Posted on 06/22/2005 9:55:24 PM PDT by jmc1969
AMMAN, Jordan - Islamic militants planned to detonate an explosion that would have sent a cloud of toxic chemicals across Jordan, causing death, blindness and sickness, a chemical expert testified in a military court Wednesday.
Col. Najeh al-Azam was giving evidence in the trial of 13 men who are alleged to have planned what would have been the world's first chemical attack by the al-Qaida terror group. The accused include al-Qaida's leader in Iraq, Abu-Musab Al-Zarqawi, and three other fugitives who are being tried in absentia.
Jordanian security services foiled the plot in April last year. Jordanian officials say that had it been carried out, thousands of people would have died.
Azam, a chemical expert at Jordan's General Intelligence Department, testified that a large quantity of plastic containers seized from the defendants contained hydrogen peroxide. He said the accused planned to add "ground black cumin" to the concentrated solution, which would have made "an explosive substance stronger than TNT."
"They sought to disperse poisonous gases which would have caused death, illnesses and blindness," Azam testified.
Al-Azam said the defendants also had oxygen, sulfuric acid and nitroglycerin.
A consultant on weapons of mass destruction, Andy Oppenheimer of Jane's Information Group, told The Associated Press that some of the substances identified in Wednesday's hearing could be used in chemical weapons and were "extremely volatile."
The indictment says al-Zarqawi intended that suicide bombers would detonate vehicles filled with the chemicals in an attack on the Amman headquarters of the intelligence department.
Jordanian security officials have said other potential targets were the prime minister's office and the U.S. Embassy in Jordan. But the indictment does not mention these sites.
If convicted, 12 of the defendants - including al-Zarqawi - could be sentenced to death.
(Excerpt) Read more at macon.com ...
If this is what I am thinking of,I think (if memory serves) something like 80K would have been severly affected by this attack; and it was simply swept under the rug here at home..."Nope, hardly a thing happened" the usual talking heads tried to tell us..
L
As well, I believe this was about the time that the "Where's the WMD in Iraq" drumbeat was happening..
I remember when they caught these guys and numbers varied but I thought that upwards of 44,000 would have been killed if the attack has been successful.
And I also remember that the AP hardly said a word about it after the initial article.
What happened was Abu Ghrieb hit at the exact same time and everything including this and Nick Burg's beheading was ignored by the media in their obsessive and ravinous 24/7 attempt to make our soldiers and Bush look bad.
Yeah they are making a bastardized version of CHP aka cumin hydroperoxide ...it'll go bang.
hmmm....
It was claimed at the time on FR that this was a possible sarin or nerve gas attack that was thwarted. Looks like it wasn't.
Such a religion of peace. The only cure for this is the 2nd Amendment. Kill them all and then there will be peace.
Sounds like a bizarre recipe for tacos or fajitas.
Cumenyl hydroperoxide?
I wonder if they were going to make a Acetone-Peroxide bomb
PLO did the AP thang and it is so sensitive that they did their enemy a favor by killing themselves......
Lets be careful to not turn this into a how to thread BTW......Professional courtesy per se. I know lots of folks already know how to do it.... I just don't like helping the ones who may have forgotten tab A goes into slot C if ya catch my drift.
Stay safe !
Cumene hydroperoxide would be made from a liquid cumene, not from ground black cumine [a spice?]. Something in the article does not compute.
Not understanding your question ?
HE is available from any six year old kid who's picked up UXO off the battlefield. Wouldn't be viable to try and take any with ya if yer trying to E&E to a safehaven. Unless of course ya had to "fight" yer way to safety. I suspect the terrorists in some cases are trusted iraqi policemen by now......just a swag of course.
But but .. I thought there weren't any chemicals in Iraq?
"hydrogen peroxide ... "ground black cumin"...
Sounds like a bizarre recipe for tacos or fajitas."
Or cleaning a boo boo.
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