Bush 'bomber' disarray

THE White House has slapped down the US justice chief in a gathering row over the suspect in the "dirty bomb" case.

Two days after the sensational exposure of a plot to unleash a radiation bomb on a US city, questions about the case threatened a backlash against Washington’s "war on terror."

White House officials have objected bitterly to ominous warnings from John Ashcroft, the attorney general, that suspect Jose Padilla was poised to inflict "mass death and injury", it was reported yesterday.

The row came as President George Bush launched a push for his new multi-billion Department of Homeland Security - and against renewed warnings of al-Qaeda-inspired terror from Germany to Gibraltar.

The UK announced its own plans yesterday for a rapid reaction force to confront any terror attack, a 6,000-strong "home guard" drawn from the Territorial Army.

US officials suggested al-Qaeda might stir war in Kashmir. German security agents suggested the terror organisation could use bomb-laden model aeroplanes to down passenger aircraft.

It followed an alleged threat of suicide attacks on British warships by three Saudi Arabian men arrested in Morocco.