Al Quaeda Prepares Bio-Terror for US and Israel [DEBKA ALERT]

DEBKA ^ | 01/04/2003 | DEBKAfiles

[Menkenspiel]

Al Qaeda prepares bio-terror for US and Israel

Summary of DEBKA-Net-Weekly article of Jan. 3

January 4, 2003, 10:13 PM (GMT+02:00)

DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s intelligence sources report mounting fears within US and Israeli counter-terrorism agencies that al Qaeda’s three command centers are preparing mega-terror attacks for US and Israeli targets. (To subscribe to DNW click HERE ) .

They believe that, for the time being, al Qaeda has foregone a nuclear, radiological or chemical option in favor of biological warfare, because of the weapons systems believed to have been made available by Iraqi military intelligence and already in the hands of three al Qaeda commanders: Abu Musaab al Zarqawi, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed ,nicknamed “the Mukhtar” .

Baghdad believes that a biological attack on Israel will act as an appropriate reprisal for the threatening US offensive and a possible deterrent.

To be ready in case Iraq launches its F-1 or L-29 warplanes, or Polish-made drones - all armed with spray canisters loaded with toxic chemicals or germs - over Eilat or Aqaba, the Americans have in the past week been shipping to southern Israel improved, re-engineered PAC-3 anti-missile batteries together with thousands of US Marines.

However, in the view of our intelligence and military sources, the more immediate danger to Israel comes not directly from Iraq but from al Qaeda and its biological weapons arsenal.

They say the Islamic fundamentalist group has established a headquarters at Bayara in the radical Kurdish Ansar al-Islam enclave of northern Iraq, as one of its three main planning centers.

All Zarqawi, whose full name is Ahmad Fadeel Nazal Abu Mussab al Zarqawi, aka al Khalayleh, is the senior bio-project director.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s counter-terrorism sources report that in November and December, al Zarqawi was spotted commuting between Baghdad, Bayara, Damascus and Beirut, giving the Bush administration its first direct proof of the Baghdad-al Qaeda terrorist link. It prompted the US President to remark on Tuesday, December 31, that “an attack from Saddam Hussein or a surrogate of Saddam Hussein would cripple our economy.”

Zarqawi’s senior officer, Abdullah is based in Pakistan - either in the port city of Karachi or near the border with Afghanistan, while the whereabouts of Mohammed, “the Mukhtar” are unknown. He may be in Bosnia or Europe.

Of the three, Zarqawi is the ticking bomb waiting to go off.

A Jordanian-Palestinian in his late 30s, he fled the kingdom in 1999 after he was caught plotting to blow up hotels hosting foreign millennium celebrants. He is the only al Qaeda operative known for certain to have undergone extensive terrorist training – including airline hijacking techniques -- in Iraq’s notorious Salman Pak special weapons facility.

Back in October 2001, shortly after the September 11 attacks in the United States, DEBKA-Net-Weekly reported that Bayara became an al Qaeda base complete with chemical and biological training laboratories run for the group by the Iraqis.

Our counter-terrorism sources reveal that Zarqawi was also in charge of the relocation of 150 to 200 al Qaeda fugitives from Afghanistan to South Lebanon. The group destined for Lebanon was consisted of hardcore terrorists trained in chemical and biological warfare.

Zarqawi has dropped out of sight lately, raising the suspicion that one of his mega-terror attacks may be imminent.

Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah is believed to be the highest ranking of the trio of al Qaeda commanders. Aged about 40, he is an Egyptian and member of the radical Egyptian Islamic Jihad, who since 1991 has been al Qaeda’s chief money man, while also active in shoring up the group’s worldwide logistical network and organizing operations. A year ago, after the US forced the main body of al Qaeda and Taliban out of Afghanistan, Abdullah took over as overall al Qaeda commander in Pakistan and Kashmir. Many intelligence sources claim that today, Abdullah is the top man in al Qaeda, but there is no proof of this.

Our counter-terrorism sources have unearthed two little-known facts about this mysterious and powerful figure:

First, he lives under the full protection of Pakistan’s military leaders and intelligence – the most senior al Qaeda operative to enjoy this status. Second, Abdullah was the mastermind behind the November 28 strikes against Israeli targets in Mombasa, Kenya, in which 16 people died, although the terrorist team on the spot failed to shoot down an Israel airliner with 270 people aboard.

This top al Qaeda commander has CIA and FBI officers in Pakistan chewing their nails in frustration. They usually know where he is and where he goes, but they cannot touch him because of the protective umbrella the Pakistani SIS extends him on orders from President Pervez Musharraf. This week, a Pakistani unit exchanged fire with US troops who apparently got too close to areas Pakistani military intelligence designated as off-limits. There were rumors at the time that Abdullah was in the neighborhood of the incident. The United States responded with a B-52 bombing run against the Pakistani contingent.

