Al Qaeda Feared to Have ‘Dirty Bombs’

After years of experiments, Al Qaeda is now capable of constructing “dirty bombs” and appears ready to launch terrorist attacks using the radioactive devices along with deadly chemical weapons, counter-terrorism authorities said Friday.

Since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon nearly 17 months ago, U.S. officials have publicly stated their fears that the global terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden was trying to acquire and use such devices. But they maintained that Al Qaeda did not have the technology, particularly to launch so-called dirty bombs, which use conventional explosives encased in radioactive waste. When detonated, such portable bombs could disperse significant amounts of radiation, causing poisoning and contamination over a widespread area.

Recent intelligence -- gleaned from Al Qaeda redoubts in Afghanistan, intercepted communications, interrogations and other sources -- indicates that the terrorist network has apparently gained the technology, U.S. and coalition officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Some intercepts have specifically mentioned an interest in using radioactive bombs, but it was unclear whether any such devices were in the hands of the terrorists involved, a senior U.S. counter-terrorism official said.

But U.S. officials said Friday that, while they had no evidence to substantiate that Al Qaeda had actually built such a bomb, they now believe it has done so -- and that it could be planning to use one in the coming months.

The recent intelligence was one factor in the Bush administration’s decision to raise the domestic threat level on Friday. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft referred specifically to the dangerous developments in announcing that the threat level had been elevated to code orange, signifying a “high risk” of attack.

“There has always been a concern about Al Qaeda obtaining biological, chemical and radiological weapons,” said one U.S. counter-terrorism official. “I think that concern is growing, and that is why it was mentioned today. It was not mentioned before in connection with raising the threat level.”

In recent days, other U.S. officials and their allies overseas have been open about their concerns as well.

In his speech before the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell cited Al Qaeda’s recent interest in the use of ricin, one of the most toxic of poisons.

On Thursday, the State Department took the unusual step of warning U.S. citizens overseas that they face an increased risk of being attacked with chemical, biological and radioactive devices -- a threat it has never raised before.

And a top-ranking intelligence official for one of the United States’ major European allies said Al Qaeda is perhaps stronger than ever -- and successfully moving away from conventional terrorist attacks such as assassinations and bombings using conventional explosives and into the realm of chemical, biological and radiological warfare.

“They haven’t got access to nuclear,” the official said after meeting with U.S. counter-terrorism authorities and White House officials in Washington. “But they have got the capability of creating so-called dirty bombs. And they have made some experiments with chemical and biological [agents]. We have some information that they were active with these things.”

U.S. counter-terrorism officials on Friday said they were particularly worried about Al Qaeda’s plans to launch attacks using ricin, a poison so deadly -- and without an antidote -- that anyone coming into contact with less than a thimbleful will die within 72 hours. They noted that ricin is very difficult to use as a weapon of mass destruction because of its chemical makeup and its highly lethal nature.

Nevertheless, in recent weeks, European authorities have broken up several cells of Al Qaeda terrorists that they allege were planning attacks with the substance.

Powell, in his United Nations address, said at least 116 suspected co-conspirators had been arrested in raids in France, Britain, Spain and Italy.

One U.S. intelligence official said authorities believe more Al Qaeda operatives are still at large and plotting some kind of imminent, coordinated attack using the poison against Western targets overseas.

“When you get intelligence from so many different directions and see so many people running around with this stuff -- 116 people connected to that one plot line alone -- you get concerned that something is up,” the official said. “It is a lot of people in a lot of European capitals, so you have to wonder which ones didn’t you get.”

Al Qaeda also appears to have the capability of making a dirty bomb, which, while not capable of inflicting mass casualties, could cause widespread panic and radiation poisoning.

“We have seen, both from the practice of Al Qaeda and from the law enforcement work of individuals around the world and from the intelligence community, that Al Qaeda continues to demonstrate a very serious interest in chemical, biological as well as radiological devices, the impacts of which would obviously be adverse,” Ashcroft said Friday at a news conference at Justice Department headquarters. “It’s based on those considerations, as well as others, that we find this occasion one in which we feel that we should elevate this designation from ‘elevated state’ to a ‘high state’ of alert.”

Citing documents seized in Afghanistan, Britain’s government last week confirmed that it had evidence that Al Qaeda was developing a so-called dirty bomb.

British intelligence agencies released documents showing that Al Qaeda had already constructed a small dirty bomb at a laboratory in the Afghan city of Herat, using radioactive isotopes taken from medical equipment supplied by the former Taliban regime.

British spies had infiltrated Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan and discovered that Bin Laden had made the development of such devices a top priority, along with biological and chemical warfare agents. Intelligence material shown to the British Broadcasting Corp. revealed that the agents brought back secret documents, diagrams and reports to back up their claims.

The intelligence officials noted that the agents never found such a device, but that Al Qaeda had written a training manual on how to use the weapon with maximum effect.

U.S. officials said evidence gathered in Afghanistan and the questioning of Al Qaeda detainees -- as well as electronic intercepts -- show that Al Qaeda had long sought the expertise needed to make a dirty bomb. One Al Qaeda leader, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, was said to be obsessed with it; he is still at large, despite a $25-million U.S. bounty on his head.

U.S. authorities also have said a former Chicago gang member, Jose Padilla, was part of an Al Qaeda plot to detonate a dirty bomb in the United States. He was arrested in Chicago last year as he exited a plane; authorities said he was on a scouting mission.