Agents nabbed suspect in bomb plot

June 11, 2002

BY LYNN SWEET SUN-TIMES WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF

WASHINGTON--Jose Padilla, a former Chicago gang member, is being held in custody as an "enemy combatant,'' a suspected al-Qaida operative accused of plotting to attack the United States with a radioactive bomb, authorities said Monday.

Padilla--also known as Abdullah al Muhajir--was arrested May8 at O'Hare Airport after arriving in Chicago from a trip originating in Pakistan, returning to the United States to scout possible targets for terrorist attacks, officials said.

Undersecretary of State John Bolton indicated Padilla was carrying plans for the attack when he was picked up.

"In apprehending al Muhajir as he sought entry into the United States, we have disrupted an unfolding terrorist plot to attack the United States by exploding a radioactive 'dirty bomb,''' said Attorney General John Ashcroft, traveling in Moscow.

A U.S. official, speaking to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said the apparent target of the bomb plot was Washington.

Padilla, 31, was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., to Puerto Rican parents and moved to a Logan Square two-flat in Chicago when he was about 4.

After spending much of his youth in detention centers, he moved from Illinois to Florida when he was 18, holding busboy-type jobs in restaurants. He wound up in a Florida jail and converted to Islam.

After leaving prison in the early 1990s, Padilla--by now calling himself al Muhajir--traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he met with senior al-Qaida officials on several occasions in 2001, Ashcroft said. Officials did not provide details on how Padilla hooked up with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida.

Padilla is not accused of having any direct link to the Sept. 11 attacks.

He was a valued operative because his U.S. citizenship allowed him to travel freely and he never changed Padilla to his adopted Arab name on his passport. While in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ashcroft said, Padilla "trained with the enemy, including studying how to wire explosive devices and researching radiological dispersion devices.

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

Padilla came to the attention of U.S. authorities, a source said, with a tip from Abu Zubaydah, a reputed top al-Qaida official arrested in March in Afghanistan.

A government source told the Associated Press that Padilla and at least two others who may have been involved in the alleged plot were detained in Pakistan on immigration violations before May 8. But Padilla was allowed to board his international flight and tricked into believing he had escaped--with U.S. agents sitting on the plane quietly watching his every move.

After his Swiss airline plane landed at O'Hare, Padilla was met by U.S. customs inspectors. They escorted him through immigration, walked him to retrieve his bags, then questioned him and opened the luggage, a customs spokeswoman said.

Authorities discovered he was carrying $10,526, at least some of which was undeclared. He was arrested as a material witness. He put up no resistance and was traveling alone, a source said.

Padilla has been held without charges since he was apprehended. Justice Department officials Sunday transferred control of Padilla to the Defense Department. He is being held at the Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, S.C. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said, "Under the laws of war, Padilla's activities and his association with al-Qaida make him an enemy combatant.''

The revelation about Padilla's apprehension and detention comes as the FBI and the CIA have come under massive criticism for missing clues that may have prevented the Sept. 11 attacks. Last week, President Bush announced a major reorganization of federal agencies in order to bolster homeland security, and is asking Congress to elevate the new agency to Cabinet rank.

FBI Director Robert Mueller and later White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer went to great lengths to praise the cooperative work on the case.

Padilla's detention "was a result of the close cooperative work of FBI agents and CIA agents, not only overseas, but also here in the United States,'' Mueller said.

Contributing: Robert C. Herguth

Thousands could die in blast; effects would linger for years

BY JIM RITTER SCIENCE REPORTER

What is a dirty bomb?

A conventional explosive, such as TNT, wrapped with radioactive waste. The explosion scatters radioactive dust and debris.

How big is it?

As small as a suitcase or as large as a truck bomb.

How bad would it be?

The worst-case scenario for a dirty bomb exploded in downtown Manhattan at noontime would be more than 2,000 deaths and many thousands of radiation poisonings, according to the Center for Defense Information.

A dirty bomb could set off mass panic. And depending on the radioactive materials used, and how effectively the bomb disperses them, cleanup costs could dwarf the World Trade Center cleanup costs, said David Grdina, a University of Chicago radiation biologist.

How long would the blast area be radioactive?

It depends on the half-life of the radioactive waste used. (The half life is the length of time it takes for the radioactivity to drop 50 percent.) For example, cobalt-60, used in cancer treatment, has a half life of 5.3 years. The half life of plutonium is thousands of years. A dirty bomb "could knock part of a city out for years," Grdina said.

Could terrorists make a nuclear bomb?

Most experts believe they don't have the expertise. But a dirty bomb is not technically difficult. The hardest part is getting the radioactive waste.

Where would terrorists get it?

Highly radioactive spent fuel is stored at about 70 nuclear plants in the United States, including seven in Illinois, but those sites have tight security. In Russia, however, nuclear waste security is much looser. Spent fuel also is shipped back and forth between Europe and Japan.

Weapons-grade plutonium and uranium also would make an effective dirty bomb. The al-Qaida terrorist group reportedly has tried to buy such material, believed to have come from the former Soviet Union.

Low-level radioactive waste is less deadly but would be easier to get. It's used at thousands of sites, for purposes as varied as sterilizing food, killing cancer cells and making smoke detectors.

How secure is this low-level waste?

After Sept. 11, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission urged sites that use radioactive materials to beef up security by, for example, restricting access to the materials and keeping an eye out for suspicious activities. But Henry Kelly of the Federation of American Scientists recently told a Senate committee that many sites "may not be adequately protected against theft by determined terrorists."

What security measures are in place at O'Hare Airport?

Federal transportation security chief Isaac Richardson would not comment on what procedures and equipment are in use--or whether screening procedures might change. However, a security official familiar with O'Hare's operation said radiation-detection equipment is occasionally used to detect radiation leakage from X-ray machines and other items that may contain radioactive materials.

Has anyone ever exploded a dirty bomb?

No. Iraq tested a 1-ton dirty bomb in 1987, but gave up because the radiation levels weren't deadly enough. In 1996, Chechen rebels planted, but did not explode, a dirty bomb in a park in Moscow. They wanted to demonstrate Russia's vulnerability.