U.S. officials have said that five to six al-Qaeda cells are actively seeking radioactive materials in the United States, NBC News reported yesterday (see GSN, June 17).  Such materials could be used to create a “dirty bomb” — a conventional explosive laced with radioactive materials.

When the United States arrested Jose Padilla in May on suspicions he was working with al-Qaeda to produce a dirty bomb, al-Qaeda plans for a radiological attack were apparently well under way, NBC reported.  The cells possibly had been seeking radioactive materials even before the Sept. 11 attacks.

U.S. officials, who obtained the information from top al-Qaeda members in custody such as Abu Zubaydah, said there is no evidence to indicate that al-Qaeda has been successful in its attempts or that an attack is imminent.  There have been increasing threat warnings from al-Qaeda, but they do not mention specific targets, officials said (see GSN, July 10).

Emergency teams trained to respond to radiological or nuclear disasters, however, have been on high alert for major events such as the Olympics (see GSN, July 3).  Additionally, U.S. agencies have been checking facilities that store radiological and medical wastes to ensure that materials are not missing (see GSN, June 27).

Padilla apparently told Abu Zubaydah that acquiring radioactive materials in the United States would be an easy task, NBC reported (Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News, July 10). 

Possibly 5,000 Al-Qaeda in United States

FBI officials are investigating Padilla and looking for other supporters in the Chicago area who might be connected to the dirty bomb plot, the Washington Times reported today.

The FBI and other intelligence agencies are watching small groups of men in Seattle, Chicago, Detroit and Atlanta who are suspected of having ties to al-Qaeda, intelligence officials said.

“One (intelligence) estimate is that there are up to 5,000 people in the United States connected to al-Qaeda,” a U.S. intelligence official said.

Earlier this year, U.S. officials estimated that there were more than 100 active al-Qaeda members in the United Sates plus hundreds of sympathizers, according to the Times.  Another U.S. official said that determining the exact number of al-Qaeda members in the United States is difficult due to the organization’s secrecy.

“It depends on how you define an al-Qaeda member,” the official said.  “There are hardened members and Muslims with sympathies to [Osama] bin Laden.”

“The number of people that are really key to this organization is probably much smaller than the number in the hundreds of people who have some loose affiliation,” U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said, adding that the top al-Qaeda leadership consists of “dozens of key people, not in the hundreds.”

Some al-Qaeda members who had been based in Afghanistan have fled to the United States and other countries, particularly Pakistan and Iran, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last month (Bill Gertz, Washington Times, July 11).

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