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Al-Qaida plotting nuclear attack on UK, officials warn

Vikram Dodd
Tuesday November 14, 2006
The Guardian

British intelligence officials believe that al-Qaida is determined to attack the UK with a nuclear weapon, it emerged yesterday. The announcement, from an officially organised Foreign Office counter-terrorism briefing for the media, was the latest in a series of bleak assessments by senior officials and ministers about the terrorist threat facing Britain.

UK officials have detected "an awful lot of chatter" on jihadi websites expressing the desire to acquire chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons.

Asked whether there was any doubt that al-Qaida was trying to gain the technology to attack the west, including the UK, with a nuclear weapon, a senior Foreign Office counter-terrorism official said: "No doubt at all."

The official explained: "We know the aspiration is there, we know the attempt to get material is there, we know the attempt to get technology is there."

The warning comes after a speech last week by the foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, on the terrorist threat facing the UK, and a rare public outing for Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, the head of MI5, who warned that there were at least 30 active plots to attack Britain.

With new counter-terrorism measures to be unveiled in tomorrow's Queen's speech, the weekend saw Gordon Brown back an extension to the time for which terrorism suspects can be held without charge, beyond the current 28 days.

The senior Foreign Office official said that the US and Russia had within the past fortnight signed an agreement to toughen nuclear counter-proliferation measures. Last week a British man, Dhiren Barot, was jailed for at least 40 years after pleading guilty to plotting attacks against the UK and US, including the use of a "dirty bomb". Such a device would spread low-level radiation, primarily causing panic among the public. In last week's case the plan would have needed material from 10,000 smoke alarms, leading some to doubt that the plot was viable.

For al-Qaida and jihadis, a devastating nuclear attack on Britain, not just the use of a "dirty bomb', would be part of the desire and agenda to cripple the west, sources said.

The senior Foreign Office official said: "There are people for whom it would be a triumph for the cause."

The network of the rogue Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, which is feared to have sold nuclear technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea, was broken up three years ago, but there are fears that other illegal networks may exist.

British counter terrorism officials believe plots they have thwarted and plots they claim are being hatched have strong links to Pakistan. They say hundreds of Britons travelled in the past year to Pakistan for terrorism activity, including training in camps and acting as couriers for messages. Officials also believe Britons are taking cash to terrorists in Pakistan.

Al-Qaida plotting nuclear attack on UK, officials warn (http://politics.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1947295,00.html)