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Posted on 06/13/2002 5:57:02 PM PDT by kattracks
Terror Suspect Jose Padilla's Bid to Purchase Radioactive Material Led to His Arrest
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan June 13 — "Dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla went to a Central Asian country in search of radioactive components before returning to the United States, where he was arrested last month, Pakistani officials said Thursday.
But a U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the United States has no information that Padilla traveled to another Central Asian country earlier this year in search of radiological weapon components.
The Pakistani officials refused to identify the Central Asian country nor say whether Padilla was successful. He was arrested by the FBI on May 8 in Chicago after stops in Switzerland and Egypt, U.S. officials say.
According to the Pakistani authorities, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the search for the Brooklyn-born Padilla, 31, also known as Abdullah al Muhajir, began shortly after the arrest in March of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, Abu Zubaydah, who was detained in a raid on a safehouse in Faisalabad.
Zubaydah is currently in U.S. custody.
Padilla had apparently been assigned by Zubaydah to explore the possibility of causing "maximum damage to Americans," Pakistani intelligence officials said.
He traveled to the Central Asian country in April, then returned to Pakistan and left from the southern city of Karachi, officials said.
"We had received information from the FBI in April that some al-Qaida men were planning attacks in the United States. The same information was shared with us by the CIA and intense weekslong efforts led to his arrest," said a senior government official on condition of anonymity.
Pakistani intelligence officers said at least two Padilla associates are now in custody in Pakistan, undergoing questioning by the FBI at an undisclosed location. One was identified as Benjamin Ahmed Mohammed, but officials would not reveal any of the nationalities.
A half-dozen other American citizens were believed to be among the 300 al-Qaida suspects handed over to the United States by Pakistan in the past six months, intelligence officials said.
Two high-ranking U.S. officials said they have no evidence or information indicating Americans are among groups of suspected al-Qaida terrorists or other people captured by Pakistanis. They said that to date, the only known Americans captured are those that have been widely publicized.
Authorities began to track Padilla in early April after the FBI gave photos of the former Chicago gang member to Pakistan's spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, the officials said.
Using false documents and aliases, Padilla traveled to an undisclosed Central Asian country in April, the officials said. They would not say how long he remained there nor whom he contacted.
The officials said Padilla returned to Pakistan and left Karachi in late April or early May for Zurich, Switzerland. U.S. authorities have said Padilla made trips from Switzerland to and from Egypt before flying to Chicago, where he was arrested May 8.
Pakistani officials are expanding their search for more Padilla associates in the tribal areas along the Afghan border, where many al-Qaida fugitives are believed to have taken refuge.
The FBI is particularly interested in finding five Arab women, seven children and several al-Qaida men believed to have close contacts with Zubaydah and Padilla.
Pakistani sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. and Pakistani agents raided an Islamic cleric's home in the North West Frontier Province this week looking for the women and children, but found no one.
Padilla, a former gang member, turned to Islam after he was released from a Florida jail a decade ago. Between 1995 and 1998, he traveled to the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan seeking out increasingly radical Islamic fundamentalism. He eventually found the Taliban and bin Laden's al-Qaida network, U.S. intelligence officials said.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, he allegedly traveled to Pakistan to meet al-Qaida operatives and get instructions on creating the "dirty bomb," which spreads radioactive material over a concentrated area, officials said.
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press.
I have come to the conclusion that
I think this means we have not picked up any more people asapart of the nuke attempt. Perhaps this guy is it when it comes to what we have in custody as a result of the bomber bust.
We know they picked up this trash at the airport a month before we mentioned him. Rush and others have speculated that the Ashcroft release was related to Senate investigation. But the senate investigation had nothing that was going to stick. I don't think so. I think it relates to the attacker.
They announced this guy had 10 grand on him when they picked him. Ten thousand dollars is not much. I suspect that 10 grand was the traveling money. Perhaps large bucks were to follow and did in many transfers of a few grand each. They would have to keep the money below the radar or someone would notice. It would take many individual transfers to get in the big bucks they need to do a domestic attack. WE had this guy in custody so he didn't get the money.. I betcha we did.
We say we have picked no one else up. Yet we kept quiet for a month. You can't come into the US with a million bucks in your hip pocket. You can bring in 10 grand but not much more an escape attention.
I would bet he was to recieve lots of dough in many locations under many names. I betcha we broke him and got all the dough. We may have gone public after the last trasfer for the project... just to rub it in.
Ashcroft was playing to someone. I don't tbink it was the media or Puff Daschle.
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