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CIA Analyst on al Qaeda: Next Time, Nukes?

Scheuer speaks out; Time highlights Mexico

Last night Michael Scheuer, the CIA bin Laden analyst and anonymous author of Imperial Hubris who resigned from the CIA on Friday, appeared on 60 Minutes. Scheuer said he believes that al Qaeda means to attack the US with nuclear weapons or radiological "dirty bombs," and disclosed that in May 2003 bin Laden obtained a fatwa from a Saudi cleric authorizing the use of nuclear weapons against America. (Scheuer also seems to believe that the bin Laden tape released just before the election may have constituted the convert-to-Islam-or-else warning that many Muslims would expect him to offer non-Muslims before a major attack.)

From CBS's written summary of the 60 Minutes report:

"You've written no one should be surprised when Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda detonate a weapon of mass destruction in the United States," says Kroft. "You believe that's going to happen?"

"I don't believe in inevitability. But I think it's pretty close to being inevitable," says Scheuer.

A nuclear weapon? "A nuclear weapon of some dimension, whether it's actually a nuclear weapon, or a dirty bomb, or some kind of radiological device," says Scheuer. "Yes, I think it's probably a near thing."

What evidence is there that bin Laden's actually working to do this? "He's told us it. Bin Laden is remarkably eager for Americans to know why he doesn't like us, what he intends to do about it and then following up and doing something about it in terms of military actions," says Scheuer. "He's told us that, 'We are going to acquire a weapon of mass destruction, and if we acquire it, we will use it.'"

And this morning Time features a dispatch regarding intelligence reports that al Qaeda may be planning to move WMD or the raw materials for making them through Mexico.

Posted by Steve Perry at November 15, 2004 9:24 AM

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