By STEVEN GUTKIN
The Associated Press
2/9/04 1:47 AM
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Terrorists have the will and some of the expertise to make a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapon, and are "doing everything they can" to acquire the materials, the U.S. State Department's top anti-terror official said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Cofer Black, U.S. ambassador at large for anti-terrorism, said al-Qaida is still dangerous even though more than two-thirds of its leaders from the time of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks have been killed or arrested.
Speaking at the U.S. ambassador's residence in Jakarta on Saturday, Black said he and other U.S. officials are "killing ourselves" to make sure terrorists don't get a so-called "dirty bomb" or other unconventional weapons, but the threat remains.
"We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that a number of these groups, if they had it, would use it," said Black, who accompanied U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to an Asia Pacific anti-terror summit on the Indonesian island of Bali last week.
"They've got the will. A lot of these guys seek the expertise, and there's a reasonable amount of that out there, but what you're really looking for is the coming together of all the factors: the will, the expertise and the materials," he said.
Authorities fear terrorists could create a dirty bomb, which would use conventional explosives to disperse a plume of radioactive dust over a city. Unlike a nuclear weapon, a dirty bomb would not ignite an atomic chain reaction and would not require highly enriched uranium or plutonium, which are hard to obtain. The materials could be a lower-grade isotope, like those used in medicine or research. Black's comments follow recent revelations that the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, sold equipment related to centrifuges, used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, to Iran, Libya and North Korea. Experts say the same black market that enabled those countries to obtain nuclear weapons technology might also have supplied bomb components or plans to terrorists. "If al-Qaida were to put together a radiological device, they're going to use it," Black said. "We know that they have the determination, they've killed large numbers before, their objective is to kill more, they're doing everything they can to acquire this type of weapon and we are working to try to prevent it."
He said that anti-terror officials use the initials CBRN to rank the threats' order of probability: "chemical, bacteriological, radiological and nuclear -- chemical the most likely and nuclear the least."
Al-Qaida's apparent interest in acquiring nuclear technology came to the fore in 2001 when two Pakistani nuclear scientists were arrested after meeting Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan on suspicion of giving away secrets. The scientists were later released without being charged. Al Qaida, said Black, has been badly damaged since Sept. 11 and now has "less leadership personnel with which to plan and validate operations" but "that still doesn't stop them from being very dangerous."
"We are concerned about the next generation, guys seven to 12 years younger, who are flush with disturbed radical emotion but less well-trained," he said.
Government officials attending last week's anti-terror summit on Bali -- site of a devastating attack in 2002 by the al-Qaida linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror group -- called on Asia Pacific states to work to prevent the illegal movement of nuclear, chemical and biological materials. But delegates said the threat of unconventional weapons falling into the hands of terrorists was not discussed at any length during the two-day event.
Black said he believed Jemaah Islamiyah remains the most dangerous terrorist threat in this region because of its "association with al-Qaida, the substantial training received in Afghanistan, their contact and connection to these radicalized groups in the Middle East."