Global Jihad: temi, piste di diffusione e il fenomeno del reducismo ...

Threats and attempts at nuclear terrorism allow for less debate over interpretation.
Trial testimony has revealed that al-Qa’ida training camps offered instruction in
urban warfare against Western installations including nuclear power plants. In
November 2001, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) was
requested to translate and analyse documents recovered in the aftermath of the
Taliban’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. It was subsequently discovered that these
documents included:
“…instructor guides on making conventional explosives; edited, mass-produced
instructional materials; nuclear weapon documents; student notebooks; and
information about the activities and plans of Pakistani nuclear scientists in
Afghanistan.” 139
However, a subsequent report by the ISIS expressed doubt that al-Qa’ida, under
leadership of Osama bin Laden, possessed nuclear weapons or capabilities, stating
the ISIS:
“…found no credible evidence that either bin Laden or al-Qa’ida
possesses nuclear
weapons
or sufficient fissile material to make them. However, if al-Qa’ida obtained
enough plutonium or highly enriched uranium, we believe it is capable of building a
crude nuclear explosive, despite several difficult steps. We cannot say absolutely
whether al-Qa’ida possesses fissile material, but to our knowledge no evidence of
possession has surfaced.” 140
What is known, however, is that al-Qa’ida has previously, unsuccessfully, attempted
to procure highly enriched uranium in the mid-1990s in Africa, Europe, and Russia.
Bin
Laden has loudly proclaimed his desire for nuclear capability, and on 9
November 2001, he told a Pakistani journalist that he already has nuclear weapons.
139 Al Qaeda Nuclear and Conventional
Explosive Documents: CNN - ISIS Collaboration (http://www.isis-
online.org/publications/terrorism/intro.html)
[last accessed 12.10.06]
140 Albright, D., Beulhler, K., and Higgins, H., “Bin Laden and the Bomb”, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,
January/February 2002 (vol. 58, no. 01), pp. 23
(http://www.thebulletin.org/article.php?art_ofn=jf02albright_027) [last
accessed: 17.10.06]
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