As it turned out, however, Abdul al Muhajir aroused American suspicion almost immediately. Government authorities have confirmed that Padilla first turned up on their radar screens in February when he was seen at the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, hoping to replace his lost passport. Officials there, already edgy after a series of incidents, including the massacre of several worshippers, among them the wife of a consular officer in Islamabad, became suspicious of an American-born Latino with a Muslim name and tipped off intelligence officers.

Osama bin Laden
(AP)

At about the same time, Pakistani authorities, with the aid of American technology, were raiding suspected al Qaeda safe houses all over Pakistan, and they were closing in on a big fish — Abu Zabaydah, a senior deputy to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. On March 28, they grabbed Zabaydah after a shootout in Faisalabad, a dusty city on the eastern fringes of Pakistan.

Abu Zabaydah, who was severely wounded in the gunfight, began to provide information to his captors. Often, as was the case when he warned of potential attacks on American landmarks, the information was sketchy and even inaccurate, leading some to speculate that Zabaydah was deliberately trying to spread disinformation. But one tale he told caught the authorities' attention.

He talked about having been approached in the Afghan city of Khowst by an American recruit to al Qaeda. He couldn't identify the man by name, the al Qaeda chief said, but the man told him he planned to build and detonate a dirty bomb in his home country. Abu Zabaydah told authorities he arranged for the young American to meet with operatives in Pakistan who would be able to help him.

Together with the evidence they had already collected, American officials felt that they had found their so-called dirty bomber. It was, they were convinced, Abdullah al Muhajir, the former Latin King and Taco Bell employee. On April 24, Jose Padilla was placed on a government watch list. But by that point, he had already left Pakistan.