DATE=8/6/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=BIN LADEN BOMBING ANNIVERSARY
NUMBER=5-44025
BYLINE=NICK SIMEONE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A year after the terrorist bombings of
two U-S embassies in Africa, suspect Osama Bin
Laden remains at large, and one terrorism expert
predicts he is ready to strike again.
Correspondent Nick Simeone in Washington takes a
look at efforts to apprehend him and protect U-S
targets around the world.
TEXT: An intensive worldwide effort has been
underway for the past year to bring the Saudi
exile and more than dozen of his followers to
justice, as well as to upgrade security at
American missions around the world. But a year
after the U-S embassies in Kenya and Tanzania
were destroyed - and more than 200 lives lost -
Osama Bin Laden eludes capture and the U-S
government fears he is about to strike again.
Threats by the Afghanistan-based Bin Laden and
his Al-Qaeda organization have forced scores of
U-S missions around the world to close
temporarily and in one instance may have even
deterred travel overseas by Defense Secretary
William Cohen. At the height of the summer
tourist season, the F-B-I has been forced to stop
the popular tours at its Washington headquarters
in response to security threats.
In June, U-S officials warned another attack by
Osama Bin Laden and his followers appeared to be
in the planning. Yossef Bodansky is the director
of the Congressional Task force on Terrorism and
Unconventional Warfare. He has just written a
book on the man who has declared war on America,
and is convinced Osama Bin Laden is about to
strike again.
/// FIRST BODANSKY ACT ///
We're sitting on a volcano. We feel the
earth rumbling, there's puffs of smoke
coming from a variety of cracks and
everybody knows that an eruption is
essentially inevitable, probably imminent.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Bodansky says diverse sources in Russia and
the Arab world tell him Osama Bin Laden has
acquired weapons of mass destruction.
/// SECOND BODANSKY ACT ///
Bin Laden does have a diverse collection of
chemical and biological weapons, as well as
nuclear weapons. These are a few of the
ex-Soviet `suitcase' bombs acquired through
the Chechens.
/// END ACT ///
Other experts question whether such bombs really
exist. Still, Paul Leventhal of the Nuclear
Control Institute believes the general threat of
nuclear terrorism - from the Bin Laden network or
otherwise -- is being underestimated, given how
easy it now is to obtain nuclear components.
/// LEVANTHAL ACT ///
If the issue is does he have these supposed KGB
suitcase bombs, I think the very existence of
those bombs was very much in question when
reports first came out. I think overall the
threat of nuclear terrorism is high because of
the loose nukes worries in Russia. But beyond
that, the public does not understand that there's
actually more plutonium in civilian commerce
today than there is in all of the nuclear
arsenals in the world.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Leventhal of the Nuclear Control Institute
says there is a burgeoning plutonium industry
even though there is no real commercial
justification for this anymore.
The FBI is doing its best to capture the Saudi
exile that Washington considers the most
significant terrorist threat overseas, but
pressure from the Clinton administration on
Afghanistan's Taliban faction has failed to lead
to his arrest. Congress is set to approve
several billion dollars to improve security at
American embassies. But a year after the twin
terrorist bombings, most embassies where security
was found to be lacking have yet to be given
security upgrades. (Signed)
NEB/NJS/gm
06-Aug-1999 15:47 PM EDT (06-Aug-1999 1947 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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