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Nuclear Threat in 1995 Went Unheeded
AP | 3/12/02 | JIM GOMEZ and DAFNA LINZER

Posted on 03/12/2002 10:05:45 AM PST by kattracks

Mar 12, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- U.S. officials received a warning as early as 1995 that Islamic militants were plotting to attack an American nuclear site, but did not pass along the information to the agency that oversees nuclear facilities or to the plants themselves, The Associated Press has learned.

The warning came in police interrogations of convicted terrorist Abdul Hakim Murad and from a computer seized in the Philippines from Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. Both men were linked to Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorist network, and are serving life in prison in the United States for plotting to blow up 12 U.S.-bound airliners.

The AP learned of the 1995 warning through secret intelligence documents and interviews with officials in the United States and the Philippines.

According to a secret Philippines report, a letter obtained from Yousef's computer indicated he was "planning to attack any nuclear facilities in the U.S. and unspecified targets in France and Great Britain."

Yousef, who ran the al-Qaida cell that targeted the World Trade Center in 1993, discussed the plan with Murad when the two met in October 1994 in Quetta, Pakistan, according to statements Murad made to interrogators.

But Murad, who was arrested in Manila in January 1995, said he was unaware of the specifics of the plan to attack nuclear facilities.

Rodolfo Mendoza, a former police official in Manila who was among those who supervised Murad's interrogations, said the details on the nuclear threat were immediately shared with U.S. authorities.

"During a debriefing session, Murad told us about this planned attack on an unspecified nuclear facility. We passed on that information from Murad to them (U.S. officials)," Mendoza said.

Murad also told investigators that he and other Middle Eastern students took pilot training at U.S. flight schools in the early 1990s and that he had proposed a suicide mission in which he would fly a jetliner into a federal building.

That information, provided six years before the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, also was shared with FBI agents in Manila. An FBI agent who accompanied Murad back to the United States for trial, testified in 1996 that Murad spoke about plans for a nuclear attack.

Victor Dricks, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said the government agency charged with overseeing the country's 104 nuclear facilities had not heard of such a warning during 1995.

"We did not know of any credible threat against any specific facility that we would take seriously enough to take some action on," he said.

Carl Crawford, manager of nuclear communications at Energy Nuclear, which operates nine reactors in the South and the Northeast, said that in 1995 the company "never received any formal communications from the NRC or any other federal law enforcement agency regarding such threats. We never received any request to go on high alert."

In January, the NRC alerted nuclear power plants that the government had received a tip from an al-Qaida operative that terrorists might be planning a suicide attack on a power reactor.

An FBI official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at the time that the NRC had acted on old information that had been deemed not credible. But the NRC communication said the agency decided to issue the alert after an FBI agent in Washington state contacted a nuclear power plant about the threat.

The NRC ordered the nation's nuclear plants operating in 31 states to their highest alert level after Sept. 11 and at least seven states are using National Guard troops to help secure reactors.

The Federal Aviation Administration banned private planes from flying within 11 miles of nuclear plants and the U.S. Coast Guard is patrolling the Great Lakes to keep ships away from plants on the coastline.

Some lakes with power plants on their shores have been closed to recreational activities altogether, although officials have said that at least portions of the lakes will be reopened soon.

Exelon Nuclear, which owns 10 plants, closed three Illinois cooling lakes after the attacks. A spokeswoman said the plants were reevaluating security, including how close boaters could get to the facilities.

In France, surface-to-air missiles were positioned near a major nuclear reprocessing plant and a military base for nuclear submarines six weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks. Radar systems capable of scouting out airplanes flying at low altitudes were stationed there as well.

Officials have declined to say what France was doing to protect its 20 nuclear power plants from terrorist attacks. France gets more than three-fourths of its power from nuclear energy.

Hungary also has placed surface-to-air rockets near the country's only nuclear power plant, about 60 miles south of the capital, Budapest.

