Mon Jun 10,11:29 AM ET
By TED BRIDIS, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The government arrested a man with an alleged al-aida connection and suspected of plotting to build and detonate a radioactive "dirty" bomb in an attack in the United States, possibly against Washington, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Monday.
Ashcroft said that Abdullah Al Mujahir, also known as Jose Padilla, was in the custody of the U.S. military and was being treated as an enemy combatant. This suggests plans for the first military tribunal of an alleged terrorist since the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon were struck Sept. 11 by hijacked commercial airliners.
The attorney general, who was in Moscow, made the announcement through a television hookup.
Ashcroft said that Mujahir was arrested May 8 as he flew from Pakistan into Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
"We have disrupted an unfolding terrorist plot to attack the United States by exploding a radioactive dirty bomb," he said, adding that the government's suspicions about Mujahir's plans came from "multiple, independent, corroborating sources."
A senior administration official speaking on condition of anonymity said Mujahir was trained by al-Qaida in Afghanistan and Pakistan to wire explosives and to research radioactive dispersal devices. He was not believed to have had a bomb at the time of his apprehension.
