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
.