuclear-bomb plot may have been thwarted was made disturbingly clear, the sources say, by the disclosure that physical evidence indicated some detained al-Qaeda members actually had handled radioactive materials, including at least two who exhibited symptoms of radiation sickness. One of the sources said this "only intensified our concerns about al-Qaeda networks we continue to monitor. ... They exhibited symptoms of exposure to various radioactive substances" consistent with building a dirty bomb.

One intelligence source involved in tracking al-Qaeda in the United States told Insight in late September following the secret congressional briefings that, as a result of the post-9/11 roundups of al-Qaeda operatives, "there [was a fear that there] may actually [have been] one or more of these [dirty] bombs or the components to build them laying around in some public storage facility or some other place that these cells we busted up were using, and that's really scary." Today, these sources say intelligence indicates the materials may be in the hands of newly formed al-Qaeda cells under the direct control of bin Laden, a possibility that in part led to the FBI's particularly gloomy Nov. 14 alert.

The sources said fresh intelligence collected on al-Qaeda's nuclear ambitions strongly indicates that a new scheme to attack the United States with some sort of nuclear device has been resurrected with the re-emergence of bin Laden and the reconstitution of unidentified al-Qaeda cells in the United States. These sources are gravely concerned.

The seriousness of the continuing al-Qaeda threat in the United States was reinforced vividly in September when authorities broke up what intelligence officials say was an important al-Qaeda terrorist cell in Buffalo, N.Y., that had been under federal surveillance since before the 9/11 attacks. Members of the alleged Buffalo cell are charged with aiding and abetting terrorists by having attended al-Qaeda's Al-Farooq terrorist training camp near Kandahar, Afghanistan -- a location not only where information was found detailing the construction of nuclear weaponry, but also enough low-grade uranium-238 to make a dirty bomb.

As the alleged Buffalo cell was being dismantled, U.S. counterterrorist intelligence operations were uncovering evidence of still other "sleeper" terrorist cells across the country -- cells Bush administration officials acknowledge they have yet to identify. In addition, and perhaps more alarmingly, senior intelligence officials now say a long-standing terrorist cell in addition to the one assigned to carry out the 9/11 attacks is known to have been operational and that many of its members have not been identified. In recent weeks, according to CIA sources, a handful of foreign students attending universities across the country have been linked definitively to al-Qaeda's hierarchy and are believed to be involved in plans for future attacks. The sources said secret detentions of the students are expected as soon as surveillance operations of the young men are deemed to have exhausted all useful intelligence.

"All I can say is that these and other al-Qaeda operatives we're monitoring may be part of the sorts of spectacular attacks" mentioned in the FBI's Nov. 14 alert, one of the CIA sources tells Insight. Those under scrutiny include a former Soviet KGB officer working at the United Nations who is believed to have worked on brokering deals for nuclear-weapons materials overseas.

It's no secret that for many years bin Laden has sought nuclear weapons to use against the United States and its allies. Western intelligence agencies secretly have tracked efforts by his far-flung terrorist network to acquire both the materials to build an A-bomb as well as fully constructed nuclear warheads. As this report was being completed, the son of a Pakistani nuclear scientist told authorities that bin Laden approached his father months before the Sept. 11 attacks about making nuclear bombs. The scientist's son reportedly said his father met bin Laden several times in Afghanistan. Months earlier, a number of Pakistani nuclear scientists were identified as having had discussions with bin Laden and his top bomb-making scientists about how to make nuclear weapons.

A former high-ranking Taliban official recently said uranium was smuggled from the Ukraine into Afghanistan where it was bought by the Taliban and given to bin Laden. Both Iraq and bin Laden are known to have tried to obtain nuclear-weapons technologies from the Ukraine, a country riddled with corruption and lax security over its nuclear stockpile. In September, Pyotr Simonenko, the leader of the Ukrainian Communist Party, released information showing that 200 of the 2,400 nuclear warheads in the Ukraine at the time of the Soviet Union's dissolution are unaccounted for. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma is under investigation for military deals with Iraq in violation of U.N. sanctions [see "U.S. Wary of Kuchmagate," Nov. 26-Dec. 9].

A cache of weapons-grade uranium -- enough for a handful of small nuclear bombs -- remains stored at the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology, an obscure Soviet-era defense lab where security has been of great concern to the United States. Iraqi officials openly have pursued trade deals with local companies and have visited Kharkiv's old Soviet weapons factories and research centers, including the Kharkiv Institute. Iraq maintains an "honorary consul" in Kharkiv who is a Ukrainian exporter with an office not far from the institute.

