NEW YORK, 16 November 2004 — A key Al-Qaeda operative seized in Pakistan recently has told interrogators of the terror network’s “interest in moving nuclear materials from Europe to either the US or Mexico,” Time.com reported Sunday, citing a report circulating among US government officials.
According to Time.com, Egyptian Sharif Al-Masri said that Al-Qaeda has considered plans to “smuggle nuclear materials to Mexico, then operatives would carry material into the US, the report said.
Time.com said that Masri was captured in late August near Pakistan’s border with Iran and Afghanistan.
The report said that US Homeland Security chief 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 before Ridge met with the Mexican officials, Time.com reported, US 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.”
US officials have begun to keep a closer eye on heavy-truck traffic across the border, Time.com said.
Mexico will also focus on domestic flight schools and aviation facilities.
Time.com said that some senior US officials are concerned about the theft of a cropduster plane south of San Diego two weeks ago, apparently by three men from southern Mexico who assaulted a watchman and then flew off in a southerly direction.
Time.com reported that though the theft’s connection to terrorism remains unclear, a senior US law enforcement official noted that crop dusters can be used to disperse toxic substances. The plane has yet to be recovered.
