Title: US arrests man planning radioactive dirty bomb attack
Author:  
Publication: Hindustan Times
Date: June 10, 2002
URL: http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/100602/dlfor54.asp

AFP
Washington, June 1
Investigators have arrested a US citizen closely linked to the Al-Qaeda network and suspected of planning a radioactive dirty bomb attack on the United States, Attorney General John Ashcroft said on Monday.

"We have disrupted an unfolding terrorist plot to attack the United States by exploding a radioactive dirty bomb," Ashcroft told CNN television from Moscow.

"After tracking by US authorities, he was arrested in Chicago after flying in from Pakistan on May 8. He had a US passport."

Ashcroft said the suspect was a known operative of Al-Qaeda, the network run by alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and blamed for the September 11 attacks on the United States.

He said he was "exploring a plan to build and explode a radioactive dirty bomb."