Al-Qaida False Alarm

According to a June 3 headline in the Washington Times, "CIA says al-Qaida ready to use nukes." That headline and the exclusive accompanying story sent shock waves across the country and around the world. You've probably been hiding in your basement fallout shelter ever since.

The story by Times investigative reporter Bill Gertz is even more frightening than the headline. Gertz begins, "Al-Qaida terrorists and related groups are set to use chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in deadly strikes, according to a new CIA report."

Wow. It's not just al-Qaida we have to worry about. And it's not just getting nuked in our jammies. There are also other "related" terrorist groups out there ready to strike us and they have chemical and biological weapons, as well as nukes

Well, it must be very serious, indeed. Usually Gertz doesn't tell us where he gets his "secret" information. He claims his "sources" insist on remaining anonymous.

Presumably, Gertz checks out "secret" info with multiple independent sources before printing it. That's what Bob Woodward and Sy Hersh and all good investigative reporters do.

Of course, even if the Washington Times story had been written by Jayson Blair – formerly of the New York Times – about a classified document, no CIA official would publicly confirm or deny its accuracy. By law, no one who is properly cleared can ever publicly comment on classified information.

So, you cannot assume that a story by an investigative reporter about a classified subject is accurate simply because no government official steps forward to deny it.

Unfortunately for Gertz, he based his story on a CIA document that was not classified and his characterization of what it said was wildly inaccurate.

So, later that same day, the CIA posted the entire document – "Terrorist CBRN: Materials and Effects" – on its website, with the following disclaimer at the top and bottom:

Please note: "This pamphlet contains a summary of typical agents and CBRN devices available to al-Qaida and other terrorist groups. It is not intended to be a summary of the overall threat from al-Qaida's CBRN program."

Notice that the CIA document is an information pamphlet and that it is undated. It's the sort of thing passed out at "homeland security" public meetings.

The CIA pamphlet provides a list of bad things that terrorists might like to get their hands on, but the list is not exhaustive. For example, plastique or fertilizer-fuel oil explosives are not mentioned, even though explosives have thus far been the terrorist's weapon of choice. Box cutters are also not mentioned.

Nowhere does it say – as Gertz says it does – that "Al-Qaida terrorists and related groups are set to use chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in deadly strikes."

"Several groups of mujahedin associated with al-Qaida have attempted to carry out 'poison plot' attacks in Europe with easily produced chemicals and toxins best suited to assassination and small-scale scenarios." "Analysis of an al-Qaida document recovered in Afghanistan in summer 2002 indicates the group has crude procedures for making mustard agent, sarin, and VX."

"A document recovered from an al-Qaida facility in Afghanistan contained a sketch of a crude nuclear device."

Terrorists may have attempted to "poison" Europeans with cyanide and may have attempted to make nerve agents, but the CIA pamphlet doesn't chronicle any successes.

So, don't you feel somewhat silly, hiding in your basement because someone found a sketch of a crude nuclear device – reportedly downloaded from the Internet – in an abandoned building in Afghanistan.

Do you believe the recounting of that year-ago discovery justifies this week's shocking headline – "CIA says al-Qaida ready to use nukes"?

Either Gertz has a reading comprehension problem or he has deliberately misled us.

Which brings us to the burning issue of the day – where are all those "weapons of mass destruction" the CIA allegedly said Saddam had ready for use?

Well, maybe none of the CIA secret reports ever said that Saddam did. Maybe the media elite and certain anonymous government officials also have a reading comprehension problem. Or maybe they deliberately misled us.[emphasis added]

Physicist James Gordon Prather has served as a policy implementing official for national security-related technical matters in the Federal Energy Agency, the Energy Research and Development Administration, the Department of Energy, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Department of the Army. Dr. Prather also served as legislative assistant for national security affairs to U.S. Sen. Henry Bellmon, R-Okla. -- ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee and member of the Senate Energy Committee and Appropriations Committee. Dr. Prather had earlier worked as a nuclear weapons physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico.

Which brings us to the burning issue of the day – where are all those "weapons of mass destruction" the CIA allegedly said Saddam had ready for use?

The CIA allegedly said??? What planet is this guy from???? I saw George Tenet sitting right behind Colin Powell at the UN presentation. I didn't see him dissagreeing, he was there to back Powell up. This whole "hubbub" is fun for the Anti-war folks to get their faces back temporarily. In the long run the answers will be found.

As far as Iraq's "alleged" WMD we have seen photos of the bodies killed by these weapons.

I'm sure Saddam is getting a good laugh over this, if he's still breathing that is. After all we gave him a years notice to hide everything.

It's not to bad an editorial. At least he goes after Gertz for misquoting from an unclassified general info pamphlet and misleading the public.

I do have a problem with it, though:

"Which brings us to the burning issue of the day – where are all those 'weapons of mass destruction' the CIA allegedly said Saddam had ready for use?"

After raking Gertz over the coals, why is Prather basically doing the same thing? The results from extensive testing of various chemical caches is only just now beginning to be released to the cleared parties (which don't include the public)

In addition, the media really seems to expect us to believe that Iraqi farmers NORMALLY filles chemical warheads with 'insecticide' in order to get rid of pests in the eggplant fields....while for MONTHS the SAME media (usually in articles with the name BLIX in the headline) reminded us that all of the possible weapons components shipped to Saddam illegally from various nations were dual use Do I need to remind everyone of the toxicity of undiluted insecticides to humans?

I think everyone is missing something here, and that something is : dual use

The administration didn't exaggerate: the media did, and now the media is trying to blame the administration. If it looks like a setup, and smells like a setup....

Well, I agree--and we know that he used gas against his own and Iranian people. Dual use is fine, but that opens up cans of worms we don't want opened, IMO. Of course, binary nerve gasses are irreversible cholinesterase inhibitors, the same as insectides (but more potent and more "irreversible"). But, pesticides, "dual use" or not, won't win this debate or even plausibly make the defense. There are many skeptics--as we should be skeptics. If this were Klinton's war (nevermind the problems with imagining that construction!), you and I would be yelling, "aspirin factory, aspirin factory." People on the other side can reasonably say the same thing.

Full disclosure: I was against, and wrote against, the invasion until the first bomb was dropped. I had strong feelings in several areas. This is just one. But I DID say that we had better find something, several times. We haven't--although we probably will. But the clock IS ticking on America's credibility.

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