Radiological Weapons:  Officials Doubt Existence of “Dirty Bomb” Plot

U.S. authorities have said that Jose Padilla, accused of having attempted to carry out a “dirty bomb” attack within the United States, is being held in an attempt to gain more information on al-Qaeda rather than in connection with any crime, Newsweek reported this week (see GSN, July 11).

“If this guy thinks he might be there for 20 years with no recourse, he might just say, ‘OK, let’s talk,’” a Bush administration official said.

Sources have said that some high-level officials doubted Padilla’s involvement in a plot to detonate a radiological weapon within the United States, according to Newsweek.  The White House, however, paid little attention to those doubts, officials said.

Most of the evidence against Padilla, also known as Abdullah al-Muhajir, came from Abu Zubaydah, a captured senior al-Qaeda official.  Zubaydah told U.S. authorities about a U.S.-born recruit with whom he had discussed the dirty bomb plot.

Zubaydah’s information seemed to be confirmed when U.S. troops found photographs of Padilla in an al-Qaeda safe house and computers indicating that someone, possibly Padilla, had searched the Internet for U.S. laboratories and hospitals where radioactive materials might be obtained, according Newsweek.  That evidence, however, has not been sufficient for the Justice Department to bring charges against Padilla, Newsweek reported.

Officials now say that any dirty bomb plot probably never progressed beyond talk.  If Padilla had accomplices within the United States, they have not been found, FBI officials said.  The idea of a dirty bomb plot was “blown out of proportion,” a U.S. intelligence official said (Michael Isikoff, Newsweek, Aug. 19).

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