Evidence Points To Dirty-Bomb Plot; An eyewitness has placed suspected al-Qaeda organizer Adnan El Shukrijumah near a small Canadian nuclear reactor that reportedly is missing some nuclear waste

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Nov 10, 2003

Byline: Scott L. Wheeler, INSIGHT

Hamilton, Ontario - Adnan El Shukrijumah is a suspected al-Qaeda organizer who is the subject of a worldwide manhunt by the FBI and CIA. He is believed to be working on Osama bin Laden's plan to trigger a radiological disaster inside the United States the so-called "dirty-bomb" scenario where a small charge would trigger dispersion of radiation over a large area, wreaking havoc on those caught in the blast and making the blast area uninhabitable. High-grade uranium is not necessary for this project; ordinary, low-grade nuclear waste will be deadly enough. El Shukrijumah has eluded capture. But Insight in field interviews has obtained evidence that he was spotted several times last year on the campus of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

Now, subsequent to Insight's field investigation, news reports are saying that "an FBI source" has confirmed El Shukrijumah's presence. McMaster University is the site of a 5,000-watt research reactor, as well as the university hospital that routinely generates nuclear waste. It is alleged that some of that waste has gone missing, but McMaster has refused to confirm or deny that report to this magazine. Insight already had interviewed a confidential informant who tipped off the FBI about El Shukrijuma. The confidential informant tells Insight that El Shukrijumah "said he was a student" and had met with him "five or six times" in 2002, the last time in November. Months later, in March 2003, the confidential informant recognized El Shukrijumah's photograph on television and says, "I got sick to my stomach."

According to the confidential informant, El Shukrijumah was "always alone," he "didn't talk much," but "said he was from the Middle East." The FBI lists El Shukrijumah's place of birth as Saudi Arabia, though the Saudi government denies that he is a citizen. On Sept. 5, the Saudi Embassy issued a statement that read, in part, "The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia again feels the need to correct the issue regarding the nationality of Mr. Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, wanted in connection with possible threats against the United States. ... Shukrijumah is not, and never has been, a Saudi citizen, as had been widely reported." The statement declared that the suspect's father,

"Gulshai El Shukrijumah, worked in Saudi Arabia for 27 years as an expatriate employee until 1986. ... The father did not have Saudi citizenship."

The FBI alerts state that "El Shukrijumah speaks English and carries a Guyanese passport, but may attempt to enter the U.S. with a Saudi, Canadian or Trinidadian passport." The Saudi Embassy statement repeats for emphasis that El Shukrijumah is "not a Saudi citizen and if he is traveling using a Saudi passport, then he has obtained it and is using it illegally."

A well-placed source with ties to McMaster University tells Insight that in early May he was made aware of a concern on campus about "missing nuclear material" amounting to "82 or 86 kilos [180 or 189 pounds]." McMaster officials have been adroit in responding to Insight's inquiries about El Shukrijumah, saying they are not aware of a student by that name attending the university but declined to provide similar information about the suspect's aliases. The FBI alert lists El Shukrijumah's aliases as Abu Arif, Ja'far Al-Tayar, Jaffar Al-Tayyar, Jafar Tayar and Jaafar Al-Tayyar.

Jayne Johnston, a university spokeswoman, admits that "these are very serious allegations," involving as they do the possibility of missing nuclear material.

She says "the media focus comes back to us to ask what truth is there to these allegations. Well none that we are aware of. ... We don't have that information to provide." While addressing concerns about the nuclear reactor, she sidestepped the issue of security over and losses of radioactive material on campus.

This presents U.S. and Canadian security with a nuclear scare of the most likely sort. The raw byproduct of a nuclear reactor or the waste from nuclear medicine is not sufficiently concentrated to create a nuclear chain reaction for an atomic explosion, but radiological waste is a threat as part of what commonly is called a "dirty bomb." A report on terrorism issued by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) describes a dirty bomb as "a radiological weapon" created from "a conventional explosive such as dynamite packaged with radioactive material that scatters when the bomb goes off." The explosion, according to the report, "kills or injures through the initial blast of the conventional explosive and by airborne radiation and contamination, hence the term 'dirty.'"

Peter M. Leitner, president of the Higgins Counter-Terrorism Research Foundation, tells Insight that the threat of a dirty bomb is "enormous." And, he says,

"The materials are not hard to get it is available at hospitals, X-ray clinics and industrial sites." As a terror weapon designed both to kill and to create panic it is very nasty indeed [see "Searching for 'Dirty Bombs,'" Jan. 21-Feb. 3].