IF SADDAM HUSSEIN IS BUILDING BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS, IS THE UNITED STATES THE LIKELY TARGET? - April 11, 1995
"(Washington, D.C.): A report released yesterday appears to confirm the worst: Saddam Hussein has secreted away at least 17 tons of material that can be used to breed bacteria which can, in turn, be used in biological weapons (BW). If the sheer volume of this concealed activity is any guide to the size of the Iraqi BW program, it suggests that Saddam is contemplating the murder of large numbers -- perhaps millions -- of people.
...An analysis of that bombing performed by Dr. Laurie Mylroie -- a renowned Middle East expert, best-selling author and distinguished member of the Center's Board of Advisors -- indicates that the attack on the World Trade Center may have been perpetrated by Saddam Hussein as an act of revenge for his defeat in the Gulf war. Highlights of Dr. Mylroie's findings include the following:
Sometime in June 1992, Iraqi intelligence learned of a bush-league campaign of twelve pipe-bombings being plotted by followers of the New Jersey-based Islamic radical, Sheik Omar. Saddam's operatives took over, targeting the very symbol of U.S. capitalism and urban civilization -- New York's twin-towered, skyscraping World Trade Center (WTC) -- for a far more devastating attack.
The act was planned, moreover, in such a way as to deceive the American people and their government into holding the original plotters -- and their presumed sponsors in Iran -- responsible for the bombing, not Iraq. In this way, Saddam could satisfy his culture's tradition of exacting revenge against an enemy. Better still, from his point of view, that enemy would be induced to retaliate against Iraq's most dangerous regional foe, Iran.
The bomb used in the World Trade Center was intended to employ metal additives dramatically to boost its explosive power. Had it been properly positioned and detonated according to plan, it could have toppled one of the World Trade Center's towers into the other, killing tens of thousands of people and causing incalculable damage in lower Manhattan.
The bomb also apparently was designed to vaporize cyanide gas -- which, if distributed through the tower's ventilation system, would have assured massive casualties throughout the bombed structure."
FRONTLINE - Testimony of a Terrorist - Ahmed Ressam
Q. Why don't you tell the jury about the experiments that
you conducted on dogs, you personally, and start with the experiment where you put the dogs in a box.
A. We were just present there; it was actually our chief that was there carrying out the experiment.
Q. You watched as your chief put a dog in a box, correct?
A. Yes. We were all present there.
Q. I am talking about you.
A. Yes.
Q. Your chief put cyanide in the box, is that correct?
A. Yes.
Q. He added sulphuric acid to the cyanide, correct?
A. Yes.
Q. And the dog shortly thereafter died from that experiment, correct?
A. Correct.
Q. How long in general would you say that you watched these dogs suffer?
A. Not very long.
Q. How long?
A. Not very long, I don't remember precisely, maybe four minutes, because the dog was very small.
Q. In the four minutes you watched the dog suffer before the dog died did you do anything to stop your leader from killing the dogs?
A. No.
Q. You wore a mask over your face during these experiments, correct, so that you would not breathe in any of the poison?
A. Yes.
Q. You practiced these techniques on the dogs so that later on in one of your operations you would be able to perform such techniques on human beings, is that correct?
A. Yes. We wanted to know what is the effect of the gas, yes.
Q. Some of your potential targets while you were in the camp were American citizens, is that correct?
A. In regard to targets in general, yes. Yes, we were speaking about America as an enemy of Islam. ...
Q. The reason you were trained in the use of cyanide at the camps in Afghanistan was because you were going to use cyanide in your urban warfare, correct?
A. We don't know. Possibly if I needed it, I would use it. Yes, because it is very difficult to use gases in the field.
Q. You were trained to use cyanide by placing the cyanide near the air intake of a building, correct?
A. They gave us some examples, but we did not try them out actually.
Q. The reason one of the examples was to put the cyanide right near the air intake of a building such as a government building, correct?
A. Yes, that's right.
Q. And the reason that you would put the cyanide, you were trained, near the air intake would be to kill the most amount of people without endangering yourself and without being detected, correct?
A. Yes, that's how gas is used in killing. ...
Q. Other experiments that you conducted at the Deronta camp included experiments with other poisons, correct?
A. Yes.
Q. One of the things you learned at the Deronta camp was how to mix poisons with other substances, put them together and smear them on doorknobs; do you remember that?
A. Yes, I did say that.
Q. Any person who would touch that doorknob would soon have poison running through their bloodstream, correct?
A. Yes, that's true; the poison will infiltrate his body.
Q. And kill him or her, correct?
A. Yes.
[End of Partial Transcript]
Nuke em'