Osama bin Laden may be closer than first thought to developing a crude nuclear weapon, the Washington Postreported today.
Fears that bin Laden's al-Qaeda network might be close to developing a "dirty bomb" was a factor in the United States's decision yesterday to issue a new warning of possible attacks, the newspaper reported.
"US intelligence agencies have recently concluded that Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terrorist network may have made greater strides than previously thought toward obtaining plans or materials to make a crude radiological weapon that would use conventional explosives to spread radioactivity over a wide area, according to US and foreign sources," the Postsaid.
The newspaper said the alert was raised from interrogation of captured al-Qaeda members and evidence gathered in the last month at al-Qaeda facilities in Afghanistan by CIA officers and US special forces.
The Postsaid the "dirty bomb" could be made by taking highly radioactive material, such as spent reactor fuel rods, and wrapping it around readily available conventional explosives.
"The device is designed to kill or injure, not through its explosive force but by creating a zone of intense radiation that could extend several city blocks," the newspaper said.
It said a diagram of a "dirty bomb" was found in a Taliban or al Qaeda installation in Afghanistan in recent weeks.
The newspaper said recent intelligence reports had also described a meeting in the last year attended by bin Laden at which one of his associates produced a cannister that allegedly contained radioactive material.