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Story Filed: Monday, June 10, 2002 10:49 AM EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. government has arrested an alleged al Qaida terrorist who plotted to build and detonate a radiological ``dirty'' bomb, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Monday.
Ashcroft said Abdullah Al Mujahir was in the custody of the U.S. military and being treated as an enemy combatant, suggesting plans for the first military tribunal of an alleged terrorist.
The attorney general, who was in Moscow, made the announcement through a television hookup.
Ashcroft said Al Mujahir, also known as Jose Padilla, was arrested May 8 as he flew from Pakistan into Chicago O'Hare International Airport.
``We have disrupted an unfolding terrorist plot to attack the United States by exploding a radioactive dirty bomb,'' Ashcroft said.
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 Qaida officials. Ashcroft said Mujahir ``trained with the enemy, including studying how to wire explosive devices and researching radiological dispersion devices.''
Ashcroft said al Qaida 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.
Copyright © 2002 Associated Press Information Services
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. government has arrested an alleged al Qaida terrorist who plotted to build and detonate a radiological ``dirty'' bomb, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Monday.
Ashcroft said Abdullah Al Mujahir was in the custody of the U.S. military and being treated as an enemy combatant, suggesting plans for the first military tribunal of an alleged terrorist.
The attorney general, who was in Moscow, made the announcement through a television hookup.
Ashcroft said Al Mujahir, also known as Jose Padilla, was arrested May 8 as he flew from Pakistan into Chicago O'Hare International Airport.
``We have disrupted an unfolding terrorist plot to attack the United States by exploding a radioactive dirty bomb,'' Ashcroft said.
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 Qaida officials. Ashcroft said Mujahir ``trained with the enemy, including studying how to wire explosive devices and researching radiological dispersion devices.''
Ashcroft said al Qaida 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.
Copyright © 2002 Associated Press Information Services
