SENIOR al-Qaeda operatives plotted to use a trained American sympathiser to blow up 20 apartment buildings in the US simultaneously using natural gas, officials said yesterday.

A two-man mission included Jose Padilla, 33, a former Chicago gang member who has been held incommunicado by US authorities for two years. Yesterday was the first time the Justice Department had given details of the case against him.

The alleged plan was for the men to each rent flats in as many high-rise apartment blocks as possible. New York was a likely target, though Washington and Florida were also mentioned.

“They would rent two apartments in each building, seal all the openings, turn on the gas, and set timers to detonate the buildings simultaneously at a later time,” said James Comey, the Deputy Attorney-General.

Mr Padilla allegedly told al-Qaeda chiefs that he would not be able to rent 20 apartments without arousing suspicion. He proposed an alternative plan, which involved exploding a “dirty” radiological device, said Mr Comey. He was arrested upon arriving at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport in May 2002. His capture was trumpeted by the Justice Department as a triumph in the War on Terror, although sceptics wondered if the authorities really had a case. Mr Padilla’s incarceration has become a celebrated cause for civil liberties groups who accuse the Bush administration of acting unconstitutionally in holding detainees indefinitely and without charge.

But ahead of a Supreme Court ruling next month on the detention of Mr Padilla and the 660 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Department of Justice officials laid out their case against him. They said that he was a trained operative versed in bomb-making and surveillance and weapons. But Donna Newman, Mr Padilla’s lawyer, said her client had denied the claims.

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