|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
U.S. Says “Dirty Bomb” Suspect Planned Other Attacks
“Dirty bomb” suspect Jose Padilla also plotted with al-Qaeda to attack high-rise apartment buildings in the United States, the U.S. Justice Department said yesterday (see GSN, March 4). Padilla participated in explosives training in Afghanistan in summer 2001 with Adnan El Shukrijumah, one of seven suspected al-Qaeda operatives possibly planning attacks on U.S. soil, according to newly declassified intelligence presented by Deputy Attorney General James Comey at a news conference yesterday, The intelligence, described in a declassified summary, also says the dirty bomb threat to which Padilla is linked had been dismissed by al-Qaeda chieftain Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who reportedly favored a plan to flatten apartment buildings with natural gas explosions. Comey said the press conference was an effort to aid public understanding of the case in response to an April 22 request by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) for the department to supply whatever information possible about U.S. citizens held as enemy combatants. Padilla, a U.S. citizen, has never been charged with a crime since his arrest nearly two years ago, and he has been held as an enemy combatant. The U.S. Supreme Court is set to rule soon on whether his arrest and detention were constitutional (Richard Schmitt, Los Angeles Times, June 2).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
