X-Message-Number: 17766
Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2001 16:24:16 -0700 (PDT)
From: Driven FromThePack <>
Subject: Re: OBL+15 kg of U235== Move Alcor?

More on how OBL will strike against the USA:


TIME also has learned that the FBI's preventive
efforts are focusing increasingly on trucks as
vehicles for terrorism. "U.S. roads are jammed with
bombs on wheels," writes TIME's John Cloud, "30,000
vehicles that transport poisonous gas, toxic liquids,
petroleum products and explosives."

Since drivers of rigs hauling dangerous loads must
have both a commercial driver's license and a
hazardous material ("haz-mat") endorsement from a
state, FBI agents and other law enforcers have
contacted or visited dozens of the 600 truck-driving
schools across the U.S., reports TIME's Michael
Weisskopf. They are seeking enrollment records going
as far back as 1994. 

"State officials say that a former employee of Careers
in Trucking in Henderson, Colo., has given the Denver
FBI office a promising lead," according to TIME: "25
to 35 Arab men attended the school in small groups
over the past two years, the ex-employee says. Each
student paid $3,400 in cash for the 15-day program and
none sought job placement afterward. Because none of
the students spoke English, they were accompanied by
an interpreter, the same person for each group. 

Arab students received a driver s license, sources
say. (It s not clear how they passed the written test,
which is in English.) Owner Charlie Tweedy says FBI
agents have examined his files and interviewed his
employees. But he denied that his company had taught
non-English speakers." 

---------------------


EVIDENCE has emerged of a plan by Osama Bin Laden to
manufacture a "dirty bomb" that could spray nuclear
material over highly populated areas. 

British intelligence services are investigating claims
by a Bulgarian businessman that he was approached
earlier this year by a middleman for Bin Laden seeking
to obtain highly radioactive material. 

The pair discussed setting up an environmental company
as a front to buy nuclear waste that could be combined
with conventional explosives to create a "dirty bomb".


It is believed to be at least the fourth attempt by
Bin Laden to obtain nuclear material. The Saudi
terrorist has publicly vowed to gain weapons of mass
destruction. 

The latest approach was made in April after Ivan
Ivanov, a Bulgarian businessman with long-standing
ties to a Middle Eastern contracting firm, was invited
to Pakistan. 

On his arrival in Peshawar, Ivanov, a former Bulgarian
intelligence officer, said it became clear his hosts
were enthusiastic supporters of Bin Laden. They
apparently saw his political links in eastern Europe
as a "useful asset". 

Speaking in a cafe on the outskirts of Sofia last
week, Ivanov recalled how the men took him to see Bin
Laden, who was speaking at a religious festival on
April 10 on the outskirts of Peshawar. 

At the time Bin Laden was wanted for his alleged
involvement in the bombing in 1998 of two American
embassies in Africa, in which more than 200 people had
been killed. Yet Ivanov claimed uniformed Pakistani
soldiers armed with M-16 machine guns had provided
security. 

A day later, Ivanov said he was taken on a rough
mountainous bus ride along Pakistan's remote border
with China. There he was led to a secret location,
where he was introduced to Bin Laden as "our partner
from Europe". 

When Ivanov discreetly checked his Magellan 310 global
positioning system, it showed the meeting had actually
taken place in China. Western intelligence sources
described the meeting near the Pakistani border as
"credible". 

Ivanov then travelled with his new business associates
to a large villa in Rawalpindi. The next day he was
approached by a Pakistani scientist who described
himself as chemical engineer. 

The scientist, who was highly educated and spoke
almost fluent English, said he was interested in
obtaining spent nuclear fuel rods from the Kozlodui
nuclear electricity plant in Bulgaria. 

"He wanted a legitimate way of buying nuclear waste
from the power plant," said Ivanov. "He was ready to
give me money in advance to find local companies to
help him to export this material." 

Ivanov was offered $200,000 ( 137,000) to help set up
an environmental firm to buy nuclear waste, and asked
if he would run the company. He declined the offer
and, on his return home, informed officials in
Bulgaria of the meeting. 

British authorities in Pakistan later discovered the
49-year-old scientist had been issued with two
six-month visas to visit Britain in the last two
years. They are now investigating his links with the
Bin Laden network. 

Although his trips to Britain remain a mystery,
intelligence officials believe the scientist may have
met sympathisers at British universities or tried to
set up front companies similar to the one planned in
Bulgaria. 

Ivanov's account of the Bin Laden plot has been backed
by Velizar Shalamanov, the former Bulgarian deputy
defence minister, who last week said Ivanov had worked
for the government. 

A British diplomatic source in Pakistan said: "This
appears to be a sophisticated plot using a scientist
and a credible front company, and that is a concern." 

Although British intelligence believes Bin Laden's
Al-Qaeda network may have some crude chemical weapons
such as cyanide, there is no evidence to suggest he
has obtained any nuclear material. 

In September 1998 Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, alleged to be
a high-level aide to Bin Laden, was arrested in
Germany after trying to buy low- grade nuclear reactor
fuel. 

Jamal al-Fadl, a former Bin Laden aide, told the FBI
he had witnessed Al-Qaeda members trying to buy
enriched uranium in the mid-1990s, according to court
documents. He also claimed to have been to Sudan,
where an associate of an army officer tried to sell
him uranium for  1m. 

Bin Laden has never made any secret of his interest in
acquiring nuclear weapons. In an interview in January
1999, he said: "It would be a sin for Muslims not to
try to possess the weapons that would prevent the
infidels from inflicting harm on Muslims." 



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