Bin Laden reportedly sought nuclear expert's help
Posted on 12/30/2002 2:34:34 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Bin Laden reportedly sought nuclear expert's help
Pakistani said to have rebuffed al-Qaeda's appeal to build bomb
12/30/2002
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A leading Pakistani nuclear scientist, barred by his government from talking to reporters, has made it known through his son that Osama bin Laden approached him before the Sept. 11 attacks for help in making nuclear weapons.
The al-Qaeda leader was rebuffed, the son, Azim Mahmood, said in an interview with The Associated Press.
"Basically Osama asked my father, 'How can a nuclear bomb be made and can you help us make one?' " he said. "My father said, 'No, and secondly you must understand it is not child's play for you to build a nuclear bomb.' "
The scientist, Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, is under a gag order from Pakistani intelligence officials, but his conversations with Mr. bin Laden in meetings in 2000 and as late as July 2001 were reconstructed by his son, a physician in his 30s.
The U.S. Embassy declined to discuss Mr. Mahmood's story. American officials in Washington also would not comment.
There has been previous evidence of al-Qaeda's interest in nuclear weapons.
U.S. officials have said that captured al-Qaeda lieutenant Abu Zubaydah told American interrogators the terrorist network was working on a "dirty bomb," a conventional bomb that would scatter radioactive material.
Authorities also have said that Jose Padilla, the former Chicago gang member charged with plotting with al-Qaeda, attended two meetings in Karachi, Pakistan, at which senior al-Qaeda operatives discussed the possible use of a dirty bomb.
The elder Mr. Mahmood, who has been questioned by the FBI and is under close Pakistani surveillance, is a deeply conservative Muslim who espouses the same puritanical brand of Islam as Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers.
Enraged over Pakistan's plans in 1998 to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, he resigned from the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and devoted his time to his charity, the Holy Quran Research Foundation.
Last December, President Bush labeled the charity a terrorist group and Mr. Mahmood a terrorist. His assets and those of his charity were frozen.
The father was detained in November 2001, questioned and freed in February, but he has to carry a mobile phone at all times so Pakistani intelligence can track his movements, the son said.
The elder Mr. Mahmood first met Mr. bin Laden in 2000 while visiting Afghanistan to build a school, the son said. He wanted to help the Taliban, because he was angry at the international criticism of the regime's brand of Islam, the son recalled.
"My father shared the Taliban thinking. He liked their system of government. He wanted to help them."
When Mr. bin Laden learned a nuclear scientist was in Kabul, he sent an al-Qaeda operative, Abu Bilal, to the Pakistani's hotel to arrange a meeting, the son said.
"My father went to meet him and he said, 'Why don't you come and help us build these things?' " Azim Mahmood said, adding that the two men met several times and the discussion invariably returned to nuclear weapons.
The al-Qaeda leader wanted a nuclear device, Azim Mahmood said. "Al-Qaeda also wanted a person who could train their people and who could get them enriched material for their weapons."
Experts say, however, that making a nuclear bomb requires a cadre of highly trained, experienced scientists and technicians.
Azim Mahmood said his father was uncertain what nuclear material, if any, al-Qaeda possessed.
"At one meeting they brought a box, a thing that someone had sold to them for a huge amount of money, but my father laughed and said it was nothing," he said.
The elder Mr. Mahmood, who has been questioned by the FBI and is under close Pakistani surveillance, is a deeply conservative Muslim who espouses the same puritanical brand of Islam as Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers.< snip >
The elder Mr. Mahmood first met Mr. bin Laden in 2000 while visiting Afghanistan to build a school, the son said. He wanted to help the Taliban, because he was angry at the international criticism of the regime's brand of Islam, the son recalled.
"My father shared the Taliban thinking. He liked their system of government. He wanted to help them."
So somebody that wants to help terrorists, namely Al-Qaeda and the Taliban and Osama bin Laden, is a "Conservative" according to the A/P? Then I suppose that Patty Murray (D-Wa) is a Conservative as well?
Sure, just as the hardline communists in the USSR trying to reimpose the collective after the fall were "conservatives".
According to the Lamestream press, anybody 1/2 inch to the right of Lenin is a "conservative".
Ah! So he believed in limited government? No.... He believed in personal freedom? No.... He believed in freedom of religious expression? No.... He believed in ISLAMIC FACIST EXTREMISM, which is to say a highly controlling government. That is more left wing than right wing, such as the socialist nazies.
Warm welcome for 'Sharia swimsuit'
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