The Times of London -- by Roland Watson and Katty Kay in Washington
FBI officials fear that the arrest of Jose Padilla, the US-born terror suspect, may be a signal for other al-Qaeda operatives to stage attacks.
Padilla, who also used the name Abdullah al-Mujahir, walked knowingly into the hands of the federal authorities at Chicago’s international airport five weeks ago.
The FBI strongly suspects that Padilla knew he was being tailed before his arrest. Many seats around him on the Swiss International Air Lines flight from Zurich to Chicago were taken by agents from the FBI and Swiss intelligence. But even before that, officials believe Padilla was tipped off that he was being followed after agents approached a travel agent he had visited.
The FBI remains puzzled why Padilla should have declared $8,000 on his customs form, rather than the full $10,000 he picked up in Zurich. The discrepancy allowed the authorities to detain him on a currency violation which he could easily have avoided.
Officials remain furious with John Ashcroft, the Attorney-General, for wrecking the publicity of Padilla’s arrest with an overblown account of a “plot” to detonate a radioactive “dirty bomb” that was barely even on an al-Qaeda drawing board. But the FBI is struggling to explain why Padilla, who they regard as a well-trained, ruthless al-Qaeda operative should have walked into their hands, unless it was to act as a signal.
Concerns over Padilla come as US steps up security for Independence Day celebrations.
Al-Qaeda has previously made no habit of staging attacks on symbolic dates. But following September 11, and the going to ground of the organisation in Afghanistan, security officials fear that an attack on July 4, when America is immersed in fireworks and parades, would be the most effective way to show the terror network was far from beaten.
President Bush yesterday expressed his anger at the latest leak of highly sensitive security data after it emerged that on September 10 last year, US intelligence intercepted cryptic warnings of an impending, major event, yet did not translate them until September 12.