When the ‘American Hiroshima’ comes
as promised, our senators won't be guiltless
Jack Kelly
Hamid Mir, a Pakistani, is the only journalist to have interviewed Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al Zawahiri, since 9/11.
On the fifth anniversary of the attacks, Mr. Mir was in Afghanistan again, this time to interview Abu Dawood, the new al Qaida field commander there.
Final preparations have been made for an "American Hiroshima," Mr. Dawood told him, Mr. Mir said in an interview with Al Arabiya television last week. The attack or attacks will be led by Adnan El Shukrijumah, Mr. Mir said.
Mr. El Shukrijumah was born in Saudi Arabia in 1975, but grew up in Brooklyn. He was a friend of 9/11 hijack leader Mohammed Atta, and is both a trained nuclear technician and a pilot. The FBI is offering a reward of up to $5 million for his capture.
When Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the former al Qaida operations chief who planned the 9/11 attacks was captured in 2003, he reportedly told his interrogators that Mr. El Shukrijumah would be in charge of the next major attack on America.
When al Qaida spokesmen say a big attack is imminent, I take it with a grain of salt. They say that a lot, and I doubt very much that al Qaida has a nuclear bomb, though a "dirty" bomb (radioactive materials wrapped around a conventional explosive) is within their capabilities.
But I am sure that if Senate Democrats and a handful of renegade Republicans have their way, we will never learn the details of this or any other plot by interrogating captured al Qaida suspects. ...