An Al Qaeda 'Chemist' and the Quest for Ricin

Washington Post ^ | May 5, 2004 | Joby Warrick

[sarcasm]

LYON, France -- Menad Benchellali, thin and bearded, was known among his Arab friends as "the chemist" because of the special skills he learned at al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. When he returned to his native France in 2001, according to investigators, he set up a laboratory in his parents' spare bedroom and began to manufacture ricin, one of the deadliest known substances.

Working at night with windows open to dissipate fumes from the process, he blended ingredients in a coffee decanter and spooned the doughy mixture onto newspapers to dry. The final product was a white power that Benchellali stored in small glass flasks and old jars of Nivea skin cream -- to be used, as he later told police, "in the event I became involved in the jihad."

Today, exactly how many jars of ricin the 29-year-old Benchellali may have produced -- and their whereabouts -- is an urgent question for European governments facing a wave of terrorist attacks and threats. Last year, investigators say, similar containers turned up in Britain, in the possession of North Africans who were allegedly planning an attack. At least one other jar is known to be missing, and French investigators suspect that still others exist

[Triple Word Score]

Spain made this inevitable--Europe is going to get more of these timely attacks.

They can thank the spineless Spanish voters....

[Atlantic Friend]

Get serious, the Spanish voters have nothing to do with this. Do you really think Spaniards voting for the Popular Party mean anything to the terrorists ? They will strike everywhere in Western countries, because they hate the West, and they certainly don't give a rat's *ss about our internal debates...

[tioga]

I would agree, the Spanish voters are a joke to them. They intend to kill as many westerners as they can whenever and wherever they can.

[Boot Hill]

•"Do you really think Spaniards voting for the Popular Party mean anything to the terrorists?"

No, of course not, the terrorists could care less about the Spanish vote.

And Osama bin Laden's express and public threats, just a few weeks prior to the bombings and the vote, that al-Qa'ida would commence terrorist attacks against Spain, if Spain did not pull their troops out of the coalition, well that was just a happenstance, no connection at all.

And the timing of the Madrid railway bombings just days prior to the vote, that was merely coincidental.

And the resulting surprise upset in the election outcome, that just happened to put in the only candidate that promised to remove Spain's troops from Iraq, was in no way an act of appeasement by the Spanish voters. And of course it was totally unconnected to the threats and bombings.

And Osama bin Laden and al-Qa'ida? Why they were completely indifferent to the results of the Spanish election. In fact, when bin Laden was asked about the Spanish election, he was reported to have said, "Spanish election? What Spanish election? I wouldn't know anything about that, as that is purely an internal affair of Spain. It is well known that we respect the internal politics of other countries."

</sarcasm>

--Boot Hill

[Don W]

The main reason the socio-communists "won" the election in Spain was because the party in power vacillated and tried to blame ETA (the Basque separatist movement) for the bombings, even though ETA had NEVER targetted innocent civilians intentionally.

At least that's what I understand from what I've read/heard/watched.

[eno_]

Aznar still might have lost, but, yes, he compounded his problems by denying it was Islamist terror.

One wonders what would happen if, say, it came out that AA587 was definitely a terrorist bombing?

[Triple Word Score]

Well, that's an interesting analysis. I think maybe more anal than analysis, but you're certainly entitled to your opinion on the motivations of terrorist organizers. (The motives of the moron who straps on the bomb or wields the box knife need not be so complex, of course.)

If you think Osama Bin Laden was that simpleminded, go right on ahead and underestimate them.

[arthurus]

The Madrid strike was to a particular end, to obtain the withdrawal of Spain and other allies from Iraq. It worked. The Moslems are not entirely guile.

[Atlantic Friend]

Many prominent American leaders think that this is a clash between barbary and civilization, and not an internal bickering between Liberalism and Conservatism. So if I'm more anal than analyst, I feel I'm in a distinguished company there.

In their conflict with the Western world, do you think our enemies think in terms of our being Liberals or Conservatives ? To them, we're just the two sides of the same coin, just the two sides or the same structure they have decided to tear down once and for good. Our internal quarrels might entertain us, but I think they entertain our common enemies even more. As far as I recall, it was not a Democrat America that got attacked on 9/11, but a whole country and a whole idea of civilization...

