N O T E B O O K
Bordering On Nukes?
New accounts from al-Qaeda to attack the U.S. with weapons of mass destruction
By ADAM ZAGORIN
Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004
A key al-Qaeda operative seized in Pakistan recently offered an
alarming account of the group's potential plans to target the U.S.
with weapons of mass destruction, senior U.S. security officials tell
TIME. Sharif al-Masri, an Egyptian who was captured in late August
near Pakistan's border with Iran and Afghanistan, has told his
interrogators of "al-Qaeda's interest in moving nuclear materials
from Europe to either the U.S. or Mexico,"
according to a report circulating among U.S. government officials.
Masri also said al-Qaeda has considered plans to "smuggle nuclear
materials to Mexico, then operatives would carry
material into the U.S.," according to the report, parts of which were
read to TIME. Masri says his family, seeking refuge from al-Qaeda
hunters, is now in Iran.
Masri's account, though unproved, has added to already heightened
U.S. concerns about Mexico. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge met
publicly with top Mexican officials last week to discuss border
security and smuggling rings that could be used to slip al-Qaeda
terrorists into the country. Weeks prior to Ridge's lightning visit,
U.S. and Mexican intelligence conferred about reports from several
al-Qaeda detainees indicating the potential use of Mexico as a
staging area "to acquire end-stage chemical, biological,
radiological and nuclear
material." U.S. officials have begun to keep a closer eye on
heavy-truck traffic across the border. The Mexicans will also focus
on flight schools and aviation facilities on their side of the frontier. And another episode has some senior U.S. officials worried: the theft of a crop-duster aircraft south of San Diego, apparently by three men from
southern Mexico who assaulted a watchman and then flew off in a
southerly direction. Though the theft's connection to terrorism
remains unclear, a senior U.S. law-enforcement official notes that
crop dusters can be used to disperse toxic substances. The plane,
stolen at night two weeks ago, has not been recovered.
— With reporting by Syed Talat Hussain
From the Nov. 22, 2004 issue of TIME magazine
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