Connections between Iraq, bin Laden and al-Qaeda have provoked intense worry on the part of U.S. officials, who already strongly suspect Saddam Hussein assisted bin Laden's quest for nuclear weapons. Classified intelligence behind the FBI's alert indicates nuclear devices or materials have been obtained from Iraq that intelligence has linked to high-level al-Qaeda leadership. Much of this intelligence derives from a special Pentagon task force created by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld following the 9/11 attacks. Rumsfeld ordered a team of defense officials outside regular intelligence channels to focus on unearthing details about Iraq's ties to al-Qaeda and other terrorist networks by meticulously analyzing existing and real-time intelligence on terrorists and Iraq.

The product of this extraordinary undertaking is said to have disclosed heretofore unknown ties between bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization and Iraq. Pentagon officials recently confirmed that a number of senior al-Qaeda leaders have taken refuge in Iraq, a fact the officials do not find surprising. Classified intelligence from as far back as 1988 which was made available to Insight shows that Iraq has harbored notorious terrorists, such as Abu Nidal, and provided them with cash, protection and training facilities.

The issue of Iraqi ties to al-Qaeda was the subject of briefings given to select lawmakers in September that focused almost exclusively on Saddam's nuclear-weapons capabilities and his suspected transference of these capabilities to al-Qaeda. Sources say intelligence indicates that al-Qaeda terrorists who lived and worked in the United States, including at least one of the 9/11 hijackers, were linked to bin Laden's nuclear-weapons-acquisition efforts.

Congressional sources familiar with the briefings described this intelligence as "terribly disturbing." Their comments were echoed by senior intelligence officials, several of whom have worked to track suspected al-Qaeda operatives. That al-Qaeda cells have been linked to 9/11 hijackers suspected of being involved with efforts by the group to develop nuclear weapons is "unnerving," one of the sources emphasized.

This summer, Vice President Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld and Tenet outlined to senior congressmen the scope of NSA-collected "signals intelligence" (SIGINT) from satellites of contacts between Baghdad and al-Qaeda before and after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Intelligence sources say the SIGINT "definitely" involved discussions of nuclear weapons of interest to al-Qaeda.

Intelligence agencies since openly have confirmed contacts between Iraq and al-Qaeda's leaders. Rumsfeld said intelligence on "these contacts has been increasing since 1998" and has expanded to include "credible evidence" that al-Qaeda leaders sought contacts in Iraq for assistance in acquiring WMDs.

Counterterrorist authorities say classified intelligence leaves "little doubt" Saddam has "a nuclear-weapons capability" that includes not only stockpiles of enriched uranium necessary for building a nuclear weapon and low-grade nuclear material for building crude dirty bombs, but also a strong likelihood that Iraq possesses an unknown number of Soviet-era "man-portable" nuclear bombs, some of which reportedly were offered to bin Laden. Iraq has denied it has or has sought WMDs and has claimed that it is in full compliance with various U.N. prohibitions on such matters.

Intelligence sources say the White House has evidence -- of which the United Nations long has been aware, according to former U.N. Iraqi nuclear-weapons inspector David Kay -- that Iraq successfully built and tested a variety of dirty bombs and that the technological know-how and materials to construct them may have been made available to al-Qaeda. U.S. intelligence long ago concluded that it was possible for Iraq to build a radiological dispersal device (RDD). Top-secret Iraqi nuclear-weapons documents later obtained by U.N. weapons inspectors prove Iraq successfully tested several types of the bombs using non-weapons-grade nuclear materials -- materials that would be significantly easier for al-Qaeda to obtain, transport and use than actual bomb-grade radioactive materials.

Additionally, although U.N. weapons inspectors destroyed much of Iraq's nuclear bomb-making infrastructure between 1991 and 1998, its bomb designs and nuclear-weapon components still are missing. "Iraq has never surrendered to inspectors its two completed designs for a nuclear bomb, nuclear-bomb components such as explosive lenses and neutron initiators that it is known to have possessed, or almost any documentation of its efforts to enrich uranium to bomb-grade using gas centrifuges, devices which are small and readily concealed from reconnaissance," says Steve Dolley of the Washington-based Nuclear Control Institute.

