Pakistani detainee tied to nuke plot

Pakistani detainee tied to nuke plot

Knight Ridder News

WASHINGTON - A wealthy Pakistani businessman who's being held at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison camp for suspected terrorist ties urged al-Qaida operatives to acquire nuclear weapons for use against U.S. troops and said he knew where to get them, according to American investigators.

The allegation, contained in documents filed recently in U.S. District Court in Washington, also identifies Saifullah Paracha, 57, who has an import business in New York, as a participant in a plot to smuggle explosives into the United States and to help al-Qaida hide "large amounts of money.''

There are few details about the smuggling plot and little additional information about what the businessman, a permanent U.S. resident who's been held 19 months without charges, may have known about how to obtain nuclear weapons.

Paracha, during a review tribunal of his case in November at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, vigorously denied any ties to al-Qaida and scoffed at the nuclear allegation.

Top American officials have warned that al-Qaida has sought nuclear materials and that a network of Pakistani scientists sold nuclear technology and expertise to Libya, Iran and North Korea.

Paracha, who's fluent in English, has split his time between the United States and Pakistan for more than 30 years. Two brothers are American citizens, his lawyer said. Paracha operates a TV production company along with International Merchandise, which imports clothing in New York.

The saga of his arrest and detention for two years reveals that he was a high-interest target of U.S. investigators. His son Uzair, 25, was arrested in New York in 2003 and faces trial March 21 on charges of trying to help an al-Qaida agent get into the United States and deal with immigration officials.

At the time, Attorney General John Ashcroft said the case demonstrated al-Qaida's determination to penetrate U.S. borders two years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Investigators charged that father and son met with top al-Qaida leaders in Pakistan, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a mastermind of those attacks who was later captured.

Three months after his son's arrest, Paracha took a commercial flight from Pakistan to Thailand in July 2003 to meet with Kmart buyers. He was turned over to U.S. forces, who took him to Bagram air base in Afghanistan, where he was interrogated for more than a year, then shipped to Guantanamo last September.