LONDON, June 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - “A dirty bomb from Pakistan? Or a dirty trick from Washington?” This was the headline of an article published in the U.K. newspaper, the Independent, analyzing the circumstances of the recent dirty bomber discovery in the U.S.

“Who, exactly, is Mr Padilla, aka Abdullah Al-Muhajir? Is he a highly trained al-Qa'ida operative who was about to explode a radioactive "dirty" bomb in Washington DC, as the US attorney general, John Ashcroft, would have us believe? Or a Chicago street punk of no great danger to anyone?,” asks Rupert Cornwell of the Independent.

It seems, Cornwell said, that the arrest of the “dirty bomb” suspect Jose Padilla was “like other developments in the ‘war against terror’, to have been a political device of the Bush administration - designed to distract attention from US intelligence failures and solidify support behind President Bush.”

No plot and no accomplices have been discovered, says Cornwell, despite Padilla having been in detention for more than a month before his existence was revealed to the nation.

Putting clues together, Cornwell said that the U.S. daily newspaper, the New York Times, reported Thursday, that he was “an unlikely terrorist, a low-level gang member with no technical knowledge of nuclear materials who was arrested long before he represented a significant terrorist threat”.

“Indeed, Donald Rumsfeld, the Defense Secretary, has acknowledged that he may never be charged,” said Cornwell.

While, no one would dispute the U.S.’s right to defend itself against terrorists, Cornwell adds that Padilla’s fate is currently shared by hundreds of non-Americans, mostly Arab individuals, swept up in dragnets in the days and weeks following 11 September, and nine months later still in detention on the most minor of charges.

“The only difference is, no one knows their names,” he said.

Cornwell adds that that Padilla incident serves Bush’s purposes perfectly. “Forgotten were the host of clues missed by the FBI and the CIA before 11 September. The U.S. was on full nuclear terror alert, ready once more to take the President's word for anything and to support his plans for a new super-ministry for domestic security.”

Similar cynical sentiments were voiced by Ahmad Mahmoud, a political analyst in the Egyptian Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

In an article published on Sunday, June 16 in Egyptian daily newspaper, Al-Ahram, Mahmoud said that the dirty bomb discovery was blown out of proportions for strategic reasons.

“There is no doubt that the U.S.’s discovery of this failed terrorist attempt is beneficial for Bush’s administration. The benefits goes beyond the direct security of the nation. This ‘terrorist plan’ confirms the current U.S.’s administration’s claim that the U.S. may face terrorist threats from weapons of mass destruction, which justifies the continuation of the missile program which has been opposed by many members of the U.S. congress after September 11.”

The Bush administration, he said, defends the continuation of the program, saying that future threats may include biological, chemical or nuclear war heads. The discovery also justifies the continuation of the war on terror, he said.

Mahmoud felt that the dirty bomb ‘discovery’ also helps the Bush’s administration to save face in the light of recent reports which said that Bush knew of the September 11 attacks and to beautify the damaged image of American security authorities after the failure it demonstrated during the September 11 attacks.