| 'Dirty Bomb' Suspect Captured |  |
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 WASHINGTON — Federal agents have arrested an Al Qaeda terrorist who plotted to explode a radiological "dirty" bomb in the U.S., Attorney General John Ashcroft said Monday.
"We have disrupted an unfolding terrorist plot to attack the United States by exploding a radioactive dirty bomb," Ashcroft said in a televised announcement from Moscow. Ashcroft said Abdullah Al Mujahir, also known as Jose Padilla, was in the custody of the U.S. military and is being treated as an enemy combatant, suggesting plans for the first military tribunal of an alleged terrorist. A government official said Mujahir is a former Chicago street gang member who served time in prison in the 1990s, converted to Islam and met with Al Qaeda leaders in 2001 before returning to the United States. Ashcroft said Al Mujahir was arrested May 8 as he flew from Pakistan into O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. Intelligence and law enforcement officials are continuing to track down others who may have been involved in the plot. Justice officials said a plot to detonate a dirty bomb — a nuclear device set off with conventional explosives, rather than a fission reaction — requires a fairly significant number of people. Officials refused to speculate about a report that the bomb was intended to be detonated in Washington. Ashcroft said the government's suspicions about Mujahir's plans came from "multiple, independent, corroborating sources." The attorney general said Mujahir had served prison time in the United States in the early 1990s, then traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan during 2001 and met with Al Qaeda officials. Ashcroft said Mujahir "trained with the enemy, including studying how to wire explosive devices and researching radiological dispersion devices." Ashcroft said Al Qaeda apparently believed that Mujahir would be permitted to travel freely within the United States because of his U.S. citizenship and because he carried a U.S. passport. Mujahir was transferred Monday from Justice Department custody in New York to a high-security U.S. Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., said Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Rivers Johnson. Mujahir is being held separately from other prisoners at the brig, and military officials have not decided whether to charge him or what charges to file, Johnson said. Mujahir had a lawyer in New York, but his access to a lawyer probably will be severely restricted now that he is in military custody, Johnson said. Another government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the intelligence that led to Mujahir's arrest came from captured Al Qaeda leader Abu Zabaydah during recent interrogations. Mujahir will be detained by the U.S. military as an "enemy combatant," Ashcroft said, setting up the first military tribunal since the Sept. 11 attacks. "We have acted with legal authority both under the laws of war and clear Supreme Court precedent, which establishes that the military may detain a United States citizen who has joined the enemy and has entered our country to carry out hostile acts," Ashcroft said. The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
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