Our counter-terrorism sources can also disclose that, while an al Qaeda operative called Mohammed Fazul led the operation against the Israeli-owned Mombasa Palace Hotel and an Arkia airliner, Abdullah was the operation’s planner and supreme commander. He picked the terrorist team, decided how best to smuggle the Strela shoulder-launched missiles into Kenya and who would fire them at Mombasa airport,

Intercepts of messages between Abdullah and Zarqawi indicate it will be the latter is setting up the next big al Qaeda attack in the Middle East – mostly likely in Israel, Abdullah is putting together a large-scale strike inside the United States.

Al Qaeda’s third command center, known as the European HQ, is headed by Mohammed, or “The Mukhtar”, who is not authorized to plan or carry out attacks without approval from above – but his field of operation is major, covering such key European cities as London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Prague and Moscow.

Bush has good cause to be deeply concerned over al Qaeda’s potential for biological attacks. Two of the group’s most prominent leaders, Zarqawi and Abdullah, enjoy the protection and help of the formidable military intelligence arms of Iraq and Pakistan, the latter ostensibly a US ally but working behind the scenes against Washington’s global war against terrorism.

The US president has another worry: Saudi Arabia and Pakistan could end up aligning themselves with Saddam Hussein, should he succeed in persuading al Qaeda to dispatch its fighters to Iraq and locate the group’s command centers on its soil.

[tallhappy]

But Haaretz reported similarly. And Sharon himself has spoken of Iraqi missiles in their possession.

Debka said it was a missile. Haaretz said it was unknown exaclty what the weapon system that exploded was.

The reports were essentially the same.

You really are just spewing hot air in that you do not know for sure one way or the other.

Here is the Haaretz article that came out after Debka's from this link

I'll post it in the next message.

[tallhappy]

Last update - 09:05 02/01/2003


'Arms from Iraq caused blast at Hezbollah base'

By Amos Harel, Ha'aretz Correspondent




Western intelligence analysts believe that an explosion at a Hezbollah base in
Lebanon's Bekaa Valley on Monday resulted from the use of weapons
smuggled from Iraq.

The precise character of the weapon remains unclear.

Following the explosion, Lebanese sources reported on a strong blast at a
Hezbollah training base near the town of Jinta. Hezbollah closed off the area
and barred media crews from entering it. Ambulances approached the town, but
it is not clear whether their crews treated any wounded. At this stage, the
number of persons hurt by the explosion remains unknown.

Hezbollah often follows a policy of withholding information about casualties.
This was its standard policy during its years of warfare against the Israel
Defense Forces in southern Lebanon.

Western intelligence experts believe that the explosion was connected to an
Iraqi arms shipment that reached Hezbollah a few days before Monday's blast.
Two different explanations might account for the explosion. According to one
theory, it resulted from a test that Hezbollah attempted with one of the weapons,
perhaps a trial missile launch. Alternatively, a mishap might have occurred
when Hezbollah tried to store the arms in a bunker.

Last week, Ha'aretz reported that Iraq gave Hezbollah medium-range missiles.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said last week that Israel believes Iraq also
transferred chemical and biological weapons to Syria in order to keep them
from the attention of United Nations inspectors. The claim that Baghdad is
hiding nonconventional weapons in Syria is being investigated, but it has yet to
be verified conclusively, a senior Israeli security official said yesterday.

In addition to receiving weapons from Iraq, Hezbollah has also received
stepped-up arms shipments from Syria. Damascus has given Hezbollah
Syrian-made missiles whose range is comparable to that of the Iranian
missiles already in the organization's possession. Several hundred missiles
have been sent to Hezbollah by both Syria and Iran. The Israeli official said that
"Hafez Assad would roll over in his grave if he could see the nature of the ties
that his son, President Bashar Assad, has forged with the Iranians."

Israeli officials accuse Syria of continuing to foment Palestinian terror against
Israel, charging that the Syrians allow terror organizations to operate freely in
Damascus. Israeli officials also accuse Syria of using Hezbollah as a means of
pressuring Jerusalem, noting that Damascus has thwarted efforts by the
Lebanese army to deploy troops in the south of the country in compliance with
UN Security Council Resolution 425. In so doing, Syria has undermined efforts
to allay tensions on the northern border, Israel charges.

An IDF investigation of a terror attack near Kibbutz Metzuba in the western
Galilee last March, in which six Israelis were killed, has established that the
strike was perpetrated by two Palestinian residents of Lebanon who belong to
Islamic Jihad. However, the pair was sent out on the attack by Hezbollah, which
also trained them and provided firearms and the ladder that they used to scale
the electronic border fence, the army says.

Hezbollah has denied involvement in this attack, apparently out of concern for its
credibility among Lebanon's public: While many Lebanese view attacks in the
Har Dov region as legitimate, this attack occurred outside that region, and might
thus have been considered illegitimate. Nevertheless, Israeli officials have no
doubts about Hezbollah's link to the attack.

So far, however, Israel is certain about the identity of only one of the assailants.
Though Israel ensured that photographs of the terrorists' corpses would be
published in Lebanese newspapers, in the hopes that relatives would identify
the bodies, to date, it has received reliable information about the identity of only
one of the two. Hezbollah continues to conceal the identities of the two men
from their families.

