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Posted on 06/11/2002 7:06:16 AM PDT by MississippiMan
'Dirty Bomb' Suspect Not Cooperating, Wolfowitz Says
Tue Jun 11, 8:39 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A suspected American al Qaeda operative accused of plotting a radioactive "dirty bomb" attack on the United States has not yet given authorities information on his associates, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said on Tuesday.
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"He came into this country with the intention, by various means, not just the dirty bomb idea, of killing hundreds and maybe thousands of Americans," he said on CBS' "The Early Show."
Detained by the FBI ( news - web sites) in Chicago on May 8, al Muhajir was declared an "enemy combatant" by President Bush ( news - web sites) over the weekend and transferred to a naval brig in South Carolina.
But Wolfowitz said the former gang member had not provided information to investigators.
"To the best of my knowledge he hasn't cooperated at all so far," Wolfowitz said on NBC's "Today Show."
"He clearly had associates and one of the things we want to ask him about is who those associates were and how we can track them down," he added on CBS.
Wolfowitz said it was clear to investigators, however, that al Muhajir had had "a great deal of contact" with the al Qaeda network of Saudi exile Osama bin Laden ( news - web sites), and that "he was clearly taking a great deal of instruction."
Authorities said on Monday al Muhajir had trained with al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan ( news - web sites) and was in the planning stages of launching a so-called dirty bomb attack, which combines a conventional bomb with radioactive material, somewhere in the United States.
Washington blames bin Laden's network for the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington that killed about 3,000 people.
Wolfowitz said al Muhajir apparently planned to get radioactive material for the bomb from somewhere within the United States.
"This man actually thought he could get them from places like university labs," he said. "I have no idea how difficult that would be but there is nuclear material around in a lot places."
The New York-born Jose Padilla, 31. who changed his name to Abdullah al Muhajir, was being held by the Defense Department as an "enemy combatant," which under the rules of war allows him to be held until the end of the conflict and questioned without an attorney present.
Civil rights groups like the American Civil Liberties Union ( news - web sites) have criticized the detention and said he should be tried in U.S. court.
"What we're about here is preventing," Wolfowitz said. "Preventing him from doing further acts, preventing those about whom he may have knowledge from doing further acts."
If authorities decide to prosecute al Muhajir he will be transferred back to civil courts, Wolfowitz said.
Yaser Esam Hamdi, an American-born Saudi national detained in Afghanistan, is a second U.S. citizen known to be held by the Defense Department.
John Walker Lindh, another American captured while fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan, is facing trail in a federal court in Virginia. He is in the custody of the Justice Department ( news - web sites).
Wolfowitz spoke from a spot outside the Pentagon ( news - web sites) where one of the hijacked airliners crashed Sept. 11, to note that workers had almost completed reconstruction efforts.
Poised to lay the final piece of limestone, he said officials planned to also place a time capsule to honor those killed in the attack.
"It's also a way of honoring the incredible determination and resolve of the workers who put this building back together so quickly," he said on CBS.
"I think its symbolic of the resolve of the American people to prevail over people like Abdullah al Muhajir."
"If the bomb is filthy,
You most vote not guilty!"
Then on the return trip, go to like Russia and pick up a plane load of captured terrorists for a oneway trip back Florida. Then load them on a pig hauling boat for a one way trip to Gitmo!
This has been repeated so much that it's taken as fact. I'm not aware of it being anything more than our imagination. If I were bin Laden, I don't think that changing American society to become a police state would be a concern, except maybe for the propaganda value.
For what it's worth, I recall reading here about an interview with an al-Queda leader in which he was asked if that was their intent, turning us into a closed society. He said that if we believed that, we really don't understand them at all.
Who says they didn't. Maybe the tails were spotted by accomplices. At that point there is no point in letting him continue to roam around.
Do you agree with that poster that another 1 to 10 % loss of innocent Americans is no big deal?
How many innocent Americans do you want to be killed in your suicidal intrepretation of the constitution?
The constitution is not a mass suicide pact for the rest of us!
Did you cheer on 9/11!
Now that's beyond the pall!! I was thinking along the lines of electric current applied directly to his genitals, but you sir, you are inhuman! What cruel and inhuman punishement.
Maybe I would stop complaining of his status if the President would sign a directive allowing the Military to try all scum like this, instead of playing politics. Why is Linh and Moussaoui being treated differently? They all should be tried by the military. But its not PC to sign an order trying Americans who are nothing more than terrorist. Are we at war? Or are we playing war?
Oh well then, by all means, let's not have a trial. He's guilty by association. And he's not cooperating? Further proof that he is guilty.
This prosecution is based solely on this man's speech apparently and it doesn't bother anyone.
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