Putting the blame for future attacks on the Spanish voters has nothing to do with reality there. They voted freely, and we will all have to live with that and stop whining.

[Atlantic Friend]

I certainly never thought these people were stupid - and I don't think we should be, either.

To me, equating the Spanish vote with a vote for terrorism is believing that the AQ terrorists think along the same Liberal/Conservative lines, or that they even care. I think THAT is underestimating them. They want to kill or defeat our civilization regardless of whether we're registrated as Republicans, Democrats or Communists.

[arthurus]

To me, equating the Spanish vote with a vote for terrorism is believing that the AQ terrorists think along the same Liberal/Conservative lines, or that they even care. I think THAT is underestimating them. They want to kill or defeat our civilization regardless of whether we're registrated as Republicans, Democrats or Communists.

They do not have to think like liberals or conservatives to understand the advantages to be gained from exploiting the the liberal cowardice which they understand as just that, cowardice. Strength and weakness and cowardice are eminently appreciated in the Moslem world. Yes, they mean to kill or convert ALL of us. That does not stop the left from allying with them for temporary advantage to their own ultimate cost because letists just do not have a long view of reality, only a focussed but short-viewed drive to power.

[Atlantic Friend]

I'm afraid that to these criminals, the very principle of people freely voting is totally foreign.

[Atlantic Friend]

Now THAT is a different matter, on which I'd concur.

[dinasour]

The cowardice of the Spanish has hurt us because it has given the Barbarians the idea that they can influence elections by acts of terrorism.

This has increased our danger, because it just might work, especially in Europe where there already is a culture of appeasement.

[jordan8]

Ricin is not well suited for a weapon of mass destruction. At least a half-dozen countries, including the United States and Iraq, have sought to weaponize ricin and failed. The toxin's jumbo-sized molecules are heavy and tend to clump together, and bioweapons scientists found they needed tons of ricin to deliver lethal doses to a battlefield.

Terrorism experts say an attack with ricin probably would not cause massive casualties

[Triple Word Score]

Well, I came on to respond, but others have made the point I made--Spain showed cowardice. We'll cave to terror. You're correct that the distinction between conservative and liberal is as meaningless to most of them as the distinction between Shi'a and Sunni is to most (not all) of us. Nevertheless--they know that Kerry is good for them and Bush is bad for them. They are going to try to influence our election the same way they influenced Spain's. They want Kerry because Kerry will cave.

They don't really give a da*n that Kerry's presidency will drastically increase all the things they claim they hate about us. That's probably part of their plan too.

[Triple Word Score]

Most of the damage from the WTC was not in Manhattan, but in the hearts and hopes and spirit (and pocketbook) of free people everywhere.

A ricin attack in the right place might kill a few dozen or even a hundred people or more, but the damage from panic and overreaction, and the inevitable stock market dip, would cause national distress or even another recession.

[Atlantic Friend]

IMHO, the political forces and personal choices that decide of the coming of an election are much too complex to state that Spain voted Aznar out for fear of terrorism. If that was the case, wouldn't Spaniards have given the Basques their independence decades ago, since the Basque ETA is the major terrorist force active in Spain ?

The Spaniards ousted Aznar for various reasons, and Aznar's siding with the Coalition in Iraq should not hide the fact that there were issues at home where he had angered the electorate. In a democracy, any democracy, there's always the possibility that a leader gets voted out, regardless of what his allies wish.

Perish the thought, but should President Bush fail to secure his reelection, would it be OK for you if Britain, Italy or any other country says things like "The Americans are really spineless, look at what these chili-livered moral midgets just did", like it's been said right here on FR about the Spaniards ? I know it wouldn't sounds right to me.

[Qaz_W]

And on cue a Pakistani connection emerges:

Quote

The instructors included at least two scientists: Yazid Sufaat, a U.S.-trained biochemist who is now in custody in Malaysia, and a Pakistani microbiologist who U.S. officials have declined to name.

Unquote