Posted on 06/30/2005 1:29:02 PM PDT by WmShirerAdmirer
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - 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.
He said his information was based on the steps to manufacture the chemical explosion as given in the confession of prime defendant Azmi al-Jayousi. Al-Jayousi has told the court his confession was extracted under duress.
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.
In his televised confession, Al-Jayousi said his group had plotted the chemical attack under instruction from al-Zarqawi. In an audiotape posted on the Internet in May 2004, a man who identified himself as al-Zarqawi acknowledged his group had been plotting an attack in Jordan but denied it involved chemicals.
If convicted, 12 of the defendants - including al-Zarqawi - could be sentenced to death. The 13th man is charged with the lesser crime of assisting two fugitives.
By JAMAL HALABY, Associated Press Writer
The accused include "al-Qaida's leader in Iraq, Abu-Musab Al-Zarqawi", and three other fugitives who are being tried in absentia.
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.
See "Jordan: Jaiousi admits meeting with Zarqawi in Baghdad, receiving instructions for attacks" at http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm?id=ZAWYA20050630103112&query=Zarqawi%2E&searchmethod=keywords
"In a videotape confession screened during the trial at the State Security Court (SSC) yesterday, Azmi Jaiousi said he met with Zarqawi and two other men in Iraq. "Zarqawi told me there would be military operations in Jordan soon and we needed to prepare for them... he gave me around $50,000, weapons, explosive devices and instructions to launch attacks. Our first target was State Prosecutor Mahmoud Obeidat," Jaiousi was quoted as saying in the videotape."
A second target was a General Intelligence Department (GID) officer who had blue eyes and a white Mercedes, he added. Jaiousi said he infiltrated into the Kingdom from Iraq in February 2002, hidden in a truck, and later met up with the rest of the defendants."
Azmi al-Jayousi was plotting this terrorist act with al-Qaeda's Zarqawi in Iraq and left Iraq in February 2002. This was pre-Iraq War! We are fighting the War on Terrorism because of "September 11th", wherever it takes us, Iraq or elsewhere.
No WMDs here.....
/sarcasm
This story has gotten so little coverage that when I've mentioned it to people in my neighborhood, all I've gotten is blank looks.
This would have made 9/11 pale in comparison if the plan had been carried to fruition.
bookmark
This is an interesting find. Went to CNN and BBC to search if there was any news of this trial. Nothing came up on BBC, but this did on CNN, and it is not from today but from December 16, 2004.
http://www.jordanembassyus.org/12162004001.htm
Here is a compelling quote:
"The prosecution charge sheet said in 1999 Jaiousi left the Kingdom and went to Afghanistan where he received training on how to manufacture explosives. While he was in Afghanistan, he met Zarqawi.
According to the charge sheet, Jaiousi returned to Jordan and recruited some of the defendants to “terrify people by using cars laden with explosives as a means to accomplish their goals.”
The group decided to launch a rocket attack on the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat from Aqaba Port but changed their plans and decided to strike the premises of the General Intelligence Department, according to the charge sheet. The sheet added that Jaiousi asked Zarqawi to “send him money, 10 martyrs, weapons and rockets to accomplish the mission.”
Jaiousi used the money to buy vehicles, 950 gallons of oxygen and other chemical substances that the group planned to use in the attack.
The group's plans were aborted by security forces in April and May of 2004.
Four others, believed to be part of the group, were killed by security forces in a shootout in an Amman neighburhood."
Believe it or not the next article that came up on CNN was titled :
Do Americans have the courage to face terrorists with WMDs?
Mary Mostert
April 28, 2004
As recently as a month ago, John Kerry slammed President Bush with "George Bush sold us on going to war with Iraq based on the threat of weapons of mass destruction." According to Kerry, those weapons of mass destruction don't exist. At the annual dinner for radio and TV journalists at the White House, a video spoof of the President looking under his desk for weapons of mass destruction was shown. Kerry, hoping to make political hay out of the video complained, "If George Bush thinks his deceptive rationale for going to war is a laughing matter, then he's even more out of touch than we thought."
