From Global Security Newswire www.nti.org

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Alleged Al-Qaeda Operative Indicted in U.S.


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Federal prosecutors yesterday obtained an indictment against an alleged
al-Qaeda member said to have been found carrying instructions on assembling
chemical and biological weapons and radiological "dirty bombs," ABC News
reported (see GSN, Aug. 14).

According to the indictment, the notes held by 36-year-old Aafia Siddiqui
when she was arrested July 17 in Afghanistan included estimated numbers of
people each weapon could kill and potential means of attack that included
"destroying reconnaissance drones, using underwater bombs and using
gliders."

Siddiqui was also allegedly carrying a list of possible New York targets and
roughly 1 liter of cyanide, the indictment states. U.S. analysts have been
examining samples of her hair, saliva and fingernail clippings to determine
whether she has been in the presence of WMD agents.

Siddiqui has been charged with the attempted murder of U.S. interrogators
who tried to speak with her following her capture in Afghanistan.

"Her education troubled us," CIA official John Kiriakou said of Siddiqui,
who attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received a
neuroscience doctorate at Brandeis University.

"We know that she's extremely bright. She's radicalized. We knew that she
had been planning, or at least involved in the planning, of a wide variety
of different operations, whether they involved weapons of mass destruction
or research into chemical or biological weapons, whether it was a possible
attempt on the life of the president," he said. "We knew that she was
involved with a great deal and we had to bring her into custody.

"She is a very dangerous person, no doubt about it," a high-level U.S.
counterterrorism official added (Esposito/Ross, ABC News, Sept. 2).