We expose terrorist in nuclear bomb plot

Evil Samir Yatim is poised to provide nuclear material which would bring death to the capital's streets.

Our investigators, posing as Muslim extremists, tracked down the 52-year-old arms dealer to his lair on Spain's Costa del Sol.

Yatim—who is known to MI5 and the FBI and classed as "highly dangerous"—said he could arrange for five kilos of Russian iridium-192 to be smuggled from Istanbul in Turkey, hidden in car batteries.

He demanded payment of £1.3 million—and chillingly promised: "I can send the iridium to London, no problem. Once it's in Europe it's like sending vegetables."

At a further meeting in Benalmadena, near Torremelinos, Yatim boasted: "I don't care who this stuff is going to, angels or the devil. I don't give a damn."

Triggering a convential semtex bomb wrapped in the iridium-192 isotope in a city centre would cause hundreds of casualties and long-term contamination.

Iridium has been linked to terror before. In 1978 a pellet of the metal containing poisonous ricin was fired by a Soviet agent into the thigh of Bulgarian exile Georgi Markov near London's Waterloo. He died four days later.

Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has said it is his "religious duty" to obtain radioactive material to build a dirty bomb.

And Tony Blair has declared that he fears terrorists will "deliver a catastrophe to our world" with such a weapon. Lebanese Yatim can make the Prime Minister's fear a terrible reality. Yatim has a long record in terrorism—and he loathes Britain.

He has sold arms to the IRA and in 1967 organised military training for IRA men in Jordan. He lived in Britain and Ireland for 33 years, but was deported to Syria after serving prison sentences here for smuggling and weapons offences.

He is a member of Yasser Arafat's Fatah group, belonging to its hardline Force 17 terrorist wing.

The News of the World was alerted to grey-haired Yatim—sometimes known as Sammy Lee—by a Belfast contact who was offered $100,000 to smuggle isotopes.

The contact met Yatim at a flat in the Spanish mountain town of Ronda, behind Marbella.

The Irish contact explained: "Things got too scary for me when I saw guns and surface-to-air missiles in a cupboard in the lounge. These people were too dangerous to deal with."

He was right. When the News of the World met Yatim offering to buy radioactive material he told us: "I deal in drugs, guns and arms. I can arrange radioactive material if it is available. It comes from the former Soviet Union through Turkey. You can't just order what you want, you have to take what is available on the market."

Yatim is already known to have smuggled at least one consignment of iridium from Istanbul. He said uranium could also be available. The material would be brought out by ship or car.

Yatim wanted a £3,000 deposit and said an expert of our choice could inspect the material in Istanbul.

"From there we can finish the deal," he said. "We can't talk about these things on the phone. My phone is tapped. I have to send people to Turkey."

Coolly drawing on a cigarette he added: "For uranium you can expect to pay from $2million (£1.3million), but it may vary. If you are willing to buy I am willing to sell. My people are ready. A minimum of five kilos of material can be arranged.

On Tuesday last week the News of the World duped Yatim again — when he tried to recruit more investigators to drive from Turkey to Spain with isotopes hidden in false car batteries.

At a meeting in Benalmadena's Riviera hotel he said: "The stuff comes from Georgia into Turkey from nuclear places inside Russia.

"They are supposed to have guards but nobody has been paid for months so the stuff is up for sale."

"F*** Tony Blair and Bush, and their governments," he said. "Saddam is finished but there are still revolutionaries like me. If I had a bomb now to fly to Britain and drop it on England I would."

Yatim may be interested to know our dossier on his activities is being handed to authorities of Britain and Spain.

Sorry, don't believe it.

I'm holding my judgement, but Mahmood appears to be quite respected in England, winning awards for his work. It should be noted that if this is fictitious, it illustrates a very real possibility in any case.