Information that has reached Israel's security establishment also indicates that
a senior Al-Qaida operative is actively recruiting men from this region for the
organization. An Israeli security official said that this recruiter, one of Al-Qaida's
top six members, recently visited Jordan, Syria and Lebanon in an effort to win
new recruits for Osama bin Laden's organization. Al-Qaida's core group, the
Israeli official said, continues to operate on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, but
orders are sent out from there to points throughout the Middle East, including
Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Lebanon.

Al-Qaida also recently started to operate terror cells in the Gaza Strip. These
cells are comprised of Palestinians from Gaza. Most of them were previously
affiliated with Islamic Jihad, but some may have been associated with Fatah's
"popular committees." The cells receive orders from sources in Lebanon. Their
members have apparently already been involved in shooting attacks in the Gaza
Strip and are thought to be drawing up plans for larger-scale attacks. Recently,
Israeli security officials say, there has been a noticeable rise in the number of
threats by Al-Qaida men against Israeli and Jewish targets in Israel and
overseas.

[xm177e2]

I still feel this is newsworthy. Lots of particulars. We shall see.

Debka is infamous for giving out ridiculously small details and filling their articles with particulars which would be almost impossible to know.

[Tennessean4Bush]

DEBKA - Does Everyone Believe this KrAp?

[Menkenspiel]

Debka is infamous for giving out ridiculously small details and filling their articles with particulars which would be almost impossible to know.

This of course raises the ultimate question: How do we know anything from any news source? Is it collaboration between news sources - in other words, if only one source has information, and it doesn't appear to be had by anybody else, it is therefore invalid? The CIA has lots of intel nobody else has - does that make them invalid?

Maybe its their data collection methods. How do mainstream news reporters collect data? Most read newswires. Who filters the news wires? An interesting question. Debka claims to have correspondents in the field. Do their writers engage in speculation based on whatever information (including incorrect information) derived from their correspondents? Obviously they do.

All I'm saying is that we cannot possibly know that any of the news we see on TV or in the papers or on the net is true. We need to do the best we can to sort through all the so-called information we have at our disposal, and settle for, at best, a very incomplete view of the world and the events around the world that play games with our fate.

I agree Debka goes overboard and appears far less constrained by verifiable facts than other news and information sources, but at least they write well and with an interesting perspective: This is one thing of which no one accuses the New York Times or Washington Post of being guilty anymore...

[Mixer]

"See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins.

We must prevent this. We must strike first and strike hard. We must leave the enemy in a state of no retaliation at all. I have a feeling we will too.

[CyberAnt]

Well ... good luck preventing the Word of God from coming to pass.

I heard a prophecy in 1985 concerning Damascus. About 5 years ago I read an article in the Jerusalem Post regarding the scud missles planted around the perimeter of Damascus, which are pointed at Israel. If Syria is also hiding nuke and biological stuff for Iraq, they might decide to try to attack Israel - for Iraq (once we attack Iraq). If they attempt such an attack against Israel, the U.S. would be inclined to agree Israel has the right to retaliate (just as we did for the WTC attack).

However, when (and I do mean when) Israel does attack Damascus, the WHOLE WORLD (with the exception of the U.S.), will come out strongly against Israel. Russia and China will join forces and gather an army to destroy Israel once and for all. Gog and Magog will move upon Israel by way of the Valley of Megiddo.

There is just one problem - Gog and Magog don't realize that this whole plan was just a "hook in your jaw, to draw you down". Once the army arrives in the Valley, GOD will be there to meet them and will defeat them ALL. The prophecy also said that at the time this defeat is taking place, people all over the world who have given their heart to communism will simply fall dead. The world will finally be free of communist rule.

The best part is we (the U.S.) will not be involved, and the world will be able to see this war on TV. Mt. Carmel, in the center of the Valley, hosts a TV station owned by Pat Robertson. A gentleman by the name of Harold will be filming the war and beaming it around the world via that TV tower. No NBCCBXABCFOX will be allowed access - only Israel will control the visuals of the war. While the action is going on, Harold will be reading the appropriate scritpures to show that this is really GOD doing what HIS Word says HE will do.

When the world gets a look at GOD (who is real), "throwing rocks" at Israel's enemies and winning, people will be running to any building with the name "church" on it and asking, "do you know THIS GOD"? Thus will begin the final harvest before the return of Christ.

Like I said, I first heard this prophecy in 1985; at the time, Russia and China were avowed enemies. Since that time, they have become friends again. Now, with the new news about Iraq possibly sending their nuke and biological stuff to Syria, my curiosity is aroused.

[xm177e2]

In other words, because anyone COULD be lying, and we can never be sure, we should throw logic out the window and trust anything--especially if it has good, interesting writing!

[Freedom of Speech Wins]

Debka posted information on an attack with the word Paradise having been used in the message between terrorists, before the Hotel Paradise attack happened, and has been right on other stuff.