US prevents 'dirty bomb' attack

Attorney General John Ashcroft today said U.S. authorities had captured an al Qaeda operative and prevented an attack on the United States with a radioactive dirty bomb.

"We have captured a known terrorist who was exploring a plan to build and explode a radiological dispersion device, or dirty bomb in the United States," Ashcroft said in a televised announcement from Moscow.

The United States blames Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network for the September 11 hijacking attacks on the United States that killed 3,000 people.

Ashcroft said Abdullah al Mujahir, also known as Jose Padilla, was detained on May 8 after flying into the Chicago O'Hare International Airport from Pakistan.

"On apprehending al Mujahir as he sought entry into the United States, we have disrupted an unfolding terrorist plot to attack the United States by exploding a radioactive dirty bomb," Ashcroft said.

A so-called dirty bomb involves exploding a conventional bomb wrapped in radioactive material that can kill victims in the immediate area and spread highly toxic material to humans, causing mass death and injury.

Ashcroft, in Moscow for meetings with Russian officials, said the U.S. government had "multiple, independent and corroborating sources" that al Mujahir was closely associated with al Qaeda and was "involved in planning future terrorist attacks on innocent American civilians in the United States."

Al Mujahir was being held by the Defence Department as an "enemy combatant" despite the fact that he is a United States citizen.

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