Posted on 09/18/2004 6:43:29 AM PDT by notkerry
A U.S. government surveillance tape obtained by ABC News shows suspected al Qaeda operatives delivering a chemical bomb to the U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, this past March.
Brian Ross, Chris Isham and Len Tepper
Sept. 10, 2004 — A U.S. government surveillance tape obtained by ABC News shows suspected al Qaeda operatives delivering a chemical bomb to the U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, this past March. The attempted bombing — which was thwarted by an alert security guard — would have been the terror network's first chemical bomb attack.
The videotape shows an unidentified man leaving a white van outside the consulate and being picked up by accomplices. Inside the van was a large blue vat containing a 200-gallon mixture of easily available chemicals meant to produce a powerful explosion and potentially fatal fumes.
Many experts now regard this to be al Qaeda's greatest threat — the homemade chemical bomb.
"This is no longer theory," said Richard Clarke, who served as a top counterterrorism official under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. "This is something al Qaeda always wanted to do. They wrote about it in their encyclopedia of jihad, they experimented with it in Afghanistan, and now in the last year we see evidence that the new al Qaeda is about the process of collecting these chemicals around the world."
The videotape, obtained by ABC News exclusively, shows a fast, coordinated effort. After leaving the van parked outside the consulate, the driver is quickly picked up by accomplices in a car. But a consulate security guard approached the van and discovered its contents.
Jordan Attack Disrupted
In early April, authorities in Jordan disrupted what would have been an even bigger chemical attack. Officials said that terrorists linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi managed to smuggle three cars — packed with explosives, a chemical bomb and poisonous gas — into the capital city, Amman.
Authorities in Jordan estimate that 80,000 people would have been killed if the chemical bomb had gone off at its intended targets — the Jordanian intelligence headquarters, the U.S. Embassy in Amman and the Jordanian prime minister's office.
"It looks quite thought-through," said David Siegrist, director of Studies for Countering Biological Terrorism at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. "They have about 800 kilos of explosive and tons of chemicals for oxidation. They also have about a ton of cyanide, which added a little extra pinch to whatever they were about to do."
The captured leader of the plot, Jordanian Azmi al-Jayussi, told authorities that a Russian scientist had provided the chemical recipe.
And as seen on a tape obtained by ABC News, when Jordanian authorities conducted a test explosion using the same combination of chemicals, with smaller portions, it produced a toxic plume that killed rabbits placed 200 yards away.
"The kind of weapon that al Qaeda procured in Jordan anyone can buy in the United States commercially," said Clark. "Anyone in the United States, if they knew the right formula, could make this kind of chemical bomb that would kill thousands."
This is indeed very, very scary. Even small amounts of mixing of chemicals together in the right venue can kill many people. I love this commander in chief but he is failing at closing the borders and removing people who do not belong here.
You gotta close the borders. It takes boots and guns to get that job done, but that dimwit, Asa Hutchinson, is lost on that subject.
KAREN HUGHES, KAREN HUGHES, KAREN HUGHES
Not the dreaded "Bunny Bomb" !!!Oh the Horror!
NeverGore :^)
Synthesis of extremely toxic chemicals is a real problem. Information on how to do the synthesis of nerve agents (sarin, tabun, VX) has been available on the internet. Presently, the web sites, which had this information, are no longer displaying it.
However, a much more serious threat (by nature of being more widespread) is use of commercial pesticides. Some of the pesticides are cholesterinase inhibitors like the nerve agents. There are other pesticides, including some herbicides that are extremely toxic.
The most effective defense is to find the terrorists and kill them.
Wasn't the WTC '93 bomb laced with some poison?
The very fact that a Japanese religious cult was able to make an impure form of Sarin nerve gas using home stills tells me that al-Qaeda and their ilk are interested in delivering a chemical warfare attack in any US city sooner or later. Anyway, you really don't need to make a nerve gas to cause mass casualties in a chemical attack; poison gases used in World War I such as mustard gas and phosgene are VERY easily made with home stills, and they can be quite deadly when delivered in an aerosol fashion in large quantities.
Exactly.
Think so?
Úvod Organofosforové bojové chemické látky
-ccm
Where did they get the technical know how to make chemical weapons? Could Saddam's scientist supply that knowledge to al-Qaeda? You could make chemical weapons on site which you don't need to store or have stockpiles. A new batch of chemicals will be very potent if used.
I'm just guessing here.
The particularly scary one is phosgene, which is an industrial chemical used in the manufacture of plastics and chemical dyes. Phosgene can be made in large quantities pretty easily, and its effects can cause death by respiratory failure of the lungs due to phosgene gas turning lung tissue into lethal hydrochloric acid.
Those are viable however, the Soviet Union had 22,000 nuclear devices ranging from bombs to suitcase bombs. One Russian admiral sold two aircraft carriers - one to India and one to South Korea and pocketed the $5 million each. Since many nuclear devices are unaccounted for - chances that several are in the hands of Islamofacists is very real. If I were in NY, LA, Seattle, DC, Houston or Miami - I wouldn't live easy.
The average American is oblivious to this danger posed by al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. The whole terrorism threat to many people is still an exxageration. Why wage war when it can be handled by the law enforcement agencies? One day the terrorist will come into another metropolitan area and kill scores of civilians with a barrel of homemade mixture of RID.
Those carriers were sold for scrap,not service ,IIRC & I think the Russians got alerted to the sleaze .India is Russia's most trusted arms buyer & they have already contracted to buy a Russian carrier-I don't see a reason for them to try underhand dealings.
Not all muslim jihadi's are illiterate rubes from the backside of the world ,a great many have advanced degrees from various universities. The chief chemist for the first world Trade Center bombing was a graduate from Rutgers with his degree in chemical engineering ,working for the American Cyanimid corp. his degree allowed him access to potasium cyanide in nodule form that was mixed in with the explosives . Fortunately the poison was destroyed in the fireball of the explosion instead of dispersed as an extremely fine areosol, which would have turned the two towers into giant gas chambers.
You are right, the Russian admiral got caught after he had pocketed the $10 million; he got rid of 44 ships altogether. I understand any Chehen with enough money can buy any weapon from practically any Russian soldier including a tank. Because of that desparate need for money, the poor security surrounding nuclear device storage, lack of serial numbers on many of them and thus lack of control by the Russian military, the market place for the sale of nuclear devices is wide open. Osama will want to escalate his next attack, not being satisfied with shopping mall explosions or bringing down a building - he is after the big bomb and if he has enough money and expertise, they will fashion a bomb(s) from the devices available including nuclear artillary rounds, anti-aircraft ammo, etc.
Pls also remember that the biggest single proliferator of nuke tech in that past 1 year has been an Islamic nation,Pakistan,who got their nukes from the Chinese & passed it on to North Korea,Iran & who knows who else & oh the Taliban was formed by the Pakistani intelligence agency,ISI-who still have big sympathy for them.
That is a huge worry - the Muslims have up to 50 A-bombs - it is all a matter of who controls them.
If I am not mistaken, one of the band members from the rock band Toto was killed by a reaction to pesticide.
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