Now, if you had taken Kerry's and the world media's reaction to the weapons of mass destruction and Bush seriously, naturally you have to assume there really IS not such threat. In fact, many sources, including several Democrat candidates for president, have been campaigning on exactly that issue. Iraq and its friends in the al Qaeda, we have been told, simply DON'T have weapons of mass destruction.
If terrorists don't have WMDs, why is an Associated Press story about a foiled attempt by Al-Qaeda to destroy the government of the nation of Jordan and kill 80,000 people with chemical weapons, buried on the back pages of my morning newspaper? If that bomb had been detonated, instead of there terrorists being captured, it would have killed nearly 2% of the population of Jordan. By comparison, the 3,000 who died on 9-11 in the United states killed about .001% of the US population.
I assure you this was not a buried news item in Amman, Jordan's capitol. Mahmoud Al Abed wrote of the event in the Jordan Times:
"Suspects arrested earlier this month in connection with a major terrorist plot confessed to planning to carry out the first ever Al Qaeda chemical attack in Jordan."
The targets were Jordan's General Intelligence Department, the Jordanian Prime Ministry and the US embassy in Amman. Mahmoud went on to report:
"In taped testimonies broadcast on Jordan Television Monday, the suspects revealed that the mastermind of the operation was the Iraq-based top Al Qaeda leader, Ahmad Fadeel Khalaileh, better known as Abu Mussab Zarqawi.
Now where have we heard the name "Zarqawi" or "Zaqawi" before? Well, for one it was part of that what the world media and the Democrats have been saying every since was "misinformation" or "lies" in Secretary of State Colin Powell's February 5, 2003 speech to the United Nations. In speaking of Saddam Hussein flouting UN Resolution 1441, Secretary Powell said,
"But what I want to bring to your attention today is the potentially much more sinister nexus between Iraq and the al-Qaida terrorist network, a nexus that combines classic terrorist organizations and modern methods of murder. Iraq today harbors a deadly terrorist network headed by Abu Massad Al-Za)kawi an associate and collaborator of Usama bin Laden and his al-Qaida lieutenants.
"Zarkawi, Palestinian born in Jordan, fought in the Afghan war more than a decade ago. Returning to Afghanistan in 2000, he oversaw a terrorist training camp. One of his specialties, and one of the specialties of this camp, is poisons.
"When our coalition ousted the Taliban, the Zakawi network helped establish another poison and explosive training center camp, and this camp is located in northeastern Iraq. You see a picture of this camp."
Now let's go back to yesterday's Jordan Times account of the foiled chemical attack in Amman. The group leader of those trying to destroy both Jordan's government and the US presence in Jordan admitted on Jordanian TV is Azmi Jaiousi,. Mahmoud wrote:
"Last week, authorities announced that they had killed four terrorist suspects, three of them reportedly Iraqis, in shoot-out in the Hashmi Shamali neighbourhood of Amman.
"Jaiousi, who appeared in the televised programme, said that he met Zarqawi in Afghanistan, then in Iraq, where he was recruited to carry out the attack.
"'Abu Mussab assigned me to go to Jordan, with Mwaffaq Odwan. Our mission was to instigate military work on the Jordanian arena. He [Zarqawi] arranged for my infiltration to Jordan,' Jaiousi testified.
"Jaiousi added that contacts with his leader were through prepaid mobile phone cards and through messengers who came from Syria."
Those who want to trash the Patriot Act because it authorizes law enforcement agencies to track cell phone calls, as well as phone lines, take note. You are not living in the 1930s.
"The first attack was planned against the General Intelligence Department, using three large trucks laden with 20 tonnes of chemical explosives and two small cars.
"Using $170,000 Zarqawi sent him from Iraq, Jaiousi said the group purchased the vehicles and structurally reinforced them, bought the chemicals and manufactured part of them in a deserted house in a village near Irbid, then later in a warehouse near Ramtha.
