Briton Tried to Buy A-Bomb, Prosecution Contends

An update on an al-Qaida trial in Great Briton:

The prosecution in the trial of seven men accused of having links to Al Qaeda and plotting to carry out bomb attacks in Britain said on Wednesday that one of the men had inquired about buying an atomic bomb from Russian mafia figures in Belgium.

On Wednesday, the second day of the trial, a prosecution lawyer, David Waters, said the defendant, Salahuddin Amin, 30, had been asked by a man he met at a mosque in Luton, his hometown, to contact a third man, Abu Annis, about a "radioisotope bomb."

When Mr. Amin did so, Mr. Annis told him that "they had made contact with the Russian mafia in Belgium and from the mafia they were trying to buy this bomb," Mr. Waters said. While Mr. Amin later told the police that he did not believe it was likely that "you can go and pick an atomic bomb up and use it," the prosecutor said the incident was "an indication as to Amin's position in, and his usefulness to, the organization."

You can bet if the amateurs are trying it, the real players in radical Islamic circles are trying too - and are much more likely to be successful one day.