Mint may have been al-Qaeda target
Among the information uncovered in a former safehouse in Kabul was
plans for an attack in Philadelphia, NBC News said.
By John J. Lumpkin
ASSOCIATED PRESS
By John J. Lumpkin
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - U.S. officials uncovered rudimentary diagrams of nuclear
weapons in a suspected al-Qaeda safehouse in Kabul, a U.S. intelligence report
says.
Also found were plans to attack the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, NBC News
reported yesterday, citing U.S. officials.
The discovery of the nuclear weapons diagrams provides further evidence of
al-Qaeda's efforts to acquire such weapons to use in terrorist attacks. The
unclassified report, submitted by CIA Director George Tenet to Congress and
released yesterday, says that the "diagrams, while crude, describe essential
components - uranium and high explosives - common to nuclear weapons."
The report says terrorists aren't believed to have a functional weapon,
however.
Other evidence obtained in Afghanistan shows that al-Qaeda operatives have
fallen for a number of scams in their attempts to acquire nuclear weapons and
other weapons of mass destruction, a senior government analyst said.
"That's good news for us," said Gary Richter, a terrorism expert with the
Energy Department's Sandia National Laboratories. "It shows they really don't
know what they are doing. If they knew to turn away these scam artists, it would
be frightening."
Richter said he has examined several items recovered from al-Qaeda caches
in Afghanistan, all of which were believed to be tied to the terrorist group's
attempts to develop or buy weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear
devices. From them, Richter concluded that al-Qaeda operatives tried to buy such
weapons several times, paying cash for items that turned out to be worthless.
"They'll buy junk," he said, adding that they appear to be very naive
regarding nuclear weapons.
Richter declined to describe the items he has examined, but he said they
showed an encouraging lack of technical sophistication in the group. He did not
know how much money al-Qaeda had spent on trying to buy these weapons.
"We're not talking about dullards. But their forte, their whole M.O., tends
to be more brute force than high-tech," he said. "Al-Qaeda is not a techie kind
of organization, and they've fallen flat on their faces in some areas."
He also declined to say from whom al-Qaeda tried to purchase the weapons.
U.S. troops and intelligence officers searching through abandoned caves, safe
houses and camps belonging to the group have discovered some canisters and
chemistry apparatus, some of which had Russian markings.
Richter echoed statements from U.S. defense and intelligence officials that
al-Qaeda has developed a crude ability to use industrial chemicals as weapons -
like those used on the battlefields in the early part of World War I.
But he said the terrorist group lacks the sophistication to deliver these
weapons in a way that would kill mass numbers of people. Other officials have
said al-Qaeda could probably deploy chlorine, phosgene and some biological
toxins as weapons.
Much of the terrorists' interest centers on chemical weapons, such as
cyanide salts, that could be used to contaminate food and water supplies and
assassinate individuals, says the Tenet report.
Other evidence uncovered in Afghanistan includes diagrams of American
nuclear power plants, showing al-Qaeda's interest in striking these targets, but
it's unclear how far along those plans were, a defense official said.
Officials were unaware of finds noting specific times or operatives who
would conduct a particular attack. Instead, the documents seem to be part of
al-Qaeda's research, and they provide insight to the terrorist group's thought
process in selecting and planning attacks, said the official, speaking on
condition of anonymity.
A photograph of the Space Needle in Seattle was among documents discovered
in a computer system in Afghanistan, Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said
Wednesday.
Also found were plans to attack the Los Angeles International Airport and
Mint in Philadelphia, NBC News reported yesterday.
Sylvester Johnson, acting Philadelphia police commissioner, said he was
unaware of any specific threat against the mint.
Johnson said that the city had received intelligence reports in the past
that suggested a threat, but that they had turned out to be false.
A spokesperson for the mint could not immediately be reached for comment.
An earlier plot to bomb the airport was foiled two years ago when the
alleged terrorist was arrested crossing the border from Canada into the United
States.
FBI spokesman Matthew McLaughlin in Los Angeles said he had not seen the
NBC report and could not immediately comment.
NBC also reported that information was found in Afghanistan about the Grand
Coulee Dam in central Washington state. The Bureau of Reclamation's Craig
Sprankle, a spokesman for the Grand Coulee Dam, said he would not discuss any
recent warnings on the massive Columbia River structure.
A senior defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said
soldiers had found a lot of information at al-Qaeda sites in Afghanistan that
refers to landmarks, buildings and the like both in the United States and other
countries.
The official cautioned, however, that just because al-Qaeda had a picture
or diagram of a specific site does not necessarily mean that site was a planned
target for a terrorist attack.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Associated Press writer H. Josef Hebert contributed to this article.
Associated Press writer H. Josef Hebert contributed to this article.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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