"'I envisioned the result after executing the work. According to my experience as an explosives expert, the whole of the Intelligence Department would have been totally destroyed, and nothing of it would have remained, nor anything surrounding it. Destruction would have even reached far away areas,' Jaiousi said."
So, are terrorist threats, and weapons of mass destruction mere figments of George W. Bush's and Colin Powell's imagination? Can we really afford to continue listening to people like John Kerry and most of the media that are trying to convince you that George Bush and Colin Powell are liars? Not according to the realities now being faced by one editor in Jordan who said in today's editorial entitled: "The Threat is Real":
"For those who still believe terrorist plots are conspired or fabricated to detract attention, it's time to face reality. The threats are real. The threats could be as close as the hospitals, schools, universities, bus stations, movie theatres, and malls we frequent.
Zaraqawi, based on what he hears Americans saying and what he has seen America do in cutting and running out of Vietnam and Somalia, thinks his methods will eventually win because, he says, "The Americans ... as you know, are the most cowardly of God's creatures. They are an easy quarry. We ask God to enable us to kill and capture them to sow panic among those behind them and to trade them for our detained shaykhs and brothers."
Time will tell who is right — Zaraqawi or George W. Bush.
Peach, It is amazing that people don't remember these guys were out there and this could have happened anywhere.
Quote referred to my reply to Peach is from this article. (link is below)
Jordan Times
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Trial of chemical attack plotters opens
By Rana Husseini
AMMAN — The State Security Court on Wednesday adjourned the case of nine men accused of plotting the first-ever Al Qaeda chemical attack in Jordan until Dec. 22, because the defendants refused to respond to the tribunal's questions “until their prison conditions were improved.”
“We do not want to respond to any of your questions until our families are allowed to visit us and we are moved from isolated cells,” the main suspect in the case, Azmi Jaiousi, told the tribunal.
Presiding Judge Fawaz Bqour told Jaiousi the court finds “no problem in allowing your families to visit you.”
“We will look into this matter and we will allow your families to visit you in the prison,” Judge Bqour said.
Six of the nine defendants refused to respond to Judge Bqour's question of whether or not they had appointed lawyers to represent them in the case as stipulated in the law.
Attorney Younes Arab informed the tribunal that he would represent Jamal Mohammad, while attorney Jihad Qatawneh said he would defend Mohammad Salmeh. Defendant Husni Sharif said he had appointed a lawyer who would represent him in the next court session. The tribunal decided to adjourn the case until next Wednesday to allow the defendants the opportunity to appoint attorneys to represent them.
If they do not appoint lawyers by that time, the court will assign lawyers to represent them in the case.
The defendants were brought into the courtroom under strict security measures with a helicopter escorting the prison vehicles that transported the defendants from the prison to the courtroom in Marka.
The nine men are part of a group of 13 people who are charged with plotting to carry out terrorist attacks, possessing and manufacturing explosives with illicit intent, possessing an automatic weapon with the intent of using it illegally and possessing unlicensed guns.
Four are being tried in absentia, including fugitive Abu Musab Zarqawi.
Other charges include sheltering a wanted person and belonging to an illegal organisation, Kataeb Al Tawhid (Battalions of Monotheism), which is believed to be linked to Al Qaeda network.
If convicted of the charges, some of the defendants could receive the death penalty.
The prosecution charge sheet said in 1999 Jaiousi left the Kingdom and went to Afghanistan where he received training on how to manufacture explosives. While he was in Afghanistan, he met Zarqawi.
According to the charge sheet, Jaiousi returned to Jordan and recruited some of the defendants to “terrify people by using cars laden with explosives as a means to accomplish their goals.”
The group decided to launch a rocket attack on the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat from Aqaba Port but changed their plans and decided to strike the premises of the General Intelligence Department, according to the charge sheet. The sheet added that Jaiousi asked Zarqawi to “send him money, 10 martyrs, weapons and rockets to accomplish the mission.”
Jaiousi used the money to buy vehicles, 950 gallons of oxygen and other chemical substances that the group planned to use in the attack.
