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| THURSDAY NOVEMBER 14 2002 |
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 HOMELAND INSECURITY 7 nukes in U.S., warns al-Qaida Man claiming to be top bin Laden operative threatens to kill millions, destroy economy Posted: November 14, 2002 9:20 p.m. Eastern
Terrorists have placed seven nuclear bombs in as many U.S. cities and will soon detonate them, causing millions of casualties, massive panic and destroying the world's biggest economy, warns a top al-Qaida operative in an interview with Al-Jazeera television in Qatar. While much of the world's attention has been riveted on Al-Jazeera's broadcast of an audiotape apparently made by Osama bin Laden, this more specific threat aired on the station has received scant media coverage. The spectacular threats were made by a man claiming to be Mohammed al-Usuquf, reputedly al-Qaida's No. 3 operative. Al-Usuquf is said to be a doctor in physics who holds a master's degree in international economics. A copy of the interview was sent to the prestigious Arab-language daily Al Quds Al Arabi, edited in London, but it was not printed. Parts of the interview were published by Asia Times, which could confirm neither the identity of the man nor his membership in al-Qaida. Al-Usuquf says al-Qaida's Kuwaiti spokesman, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, and bin Laden himself, suggested that he grant the interview. Bin Laden, he says, is "alive and healthy, along with his commanders Mohammed Atef, Khalid Shaik Mohammed and Mullah Omar." While Al-Usuquf begins the interview by criticizing Washington for its positions on the Kyoto Protocol on climatic change, the International Criminal Court, the Palestinian cause and for its "financial greed," he concludes by saying America must be destroyed. "Aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and spy satellites will be worthless in the next war," he says. Al-Qaida has 5,000 first-rank operatives and around 20,000 others all over the world. "We have more than 500 first-rank and 800 second-rank [operatives] inside the U.S.," he says. He explains that "first rank" means they have lived in the U.S. for more than 10 years, most of them married with children. "They have an idea about the plans, and they are just waiting for a call." "Second-rank" operatives arrived in the past five years and "have no idea about the plans," he says. All are willing to die for the cause, he says. Sept. 11 "was just the beginning," says al-Usuquf. "It was a way to call the world's attention to what's going to happen." He details a plan to destroy the U.S. by "attacking the heart of what they (Americans) consider the most important thing in the world – money." This economic cataclysm will be prompted, he says, by "destroying America's seven largest cities and some other measures" with "atomic bombs." The bombs "won't be launched," he says. "They are already there. Seven nuclear heads have already been positioned on American soil, before Sept. 11, and they are ready to be detonated. Before Sept. 11, American security was a fiasco, and even later, if we needed, we could position the bombs there. They arrived through seaports as normal cargo. A nuclear head is not bigger than a fridge, so it can easily be camouflaged as one. Thousands of containers arrive at a seaport every day, and even with very efficient security, it's impossible to check and examine each one of them." Al-Usuquf says the bombs were bought on the black market – five from the former USSR and two from Pakistan. The five Russian heads "are from T-3 missiles, also known as RD-107, and their power is around 100 kilotons each. That is five times the Hiroshima bomb. The Pakistani ones are less powerful, something around 10 kilotons each." Each of the Russian bombs would have cost around $200 million, claims Al-Ususquf. Al-Qaida was able to raise the money "because we have many sponsors. Many countries sponsor us, and also some very rich people." Not all of the sponsoring nations are Arab countries, he says. "Some European countries as well are interested in the fall of the U.S." As to the "rich people," they are "people who are also tired of seeing the U.S. bleeding the rest of the world." Iraq's Saddam Hussein, says Al-Usuquf, is not one of these people, "but just a collaborator, represented by Abdul Tawab Hawaish, his vice prime minister and responsible for Iraq's arms program." Al-Usuquf says that the bombs cannot be detected by U.S. authorities. "Even if they are old, they were modernized and are very well hidden," he told Al-Jazeera. "Even if they were located, they have auto-detonation mechanisms in case something or someone gets close. Even an electromagnetic pulse is not capable of deactivating them." The bombs allegedly cannot be detected because "they are enveloped in thick layers of lead." They could be detonated "by various methods – cellphone call, radio frequency, seismic shock or by their regressive clock." Al-Usuquf details the whole plan in the Al-Jazeera interview. "First, one head would be detonated, which would cause the deaths of 800,000 to 1 million people and a chaos never seen before," he said. "During this chaos, two or three planes, which are now disassembled inside barns near empty roads in the U.S. countryside, would take off in suicide missions to pulverize another two or three big American cities with chemicals. Once the disease was identified, all seaports and airports would be quarantined. Land borders would also be closed. No plane, boat or car would enter or leave the U.S. This would be total chaos." The first target would be the city "that would offer the best conditions, for example bright sky and winds of eight or more miles an hour blowing toward the center of the country, so radioactive dust can contaminate the largest possible area." This attack would not knock out the U.S, recognizes al-Usuquf. "But the process would be initiated," he explains. "As with the World Trade Center, it would be just a question of time for the whole economic structure to be turned to dust. If the objectives are reached with one bomb and diseases, probably we will save the lives of other people, but it's risky, and probably six more bombs will be detonated, one a week, and more attacks with chemical weapons will be launched." According to estimates made by al-Usuquf and Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaida's No. 2 man and a physician, about 15 million people would die, victims of the bombs and the radiation. Among those contaminated by diseases, "25 percent will die, a figure around more than 5 million, plus many others due to the chaos and disorder." But the real cost will be the American economy, says al-Usuquf. The world economy would not collapse, says al-Usuquf, although "in the beginning, it will be very difficult. But without the U.S., the world will soon rise in a more just and fraternal manner. Nothing can stop the plan." And whatever America does, "it's too late." Al-Usuquf refused to give any indication as to when the attacks would begin.
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