This article is on the BBC news site from last year:

Sunday, 3 November, 2002, 12:18 GMT Newspaper's secret weapon Mazher Mahmood, who exposed the alleged plot to kidnap Victoria Beckham, is an undercover reporter who specialises in unmasking shady practices and illegal activities.
His high-profile exposés have nailed criminals and caused embarrassment to the aristocracy and the royal family.
As investigations editor at the News of the World (NoW) he has unveiled numerous scandals, and the paper claims he has brought more than 100 criminals to justice.
Earlier this year he was said to have received a death threat in which a £100,000 contract was put on his life.
Mr Mahmood and other NoW reporters infiltrated the gang which allegedly planned the kidnap operation, and became accepted to the point of being given a central role in the alleged plot.
Mr Mahmood was crowned reporter of the year at the 1999 British Press Awards and his newspaper is proud to promote the investigations he carries out.
Many of his stings involve posing as an Arab sheik, earning him the sobriquet "the fake Sheik".
Sophie quits job
It was a guise he used to great effect when he engineered a meeting with Sophie, Countess of Wessex.
The result was hugely embarrassing for the royal family when it was suggested that Sophie was abusing her royal connections as head of her PR firm R-JH - from which she later resigned as chairman.
" I don't think there's anything wrong with journalists exposing drug dealers... I've got 98 criminal convictions as a result of my work, so I must be doing something right "
Mazher Mahmood
An investigation into the "social" activities of London's Burning actor John Alford, brought about an eventual police prosecution for supplying drugs.
Posing as an Arabian prince, he met Alford, who fell for his scam, offering him cannabis and cocaine.
Alford was jailed for nine months for supplying cocaine and cannabis in May 1999.
Other Mahmood scalps include DJ Johnnie Walker and former Blue Peter presenter Richard Bacon, who were also captured in drugs stings.
Man of mystery
Mr Mahmood has previously defended his methods.
He said: "I don't think there's anything wrong with journalists exposing drug dealers... I've got 98 criminal convictions as a result of my work, so I must be doing something right."
He is also adept at infiltrating criminal ranks within the Asian community and has exposed numerous immigration scams and bogus marriages.
For a man so skilled at exposing others, Mazher Mahmood is obsessive about maintaining his own privacy.
It is known that he comes from somewhere in the West Midlands, and has worked on the Sunday Times and in television production.
'Entrapment' under fire
The self-styled scourge of the criminal world works secretively, rarely going into the office at News International in Wapping.
Written into Mr Mahmood's contract is a clause stating that his photograph will never be published in the newspaper.
If he features in photos that accompany his stories, his face is always concealed and a silhouette is used next to his byline.
When Mr Mahmood won the Reporter of the Year award, a figure attired in full sheikh's outfit, with the face covered, went up to collect the award - only for the robes to be thrown off to reveal Kelvin Mackenzie, former editor of the Sun.
Although Mr Mahmood has helped to expose crime, many find the way he does it both morally and ethically distasteful.
Lawyers have argued that Mr Mahmood's conduct, backed by the editorial policy of the News of the World, deliberately involves serious breaches of the law.
However, his work continues unabated and he often works closely with officers and says he co-operates with police at all times.

--http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/uk/2393303.stm

I believe *parts* of it. ;-)

But mostly I have to echo your sentiments of skepticism.

"He demanded payment of £1.3 million—and chillingly promised: "I can send the iridium to London, no problem. Once it's in Europe it's like sending vegetables."

My personal feeling is along the lines of Dennis Miller's: I hated angry foreign nationals who want to kill me on September TENTH, 2001. And they've hated us, and at every chance they've had, they've taken a shot. They don't hesitate to use this stuff. If this guy is the revolutionary he claims he is and has the power he claims to have, there would be mass death -- THE FIRST TIME they tried blowing up the WTC. They have BEEN killing us; we chosen to turn our heads away (embassy bombings, Cole, you know the list). That's why we need to take them out so quickly and decisively. Pre-emption is NOT a dirty word. In fact, it's high time we took it out of the closet and dusted it off. I am one of the "hawks" who believes the Iraq war is justified ESPECIALLY if we find no WMDs -- it just means we got the job done BEFORE they developed them (I still completely believe we will find WMDs, however, don't get me wrong).

If this IS true, this guy's world just got a *whole* lot smaller.

Caveat: The world is a dangerous place. But this piece just smells too over-the-top for me, s'all.

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