By JIM GOMEZ and DAFNA LINZER Associated Press Writers

Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved





TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 1995; 199501; abdulhakimmurad; airseclist; clintonscandals; fareast; islamicviolence; murad; nuclear; philippines; powerplantplots; terrorwar; yousef
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To: kattracks
Who was the President in 1995???? Hummm...
21 posted on 03/12/2002 11:00:36 AM PST by rintense
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To: rintense
AP doesn't want to remind anyone.
22 posted on 03/12/2002 11:02:16 AM PST by kattracks
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To: kattracks
AP sure didn't have any problems yesterday when they title an article with 'President CLINTON'...
23 posted on 03/12/2002 11:11:13 AM PST by rintense
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To: kattracks
You can find the official interrogation transcripts of this martyr wannabe at the Smoking Gun website, I think.
24 posted on 03/12/2002 11:20:13 AM PST by buzzcat
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To: rintense
Who was the President in 1995???? Hummm...Let's see now. In my best imitation of Pooh, "Think, think, think." "Oh bother!"

I'll take a shot with this guess - I believe his initials are Bill Clinton.

25 posted on 03/12/2002 11:29:29 AM PST by Diver Dave
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To: DoughtyOne
And they wonder why I sometimes question the idea of them voting.

Exactly. And everyone should have to pass a test (heck I'll develop it) of some kind to be ALLOWED to vote.........

26 posted on 03/12/2002 11:30:24 AM PST by b4its2late
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To: TheDon
Notice how the title wasn't "Clinton Administration ignored Nuclear Threat in 1995"

Yep. If a pubbie was in the office, it would mention that pres by name......

27 posted on 03/12/2002 11:31:36 AM PST by b4its2late
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To: DoughtyOne
If 70% of women voted for clnton then 30% of women didn't. You insult the 30% that didn't. 70% of women couldn't have elected him alone, they had help from men. We (30%) are as embarrassed as you are, by the women & MEN who voted for the creep.
28 posted on 03/12/2002 11:37:12 AM PST by Ditter
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Comment #29 Removed by Moderator

To: Diver Dave
Heh. You are correct!
30 posted on 03/12/2002 11:51:23 AM PST by rintense
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To: Kozak
When did Jimmy come out and demand the slimeball resign? I long ago accepted that Jimmy Carter was willing to go along with just about anything Clinton did. I used to say the same thing you did. Then I thought about it and realized that Carter is as morally bankrupt as the man he supported through his silence.
31 posted on 03/12/2002 12:59:00 PM PST by DoughtyOne
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To: Ditter
Look, I said this somewhat tongue in cheek, but you fail to look at this honestly. Men voted against Clinton by something like 60% plus. As a matter of fact, women DID vote Clinton in all by themselves. Please don't quote these figures as they are not exact, but the premise holds true.
32 posted on 03/12/2002 1:07:23 PM PST by DoughtyOne
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To: kattracks
U.S. officials received a warning as early as 1995 that Islamic militants were plotting to attack an American nuclear site, but did not pass along the information to the agency that oversees nuclear facilities or to the plants themselves, The Associated Press has learned.

Had a conservative Republican administration been in charge in 1995, this would be your lead story on: ABC, CBS, NBC and the Clymer News Network.

Today, you'll be lucky if it gets a mention on Page A32 of your local news rag.

33 posted on 03/12/2002 1:13:28 PM PST by Recovering_Democrat
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To: kattracks
1995. Yup, this was during Clinton's watch. Who was director of the CIA then, Deutch or Tenet? No real difference between the two since they're both Clinton appointees and more interested in playing politics than they are in protecting this nation and its citizens.
34 posted on 03/12/2002 1:35:50 PM PST by waxhaw
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To: kattracks
"We recognize that these new generation plants, if they are to succeed, will have to compete on the basis of cost — without subsidies," said Elizabeth A. Moler, a top Energy Department official in the Clinton administration and now a senior vice president at the Exelon Corporation, a large energy company that operates 17 nuclear power plants.

The most ethical administration in the history of the US. How do we know? Slick Willie said it's so.

Lying scumbags/scumbagettes.

35 posted on 03/12/2002 3:24:49 PM PST by WarEagle
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To: Ditter
We (30%) are as embarrassed as you are, by the women & MEN who voted for the creep.

I am also embarrassed by anyone who voted for the creep. Blaming women for voting him in continues to go on. Proud to say as an American, I never voted for him. P.S. Yes, I am a woman

36 posted on 03/12/2002 4:24:30 PM PST by deadhead
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To: ilgipper
I'm sure we'll see this tonight on the network news.

ROFLMAO

37 posted on 03/12/2002 4:28:41 PM PST by lonestar
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