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'Dirty Bomb' Suspect Captured
Monday, June 10, 2002
From Fox News Website



WASHINGTON ? Government agents have arrested a turncoat American citizen who plotted with Al Qaeda terrorists to build and explode a radioactive "dirty bomb" within the United States, officials revealed Monday.

"We have disrupted an unfolding terrorist plot to attack the United States by exploding a radioactive dirty bomb," Attorney General John Ashcroft said in a televised announcement from Moscow.

Ashcroft said Jose Padilla, also known as Abdullah Al Muhajir, was in the custody of the U.S. military and is being treated as an enemy combatant.

Padilla is a former Chicago street gang member who served time in prison in the 1990s, converted to Islam and met with Al Qaeda leaders in 2001 before returning to the United States, officials said.

The 31-year-old is a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., who moved to Chicago at age 4.

President Bush, meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the White House, said: "I can tell you that we have a man detained who is a threat to the country, and that thanks to the vigilance of our intelligence-gathering and law enforcement, he is now off the streets, where he should be."

A Justice Department official said that under U.S. legal rules, Padilla can be held indefinitely as an enemy soldier, but there are no plans to impose a military tribunal or otherwise press U.S. criminal charges against him.

Lt. Col. Rivers Johnson, a Pentagon spokesman, said Padilla would not be eligible for trial by a military tribunal set up under Defense Department rules issued in March because those tribunals are for terror suspects who are not U.S. citizens.

Law enforcement sources told Fox News that a second person, Benjamin Ahmed Mohammed, had been taken into custody in Pakistan "recently" and was implicated in the bomb plot. Mohammed will continue to be detained in Pakistan, an official said, and there are no plans to bring him to the United States.

A third unnamed suspect was also being detained in Pakistan, officials told Fox News.

Intelligence and law enforcement officials are continuing to track down others who may have been involved in the plot. Justice officials said a plot to detonate a dirty bomb ? a nuclear device set off with conventional explosives, rather than a fission reaction ? requires a fairly significant number of people.

Asked at a news conference here whether authorities had identified any co-conspirators in the United States, Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson said, "We're not going to comment on that."

FBI Director Robert Mueller said, "Our principal interest is in preventing future terrorist attacks. This instance is an example of prevention."

Officials refused to speculate about reports that the bomb was intended to be detonated in Washington.

Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz said officials could not say with certainty that the nation's capital was the likely target, although he said that Padilla "did indicate knowledge of the Washington, D.C. area."

Padilla was arrested May 8 as he flew into Chicago's O'Hare International Airport from Pakistan, Ashcroft said in Moscow, where he was attending a long-planned meeting with his "foreign counterparts."

He said the government's suspicions about Muhajir's plans came from "multiple, independent, corroborating sources."

He said Al Qaeda apparently believed Padilla would be permitted to travel freely within the U.S. because of his American citizenship and because he carried a U.S. passport.

"We have acted with legal authority both under the laws of war and clear Supreme Court precedent, which establishes that the military may detain a United States citizen who has joined the enemy and has entered our country to carry out hostile acts," Ashcroft said.

A senior administration official speaking on condition of anonymity said Padilla was trained by Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan to wire explosives and to research radioactive dispersal devices. He was not believed to have had a bomb at the time of his apprehension.

"We don't believe it went beyond the planning stages," the official said.

Padilla was transferred Monday morning from Justice Department custody in New York City to a high-security U.S. Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., Johnson said.

He said military officials have not decided whether to charge Padilla or what charges to file.

Padilla had a lawyer in New York but his access to a lawyer probably will be severely restricted now that he is in military custody, Johnson said. He said Padilla was being held separately from other prisoners at the brig.

A government official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the intelligence that led to Padilla's arrest came from captured Al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah during recent interrogations.

Padilla discussed several terrorist plans with Abu Zubaydah, according to a U.S. official.

Padilla first met with Abu Zubaydah in Afghanistan in 2001, and traveled to Pakistan at Abu Zubaydah's request, the official said, adding that he was one of a group that traveled with Abu Zubaydah to several locations in Pakistan.

Padilla and another unidentified associate researched dirty bombs in Lahore, Pakistan, the official said.

"The radiological device plan articulated by Padilla and his associate was in the planning stages, and no specific time was set to occur," the official said.

At Abu Zubaydah's behest, Padilla also traveled to Karachi, Pakistan, to meet with several senior Al Qaeda operatives, to discuss the plan, the official said. Padilla also was interested in plans to bomb hotel rooms and gas stations in the United States, the official said.

It was unclear whether any of these meetings took place after Sept. 11.

President Bush, based on recommendations from Ashcroft and White House counsel Al Gonzales, designated the suspect as a combatant in papers signed late Sunday. That designation allowed the Department of Defense to take custody of Padilla from the Department of Justice.

"Based on the facts in this case and the importance of protecting sources who helped us get him, the determination was made that DOD is best for his detention," an official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. This official said the administration does not know how close the suspect was to obtaining a so-called "dirty bomb."