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DATE=8/6/1999 TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT TITLE=BIN LADEN BOMBING ANNIVERSARY NUMBER=5-44025 BYLINE=NICK SIMEONE DATELINE=WASHINGTON CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: A year after the terrorist bombings of two U-S embassies in Africa, suspect Osama Bin Laden remains at large, and one terrorism expert predicts he is ready to strike again. Correspondent Nick Simeone in Washington takes a look at efforts to apprehend him and protect U-S targets around the world. TEXT: An intensive worldwide effort has been underway for the past year to bring the Saudi exile and more than dozen of his followers to justice, as well as to upgrade security at American missions around the world. But a year after the U-S embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were destroyed - and more than 200 lives lost - Osama Bin Laden eludes capture and the U-S government fears he is about to strike again. Threats by the Afghanistan-based Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda organization have forced scores of U-S missions around the world to close temporarily and in one instance may have even deterred travel overseas by Defense Secretary William Cohen. At the height of the summer tourist season, the F-B-I has been forced to stop the popular tours at its Washington headquarters in response to security threats. In June, U-S officials warned another attack by Osama Bin Laden and his followers appeared to be in the planning. Yossef Bodansky is the director of the Congressional Task force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare. He has just written a book on the man who has declared war on America, and is convinced Osama Bin Laden is about to strike again. /// FIRST BODANSKY ACT /// We're sitting on a volcano. We feel the earth rumbling, there's puffs of smoke coming from a variety of cracks and everybody knows that an eruption is essentially inevitable, probably imminent. /// END ACT /// Mr. Bodansky says diverse sources in Russia and the Arab world tell him Osama Bin Laden has acquired weapons of mass destruction. /// SECOND BODANSKY ACT /// Bin Laden does have a diverse collection of chemical and biological weapons, as well as nuclear weapons. These are a few of the ex-Soviet `suitcase' bombs acquired through the Chechens. /// END ACT /// Other experts question whether such bombs really exist. Still, Paul Leventhal of the Nuclear Control Institute believes the general threat of nuclear terrorism - from the Bin Laden network or otherwise -- is being underestimated, given how easy it now is to obtain nuclear components. /// LEVANTHAL ACT /// If the issue is does he have these supposed KGB suitcase bombs, I think the very existence of those bombs was very much in question when reports first came out. I think overall the threat of nuclear terrorism is high because of the loose nukes worries in Russia. But beyond that, the public does not understand that there's actually more plutonium in civilian commerce today than there is in all of the nuclear arsenals in the world. /// END ACT /// Mr. Leventhal of the Nuclear Control Institute says there is a burgeoning plutonium industry even though there is no real commercial justification for this anymore. The FBI is doing its best to capture the Saudi exile that Washington considers the most significant terrorist threat overseas, but pressure from the Clinton administration on Afghanistan's Taliban faction has failed to lead to his arrest. Congress is set to approve several billion dollars to improve security at American embassies. But a year after the twin terrorist bombings, most embassies where security was found to be lacking have yet to be given security upgrades. (Signed) NEB/NJS/gm 06-Aug-1999 15:47 PM EDT (06-Aug-1999 1947 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .