Osama Nuke Fear for U.S.

Officials say terror chief's goal hellstorm like 1945 Hiroshima blast

March 13, 2003
By James Gordon Meek, Daily News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - The manhunt for Osama Bin Laden has become more urgent because of growing fears among intelligence officials that he is obsessed with building a nuclear bomb to explode on U.S. soil.

Federal intelligence and energy officials worry that Bin Laden's terrorists will build an improvised nuclear weapon and smuggle it into the U.S., possibly in a container ship, according to well-placed sources.

His goal, they believe, is a nuclear hellstorm like the 1945 Hiroshima blast that killed 140,000 Japanese.

Unlike smaller-scale attacks, which can be planned and authorized by lower-level leaders, the chain of command in Al Qaeda's nuke project answers directly to Bin Laden, right-hand man Ayman Al-Zawahiri and an unidentified scientist called "Dr. X," the sources said.

Alarming new statements by a top Al Qaeda lieutenant - in U.S. custody for the past year - add to evidence of Bin Laden's doomsday bomb ambition.

On Feb. 2, captured Al Qaeda planner Abu Zubaydah was asked what type of "new" attack would "surprise" America.

"Zubaydah's first response was nuclear, although he has continually stated that he does not believe that Al Qaeda acquired nuclear weapons," said a secret Feb. 19 intelligence bulletin obtained by the Daily News.

Some in government suspect Al Qaeda has a secret A-bomb lab in Sudan, Pakistan or Yemen. Other officials doubt it.

No definite plot

The CIA says no specific nuclear plot has been uncovered, but one U.S. official described Bin Laden's bomb lust as "on our screen for a long time."

"It is clear that Al Qaeda is moving in that direction amidst obstacles," said British terrorism expert Rohan Kumar Gunaratna, author of "Inside Al Qaeda."

The furtherance of Bin Laden's nuclear ambitions has alarmed others outside the intelligence community.

"The greatest danger we face is a nuclear bomb being smuggled into this country," Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. "The amazing thing is how little we're doing about it."

"The probability of us stopping a bomb from being smuggled into the U.S., unfortunately, is small," said Matthew Bunn, a Harvard University nuclear terrorism expert who co-wrote a report on the threat released yesterday by Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

Though difficult for terrorists to build, an A-bomb detonated inside Grand Central Terminal would vaporize a half-million New Yorkers, the report said.

Recruitment drive

Sources say Al Qaeda has tried to recruit disgruntled nuclear scientists overseas, particularly in Pakistan, where nine scientists were reported missing last January.

"One of the great worries is that the Pakistani nuclear core is infiltrated by Taliban and Al Qaeda," Schumer said.

The U.S., through its allies, has bought off some foreign nuclear scientists and jailed others, the sources said.

Pakistan insists it keeps tabs on nuclear experts. "Their whereabouts are observed and their travel is observed," a Pakistani official told The News.

He pointed to Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, the fired chief of Pakistan's plutonium energy project, who was jailed for a year after U.S. intelligence grew suspicious of him in 2001. Mahmood later admitted he twice met with Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri about A-bomb production.

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