Al-Qaeda stepping up efforts to develop 'dirty bomb': report
Source: SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT November 24, 2008 NEW YORK - MI-6, the British intelligence agency, has issued a global warning to all security services that Islamic terrorists are now closer to obtaining material to create a “dirty bomb” to launch against Western targets, according to a report in a newspaper owned by a New York-based company.
The Epoch Times said MI6 agents based in Islamabad fear the mounting instability in Pakistan will make it easier for them to do so.
Noting that Osama bin Laden assigned a priority to the project, the report quoted his words that every “true Muslim must make it his duty to assist in all ways possible to find the next powerful weapon to destroy our enemies”.
"Groups such as the newly formed Pakistan Taliban have proclaimed it is focusing on creating a 'dirty bomb'," it said.
"After the election of the new Pakistani president, the controversial Asif Ali Zardari, who has served a nine-year jail term on corruption charges he has strongly denied, MI6 fear there will be little ability to provide strong leadership against the new wave of Islamic extremism that al-Qaeda has launched across the country," the report said.
The report also tried to implicate Dr. A.Q. Khan, saying that restrictions on A.Q. Khan’s detention have been virtually lifted" "a decision that has alarmed Western diplomats in Pakistan".
In a “dirty bomb”, conventional explosives are surrounded with radioactive material. The device, while having a limited effect as a nuclear weapon, would create widespread panic, it said.