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More Details About Jose Padillaâs Involvement With Al-Qaeda
From The Washington Post. Edited to supplement a previous Rantburg posting. .... According to the summary released by the Justice Department, [Jose] Padilla has admitted during interrogations to meeting [Khalid Shaikh] Mohammed, who dispatched him and an unidentified accomplice on a mission to blow up as many as 20 apartment buildings by sealing off units, filling them with natural gas and using timers to set off the explosions. New York was the most likely target, but Washington, Florida, Chicago and other targets were discussed, the government alleged. Padillaâs accomplice is also in custody, Comey said. The government alleges that Padilla first came in contact with terrorist operatives during a trip to Saudi Arabia in March 2000, where he met a Yemeni recruiter, and would later meet with much of al Qaedaâs top echelon, including Mohammed; military commander Muhammad Atef, who became a mentor on terrorist tactics for Padilla; lieutenant Abu Zubaida; and Ramzi Binalshibh, who coordinated the Sept. 11 attacks. All are in U.S. custody except Atef, who was killed in a U.S. military strike in Afghanistan and whose body Padilla helped dig out of the rubble. In March 2000, Padilla told U.S. officials, he made a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, where he met an unidentified terrorist recruiter. Padilla made his way to Kandahar, Afghanistan, where his terrorist training allegedly began. The FBI obtained a copy of Padillaâs training camp application, completed under an alias and found in a binder with more than 100 others, according to the summary. At the al Farouq camp that fall, he was trained in firearms, communications, surveillance, explosives and other skills. During this time he met Atef, then al Qaedaâs military commander. The two would meet several times, including a session in July or August 2001 when Atef asked Padilla to blow up apartment buildings in the United States, the government alleged. His partner in that first mission was another al Qaeda operative, Adnan G. el Shukrijumah, a trained pilot and one of seven al Qaeda associates named in the warning issued last week by Attorney General John D. Ashcroft. According to the summary released yesterday, Padilla and Shukrijumah -- who had known each other in the Miami area -- could not get along, and their mission was scrapped. Shortly after Atefâs death in November 2001, Padilla and an unnamed accomplice approached Zubaida with a plan to "travel to the United States and detonate a nuclear bomb they learned to make on the internet," according to the government documents. Zubaida arranged for Padilla and his accomplice to propose the idea to Mohammed. But both Zubaida and Mohammed believed plans to use nuclear or radioactive material were impractical, and the two al Qaeda leaders steered the volunteers toward blowing up apartment buildings instead. Mohammed envisioned as many as 20 simultaneous explosions, probably in New York, but left the details up to Padilla, the summary says. ... Padilla insists that "he returned to the U.S. with no intention of carrying out the apartment building operation," according to the government document. "However . . . Padilla does admit that he accepted a terrorist mission from al Qaeda, trained for that operation, and then traveled to the U.S." Comey said that FBI and Defense Intelligence Agency personnel conducted the interrogations and Padilla was not mistreated. J.M. Berger points out in his analysis that the governmentâs report "does not cover Padillaâs activities in the United States prior to his departure (in September 1998) nor his connections to persons in the United States." Berger has pointed out possible relationships between Padilla, Shukrijumah, and Timothy McVeigh in Florida. Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-06-03 |
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