Terrorist planned nuclear base raid By Philip Delves Broughton in Paris (Filed: 16/11/2002)

An al-Qa'eda terrorist has confessed that he planned to drive a giant explosive device into a United States air force bunker in Belgium believed to contain nuclear warheads.

News of the plot came as America gave warning that a broadcast thought to contain the words of Osama bin Laden foreshadowed a likely attack. The FBI said national landmarks, the aviation, oil and nuclear industries were possible targets.

In an interview with a Belgian radio station, Nizar Trabelsi, 31, a Tunisian former professional footballer, said he had hoped to attack the Kleine Brogel base in eastern Belgium with a bomb similar to those used to blow up the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

The base includes a munitions store and is said by anti-nuclear groups to contain 20 free-fall nuclear bombs.

"I am guilty, I will have to pay for it. What I did is not good, but I had no choice," he said in the radio interview from his cell.

When asked by RTBF, the Belgian public radio station, if Kleine Brogel was his target he replied: "Yes, exactly."

His confession marked the first known al-Qa'eda plot to attack a nuclear target in Europe. Since September 11 last year security at nuclear installations has been strengthened across the continent, with some civil sites guarded by missile systems.

The former German league player lived in London in the late 1990s and listened to sermons from the Islamic cleric Abu Qatada, who has been linked to al-Qa'eda.

When arrested last year he was suspected of involvement in an al-Qa'eda plot to attack the American embassy in Paris.

Trabelsi said he had met bin Laden during a visit to Afghanistan.

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2002

Answers

I've heard enough from him. off with his head.

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2002