What's more frightening, top U.S. intelligence officials tell Insight, is Saddam's possible possession of portable tactical nuclear bombs. A former well-placed intelligence source privy to the details of Iraq's suspected acquisition of these bombs says, "In intelligence parlance, the likelihood that Iraq has these bombs [and that it may have provided some to al-Qaeda] is 'B-percent,'"-- a highly classified intelligence term that means the "highest degree of probability." The portable nukes that intelligence officials strongly suspect Saddam got his hands on were built by the former Soviet KGB and are believed to be in the one-kiloton range, which is enough destructive power to level a major inner-city area.

Laura Holgate, who was chief of a Pentagon program to secure Soviet nuclear stockpiles during the Clinton administration, recently said she believes a stolen tactical nuke is as great a risk as a dirty bomb.

Intelligence sources tell Insight that at least several dozen of the weapons were never recovered following the U.S.S.R.'s collapse. "That's a fact," a former high-ranking intelligence official with one of the United States' pre-eminent spy agencies says emphatically. The source says that in the early 1990s Iraq was provided with two of these portable nuclear bombs from ex-KGB officials and that these were detonated covertly to test their effectiveness as part of a deal under which Saddam was considering the purchase of an unknown number of the bombs. Counterterrorist sources familiar with the matter exclusively tell Insight the evidence is in the form of both electronic-communications intercepts and spy-satellite imagery collected at the time of the tests, which CIA counterterrorists confirm.

The intelligence parallels information provided to this reporter in 1993 by a top Russian official and U.S. intelligence official during a background conversation with the two in Washington. The Russian official said at the time that both his government and the United States were gravely concerned about two portable tactical nuclear bombs in the KGB's possession that could not be accounted for and which were believed to have been diverted to a rogue Arab state or terrorist organization. The U.S. intelligence official, who now directs an important department of the U.S. intelligence community, concurred with the Russian official, saying the intelligence agency he headed at the time was "fully aware" of the two missing nukes.

Whether the missing nukes first were diverted to Iraq and then made their way into the hands of terrorists is unclear. What is clear is that U.S. officials increasingly are concerned that al-Qaeda has made significant inroads into acquiring nuclear weapons, perhaps with help from Iraq.

If this were written by anyone other than Bill Gertz or someone from Insight (Paul Rodiguez, Kenneth R. Timmerman), I wouldn't give it a second notice. Although I'm not familiar with this writer, this is Insight.

The earlier "plot" is believed to have been thwarted by the massive roundup of suspected terrorists in the weeks after 9/11, according to top-secret briefings given to senior members of Congress late this summer, Insight is told by Capitol Hill staffers and intelligence officials familiar with the briefings.
That a nuclear-bomb plot may have been thwarted was made disturbingly clear, the sources say, by the disclosure that physical evidence indicated some detained al-Qaeda members actually had handled radioactive materials, including at least two who exhibited symptoms of radiation sickness. One of the sources said this "only intensified our concerns about al-Qaeda networks we continue to monitor. ... They exhibited symptoms of exposure to various radioactive substances" consistent with building a dirty bomb.

I had totally discounted the tinfoil rumors about Muhammad Rafiq Butt dying in a jail cell from radiation poisoning. Maybe it needs another look.

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.

Business Recorder
October 27, 2001

PAK AMBASSADOR TO US WANTS DEATH OF PAKISTANI IN US CUSTODY FULLY PROBED

WASHINGTON : Ambassador of Pakistan Dr Maleeha Lodhi has asked the State and Justice Departments to fully investigate the death in custody this week of the 55-year old Pakistani Muhammad Rafiq Butt. Rafiq was among those detained by the FBI and the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) alter 11 September. He was picked up by the FBI around 16 September. As nothing came up against him, in the investigation, he was handed over to the INS on the charge that he had overstayed in the United States.

Rafiq's family says that he had a five-year multiple entry visa and had just overstayed the stipulated six months' period allowed at each entry. He was now awaiting deportation following an immigrant judge's ruling.

Ambassador Lodhi, who has been in contact with the US authorities since she learnt of the tragedy, also spoke to Butt's family on Wednesday and assured it of full assistance from the embassy in determining the cause of Rafiq Butt's death.

Official US sources have ascribed the death to natural causes.

Butt, died on Tuesday in the Hudson County Jail in Kearney, New Jersey.

Based on the preliminary autopsy report, the jail and INS authorities have stated that Butt died of heart failure. He was reportedly suffering from gingivitis, a gum disease. A final autopsy report is expected in four to five weeks.

Maleeha Lodhi conveyed her deep sense of anguish to Bilal Mirza, nephew of the deceased, assuring him of 'all help'. She also enquired about Butt's extended family, which lives in Jhelum and Gujrat. Butt was charged with violation of immigration rules.

