Al Qaeda seeks nuclear weapon: US

"In keeping with Al-Qaeda's normal management structures, such as the role of Khalid Sheikh Muhammad in the 9/11 attacks, there is probably a single individual in charge, overseeing the effort to obtain materials and expertise,"
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(April 05, Washington, Sri Lanka Guardian) Director in the Office of Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence, Department of Energy Rolf Mowatt-Larssen has told lawmakers that Al Qaeda is seeking a nuclear weapon to carry out a strike.

'Our post-9/11 successes against the Taliban in Afghanistan yielded volumes of information that completely changed our view of Al Qaeda's nuclear programme,' he said.

'We learned that Al Qaeda wants a weapon to use, not a weapon to sustain and build a stockpile,' he warned.

"Al-Qaeda thinks and plans dynamically, and they rarely follow straightforward, linear paths to their targets.

We need to be just as flexible and dynamic in our response," Larssen told lawmakers.

He warned that an Al-Qaeda nuclear attack would be in the planning stages at the same time as several other plots, and only the most senior leadership of the terrorist outfit will know which plot will be approved.

"In keeping with Al-Qaeda's normal management structures, such as the role of Khalid Sheikh Muhammad in the 9/11 attacks, there is probably a single individual in charge, overseeing the effort to obtain materials and expertise," Mowatt-Larssen said.

Allen was at the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs headed by Senator Joseph Lieberman when he said that some experts may have joined Al-Qaeda years ago, long before the world began paying adequate attention to the proliferation of the kinds of technologies that could yield a nuclear weapon.

- Sri Lanka Guardian