Chief terror suspect Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network have acquired nuclear materials for possible use in their war against the West, a British paper said yesterday quoting intelligence sources.
The suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 atrocities in Washington and New York does not have the capability to mount a nuclear attack but would if he could, unnamed intelligence sources told The Times newspaper.
The nuclear materials are thought to have been obtained illegally from Pakistan, which has nuclear capabilities.
This information lies behind British Prime Minister Tony Blair's repeated warnings that bin Laden would commit worse atrocities if he could and also explained the speed with which the allies went after bin Laden, the daily said.
An informed source told The Times that bin Laden appeared to have amassed a terrifying range of weapons although he insisted that he did not have the capacity to launch a nuclear attack.
"There has been clear evidence for several years that bin Laden's agents have been trying to buy, steal or smuggle nuclear systems in order to attack the West," the paper said.
"He [bin Laden] has said that it was his `religious duty' to seek to acquire the chemical, biological and nuclear weapons of mass destruction," it added.
However, intelligence sources, quoted by The Times, were concerned that bin Laden could obtain radioactive material for a "dirty bomb."
Instead of being used in an atomic weapon, the material could be dispersed in an urban environment killing hundreds and leaving thousands exposed to radioactive poisoning.
In 1993, a top-level bin Laden agent, Jamal al-Fadi, met a Sudanese military commander in Khartoum to negotiate the sale of an enriched uranium cylinder for a black market price of US$1.7 million, the paper said.
A separate al-Qaeda attempt to buy weapons-grade nuclear material through the Russian mafia was foiled in Prague when several kilograms of highly enriched uranium were seized, according to a German TV report last week.
The news comes days after Pakistani authorities detained a former top government nuclear scientist over links between his relief agency and Afghanistan's ruling Taliban regime.
Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, who was a project director in Pakistan's nuclear program in the lead-up to the nation's nuclear tests in 1998, was detained for questioning on Tuesday.
A Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman, however, said yesterday that the allegation was absurd.
"Our nuclear materials are in very safe hands, these are absurd allegations," spokesman Riaz Mohammad Khan said.
In May 1998, Pakistan became a nuclear power when it conducted a series of nuclear tests in response to tests by South Asian rival India.
The US led the world in imposing economic and military sanctions on both countries following the nuclear tests.
But Washington withdrew the sanctions after Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf decided to back US-led military action against Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
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