NP - Anthrax plan pops out of Pak scientist's cupboard

[David Morris]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=2060894688

NEW DELHI: Sketches and calculations to make a helium-powered balloon bomb 
filled with anthrax have been found from the Kabul office of an NGO headed 
by Bashiruddin Mehmood, one of the two Pakistani nuclear scientists detained 
in Islamabad for questioning on their alleged links with Osama Bin Laden, 
The Economist has said.

Such a balloon bomb was capable of showering deadly anthrax over areas as 
vast as New York or Washington.

The "most chilling" items found from the Kabul premises included small bags 
of white powder and the "mass of calculations and drawings" of weather 
balloons with arrows indicating the suggested height of 10 km or 33,000 
feet, said The Economist in its print edition.

The premises located in the "wealthiest district" of Kabul belonged to the 
Ummah Tameer-e-Nau (UTN), whose president is a leading nuclear scientist and 
a plutonium technology specialist Mehmood, who along with another scientist 
Abdul Majid were detained again on Tuesday in Islamabad for questioning, The 
Economist said.

The two men, who are alleged to have made frequent trips to Afghanistan and 
met Laden on two occasions, have denied the charges.

"Since UTN was run by one of Pakistan's top scientists, a man with close 
links to the Taliban and, it is said, close ideological affinities with 
Laden, the circumstantial evidence points to only one conclusion, the paper 
said.


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