INS officials claim that Butt had waived his right to notify the Pakistan's Consulate of his detention and have also provided copy of a proforma purportedly signed by the deceased waiving this right.

Bilal Mirza says he is not aware of such a waiver. In case of a notification, Butt would have received consular access and been visited by a consular official during his detention.

The conventions governing diplomatic relations require states to notify relevant embassies when their nationals are detained on any charge. The Pakistani ambassador and her staff have also spoken with the administrator of the Hudson county jail, as well as INS investigating officers Chris Cehanahan and Robin Perez to obtain details of the case at first hand.

The officials claim that the deceased's body carried no mark of injury or violence. The family has said that Butt did not have a history of heart trouble.

The ambassador has asked the US authorities for full details of the circumstances in which Butt died. She has also instructed the Pakistan Consulate in New York to help with arrangements for the transportation of the body to his hometown in Pakistan.

The embassy is also pursuing the cases of other Pakistanis who have been taken into custody by US authorities in the wake of the events of 11 September. So far, it has been informed of 12 such cases, out of which eight have been traced in INS custody, while the FBI holds one. Efforts to locate the remaining three are under way.

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.

Bloomberg News
November 5, 2001
PAKISTANI MAN PICKED UP AFTER ATTACKS DIED IN CELL, NYT SAYS
Art Daniels

A Pakistani man, scooped up in the wide net of arrests in the U.S. after the Sept. 11 attacks, died Oct. 23 in his cell in New Jersey as he awaited deportation, the New York Times said.

Muhammad Rafiq Butt, a native of Pakistan, had been arrested for being in the country illegally, one of hundreds who had been picked up, the paper said. A preliminary autopsy revealed that the 55-year-old had died of a heart attack, and a one-day investigation by the local prosecutor concluded found no foul play, the paper added.

The body was washed and embalmed according to Muslim custom, placed in a sealed steel coffin, and shipped in the cargo hold of Pakistan International Airways Flight 712, from Kennedy Airport to Lahore, Pakistan, the Times said.

His death obliged the Immigration and Naturalization Service to talk about him publicly and explain the circumstances behind his arrest, detention and death, the paper said.

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.

The New York Times
November 28, 2001
Section B; Page 7
A NATION CHALLENGED: THE ATTORNEY GENERAL;
Ashcroft's About-Face on the Detainees
By TODD S. PURDUM

WASHINGTON, Nov. 27
In bold and unilateral strokes, the Bush administration has in recent weeks reshaped the American legal system to fight terrorism in ways unthinkable before Sept. 11, from monitoring the conversations of suspected terrorists and their lawyers to creating special military tribunals to prosecute terrorists without the usual Anglo-Saxon niceties.

(snip)
"It's because the hearing is tomorrow morning," said Morton Halperin, a longtime advocate of civil liberties and a former national security official. "It's not a mystery. They're just trying to cut down their exposure here. There is no privacy right to the fact that you've been arrested. Every jail in the country has a public sheet where you can see who's been arrested for what, so we know what the government's doing."

For much of the last 77 days, that has not been the case for those picked up and questioned after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. This month, after the total had topped 1,100, the Justice Department even stopped updating the tally of those detained. Indeed, the name of one illegal immigrant from Pakistan, Muhammad Rafiq Butt, became public only after he had the bad luck to die of a heart attack in the Hudson County jail in New Jersey.

At first, Congress seemed almost stunned by the succession of executive pronouncements, especially the president's order that approved the use of tribunals to try suspected terrorists and Mr. Ashcroft's plan to question thousands of male Arab immigrants. But it was inevitable that some lawmakers would protest as they absorbed huge changes to legal procedures made so swiftly and summarily.
(snip)

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.

THE KOREA HERALD
December 7, 2001

Immigrant terrorists in the U.S.?
By Domenico Maceri
(snip)
Those who will suffer the most from this new legislation are the most vulnerable among us, especially undocumented workers. Of the 1,147 people detained in the anti-terrorism investigation, at least 185 are being held only on immigration violations. Sometimes the consequences are tragic. Muhammad Rafiq Butt, a 55-year-old undocumented worker from Pakistan, died in a New Jersey jail of heart failure. As in other similar cases, authorities refuse to provide details on these detainees, citing national security. Unfortunately, because many of these people don't speak English and have no access to attorneys, they can be held for long periods of time without being charged of a crime. Families often have no idea that they are being detained. In a way these innocent undocumented workers are also victims of terrorists. The climate of insecurity pushes us to do things, which, even if legal, are clearly inhumane.
(snip)

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.