Did Ashcroft Overstate Terror Arrest?

June 13 -- Since Monday, news reports have focused on the announcement by Attorney General John Ashcroft that a man had been captured who sought material to make a so-called dirty bomb.

Now, there are suggestions that the initial claims were overstated, needlessly frightening the public.

"We have disrupted an unfolding terrorist plot to attack the United States by exploding a radioactive bomb," Ashcroft said in Moscow as he announced the arrest more than a month earlier of Abdullah al Muhajir, who was born Jose Padilla in Brooklyn.

Al Muhajir is now in military custody. And Ashcroft is dodging criticism all the way home as the rest of the administration attempts to tone down the urgency of his announcement.

"I don't think there was actually a plot beyond some fairly loose talk and his coming in here obviously to plan further deeds," Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said on national television.

'The President Is Satisfied'

Inside the intelligence community, some were shocked by Ashcroft's description, because they believe something quite different about Padilla.

"This is someone who was at the beginning of a volunteer operation for al Qaeda, but he hadn't any capability," said ABCNEWS security consultant Vince Cannistraro. "He hadn't any organization and he hadn't assembled anything."

Publicly, the White House insists Ashcroft took the right approach.

"In this case, because of his training, because of the evidence we have that was brought forth by sources and methods which I am not going to discuss, we had strong reason to fear the worst," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.

But behind the scenes, they say it could have been handled better.

"In hindsight, if we knew his statement would have been interpreted this way, we would have given it some second thought," a senior administration official told ABCNEWS.

This source said the White House did not receive the text of Ashcroft's statement until it was too late to revise it.

"We had no chance to review it," the official said. "Let's just say we wouldn't have written it the way they did."