A wealthy Pakistani businessman being held at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison camp for suspected terrorism ties urged al Qaeda operatives to acquire nuclear weapons for use against U.S. troops and said he knew where to get them, according to American investigators. The allegation, contained in documents filed recently in U.S. District Court in Washington, also identifies Saifullah Paracha, 57, who has an import business in New York, as a participant in a plot to smuggle explosives into the United States and to help al Qaeda hide "large amounts of money."
There are few details about the smuggling plot and little additional information about what the businessman, a permanent U.S. resident who's been held 19 months without charges, may have known about how to obtain nuclear weapons. Paracha, during a review tribunal of his case in November at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, vigorously denied any ties to al Qaeda and scoffed at the nuclear allegation. "Is a nuclear weapon something I could buy off the shelf? Can you buy it from Tony Blair?" he told a panel of military officers, referring to the British prime minister.
| "Could I buy one from Abdul Qadeer Khan?" |
Top American officials have warned that al Qaeda has sought nuclear materials and that a network of Pakistani scientists sold nuclear technology and expertise to Libya, Iran and North Korea. |