Author: Bill Gertz
Publication: The Washington Times
Date: June 4, 2003
Al Qaeda terrorists and related
groups are set to use chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in deadly
strikes, according to a new CIA report. http://www.arda.org/homeland.htm
REPORT
"Al Qaeda's goal is the use of [chemical,
biological, radiological or nuclear weapons] to cause mass casualties,"
the CIA stated in an internal report produced last month.
"However, most attacks by the group
- and especially by associated extremists - probably will be small-scale,
incorporating relatively crude delivery means and easily produced or obtained
chemicals, toxins or radiological substances," the report said.
Islamist extremists linked to al
Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden "have a wide variety of potential agents and
delivery means to choose from for chemical, biological and radiological
or nuclear (CBRN) attacks," said the four-page report titled "Terrorist
CBRN: Materials and Effects." http://www.arda.org/homeland.htm
The unclassified report was produced
by the CIA's intelligence directorate, and a copy of it was obtained by
The Washington Times. http://www.arda.org/homeland.htm
The report identifies several deadly
toxins and chemicals that al Qaeda could use to conduct the attacks, including
nerve gases, germ and toxin weapons anthrax and ricin, and radiological
dispersal devices, also known as "dirty bombs."
Disclosure of the CIA report comes
as the agency is under fire over its reports on Iraq's chemical, biological
and nuclear weapons, none of which has been uncovered. Several lawmakers
from both parties, including Sens. John W. Warner, Virginia Republican,
and John McCain, Arizona Republican, have called for hearings into the
intelligence about Iraq that the Bush administration received.
In the latest report, the CIA said
terrorist success would depend on planners' technical expertise. However,
one likely goal of any attempted attack would be "panic and disruption,"
the agency stated.
Several groups of al Qaeda tried
to conduct "poison plot" attacks in Europe using chemicals and toxins in
assassinations and small-scale attacks, the CIA said.
"These agents could cause hundreds
of casualties and widespread panic if used in multiple, simultaneous attacks,"
the report said.
Also, al Qaeda is developing bombs
with radioactive material from industrial or medical facilities, and an
al Qaeda document obtained in Afghanistan revealed that the group had sketched
out a crude device capable of causing a nuclear blast, the report said.
"Osama bin Laden's operatives may
try to launch conventional attacks against the nuclear industrial infrastructure
of the United States in a bid to cause contamination, disruption and terror,"
the report stated.
Al Qaeda's plans for chemical arms
were revealed in a document obtained in summer 2002 that "indicates the
group has crude procedures for making mustard agent, sarin and VX," the
report said.
Mustard is a blistering agent, and
sarin and VX are nerve agents that can kill humans in small amounts.
The report also states that Mohamed
Atta, ringleader of the September 11 attacks, and Zacarias Moussaoui, who
is on trial in Virginia on charges related to the attacks on the World
Trade Center and Pentagon, studied methods of delivering biological weapons.
Both men "expressed interest in
crop dusters, raising our concern that al Qaeda has considered using aircraft
to disseminate [biological warfare] agents," the report said.
According to the report, al Qaeda
and other terrorists also could produce what the CIA calls an "improvised
nuclear device" capable of causing a nuclear blast.
Such a bomb is "intended to cause
a yield-producing nuclear explosion," the report said.
Terrorists could produce a nuclear
device in three ways, including a bomb made from "diverted nuclear-weapons
components," a nuclear weapon that had been modified, or a new, indigenously
designed device, the report said.
A homemade nuclear bomb would be
one of two types: either an implosion device that uses conventional explosives
to create a nuclear blast, or a "gun-assembled" device. Making a nuclear
bomb would require that terrorists first obtain fissile material such as
enriched uranium or plutonium as fuel for creating a nuclear blast.
A more likely type of terrorist
attack is the use of such nuclear material with conventional explosives
to create a "dirty," or radiological, bomb, the report said.
"Use of a [radiological dispersal
device] by terrorists could result in health, environmental and economic
effects as well as political and social effects," the report said. "It
will cause fear, injury, and possibly lead to levels of contamination requiring
costly and time-consuming cleanup efforts."
Among the materials that are available
to terrorists for this type of bomb are cesium-137, strontium-90 and cobalt-60
- materials used in hospitals, universities, factories, construction companies
and laboratories.
A security notice made public by
the State Department yesterday stated that "al Qaeda and sympathetic terrorists
groups continue to demonstrate their interest in mass-casualty attacks
using chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons."
The notice said no information proves
the group now is planning an attack in the United States with a weapon
of mass destruction, but noted that "such an attack cannot be ruled out."
The FBI also distributed a bulletin
recently to law-enforcement agencies identifying the chemical, biological
and nuclear weapons available to al Qaeda and other terrorists.
The CIA report contains photographs
of a training video obtained in Afghanistan from an al Qaeda training camp
showing chemical agents being tested on dogs.
Agents available to the group include
toxic cyanides that can kill in high doses and less-lethal industrial chemicals
such as chlorine and phosgene.
Biological agents al Qaeda could
use include anthrax, a bacteria that can cause mass casualties, and botulinum
toxin. The CIA stated that methods for producing botulinum have been found
in terrorist training manuals.
Another toxin weapon, ricin, "is
readily available by extraction from common castor beans," the report said.
"There is no treatment for ricin
poisoning after [the toxin] has entered the bloodstream," the report said.
"Terrorists have looked at delivering ricin in foods and as a contact poison,
although we have no scientific data to indicate that ricin can penetrate
intact skin."