The group's plans were aborted by security forces in April and May of 2004.
Four others, believed to be part of the group, were killed by security forces in a shootout in an Amman neighburhood.
http://www.jordanembassyus.org/12162004001.htm
I'm going to find a way to put that article on FR, or at least save it to my archived list of the connections between Iraq and AQ, which is here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1327993/posts
A lot of that article you posted, I had not known, including this:
Last week, authorities announced that they had killed four terrorist suspects, three of them reportedly Iraqis, in shoot-out in the Hashmi Shamali neighbourhood of Amman.
That thwarted attack in Jordan was the most frightening thing that's happened since 9/11, imo. It's a miracle it was stopped.
And the reporter makes the same connections a lot of us did. If Iraq does have WMD, just why was everyone connected with this story in Jordan getting their cash and WMD from Iraq? It's a major disconnect, which is why the newspapers have hidden the story, when they've published it at all.
Thank you so much for finding that and sending it, WmShirer.
Wm: Can you give me the link to CNN for that last article? If yes, after dinner I'll put it up as a separate post.
Or if you want to do that, feel free. You found it and I don't mean to steal your work :-)
But it deserves it's own thread.
Go ahead, feel free to post in new thread.
Here is the link to the first article:
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/mostert/040428
Do Americans have the courage to face terrorists with WMDs?
by Mary Mostert, April 28, 2004
and here is the second article's link:
http://www.jordanembassyus.org/12162004001.htm
Trial of chemical attack plotters opens
By Rana Husseini
Jordan Times
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Both were found in a CNN search whose link was:
http://cnn.looksmart.com/r_search?l&qc=&col=cnni&qm=0&st=1&nh=10&rf=1&venue=all&keyword=&qp=&search=0&key=Jaiousi+&x=15&y=10
Results for "Jaiousi " from the Web (showing 1 - 2 of 2) About
Trial of chemical attack plotters opens
... We do not want to respond to any of your questions until our families are allowed to visit us and we are moved from isolated cells,” the main suspect in the case, Azmi Jaiousi, told the tribunal ...
http://www.jordanembassyus.org/12162004001.htm
Do Americans have the courage to face terrorists with WMDs?
... The group leader of those trying to destroy both Jordan's government and the US presence in Jordan admitted on Jordanian TV is Azmi Jaiousi,. Mahmoud wrote: "Last week, authorities announced that ...
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/mostert/040428
Hope these are helpful.
You're welcome.
Thanks again for your reply and posting(below from another thread) the quote of Congress's resolution about Al Qaida and terrorist being in Iraq pre Iraq War.
Body of Evidence (Stephen Hayes discusses some evidence of Iraq/al Qaeda links)
Posted by Peach to WmShirerAdmirer
On News/Activism 06/30/2005 5:00:12 PM EDT
Just look at the first paragraph I posted below from the Resolution:
Whereas members of al Qaida, an organization bearing responsibility for attacks on the United States, its citizens, and interests, including the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, are known to be in Iraq; Whereas Iraq continues to aid and harbor other international terrorist organizations, including organizations that threaten the lives and safety of United States citizens;
Whereas the attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001, underscored the gravity of the threat posed by the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction by international terrorist organizations;
Whereas Iraq's demonstrated capability and willingness to use weapons of mass destruction, the risk that the current Iraqi regime will either employ those weapons to launch a surprise attack against the United States or its Armed Forces or provide them to international terrorists who would do so, and the extreme magnitude of harm that would result to the United States and its citizens from such an attack, combine to justify action by the United States to defend itself;
http://www.yourcongress.com/ViewArticle.asp?article_id=2686
Thanks again.
They are helpful and after dinner, which is in a few minutes, I'm going to post them.
I had forgotten that; thanks for that ping.
Didn't know this information, thanks for the reply. Question though, where did the cyanide originate from in the WTC1 bomb?
Didn't know this information, thanks for the reply. Question though, where did the cyanide originate from in the WTC1 bomb?
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