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Belgians Detain Iraqi Suspected Of Mailing Nerve Gas Chemical
The New York Times | June 6, 2003 | Reuters

Posted on 06/08/2003 9:32:35 PM PDT by Wallaby

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Belgians Detain Iraqi Suspected Of Mailing Nerve Gas Chemical

Reuters

The New York Times
Section A; Page 16; Column 5; Foreign Desk
June 6, 2003, Friday, Late Edition - Final

BRUSSELS, June 5

The Belgian police said today that they had detained an Iraqi man after 10 letters containing a nerve gas ingredient were sent to the prime minister's office, the American and British Embassies and a court trying suspected members of Al Qaeda.


Inside the letters was a brownish-yellow powder that contained phenarsazine chloride, an arsenic derivative used in nerve gas.
The police detained the man late on Wednesday in the western Belgian town of Deinze, said the head of police investigation, Glenn Audenaert.

Twenty people, including postal workers and police officers, went to the hospital briefly after being exposed to the chemical in the letters, sent earlier in the week.

Among them were five officers at the Brussels police headquarters who were leafing through documents taken from the Iraqi man's home.

"They suffered the same symptoms as the three officers who went to the British Embassy to get the letter," Mr. Audenaert told a news conference.

Three ministries, the Saudi Arabian Embassy, an airport and a port authority also received the letters.

Inside the letters was a brownish-yellow powder that contained phenarsazine chloride, an arsenic derivative used in nerve gas.

"It can be lethal when it is burned," Mr. Audenaert said.

The letters contained no more than a spoonful of powder, not a life-threatening amount but enough to cause irritation of the eyes, skin and breathing passages, the federal prosecutor's spokeswoman said.

Belgium and other Western European countries have been on alert for possible attacks after suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia and Morocco last month. Those attacks have been blamed on Al Qaeda or its affiliates.

The prosecutor's spokeswoman did not elaborate on the investigation but said the police had not found any of the chemicals in the suspect's home.

Some of the letters contained written notes reading "International Islamic Society" and "Bastards" in English.

The suspected attack came as 23 people believed to have collaborated with Al Qaeda stood trial in Brussels on charges of recruiting volunteers for an Islamic holy war.  



TOPICS: Anthrax Scare; Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 200306; alqaeda; belgium; brownpowder; brussels; iis; intlislamicsociety; iraq; letters; nervegas; phenarsazinechloride; powder; terror; terrortrials; wmd
The Times buries the follow-up story to Belgians probe letters bearing toxic powders on page 16 of the late Friday edition. A link to Iraq in this case would be so inconvenient while the NYT and the Dems publicly fret about whether they should impeach Bush for saying Iraq had WMDs.
1 posted on 06/08/2003 9:32:35 PM PDT by Wallaby
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To: Badabing Badaboom; aristeides; Wordsmith; Nita Nupress; Fred Mertz; honway; oceanview
ping
2 posted on 06/08/2003 9:34:20 PM PDT by Wallaby
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To: Wallaby

Iraqi Suspected Of Mailing Nerve Gas Chemical

Can't be they don't have any WMD. Ask Dean.

3 posted on 06/08/2003 9:44:58 PM PDT by Taxbilly
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Comment #4 Removed by Moderator

Comment #5 Removed by Moderator

To: The Great Satan
The Belgian police said today that they had detained an Iraqi man after 10 letters containing a nerve gas ingredient

...Paging TGS.

6 posted on 06/08/2003 11:04:04 PM PDT by Wallaby
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To: Wallaby; Shermy
I wonder if there is a reason why this story does not tell us that the letters also contained hydrazine.
7 posted on 06/09/2003 4:13:30 AM PDT by aristeides
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To: aristeides
Also interesting that hydrazine is referred to as a pesticide and not a rocket propellant; if my memory serves me right, the V-2s were (partially) propelled by hydrazine.
8 posted on 06/09/2003 7:50:46 AM PDT by a history buff
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To: Wallaby
Ping.

www.opinionjournal.com

***Operation Infinite Freedom - Situation Room - 9 JUN 03/Day 82***

9 posted on 06/09/2003 10:40:44 AM PDT by Ragtime Cowgirl ("The American people are proud of you and God bless each of you." Rummy to troops in Iraq)
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To: a history buff
I now see that another Reuters story (not the one linked above) mentions the use of hydrazine as a propellant:
The brownish-yellow powder contained phenarsazine chloride, an arsenic derivative used in nerve gas, as well as hydrazine, an agent used as a rocket propellant, said Health Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Francoise Gally said.
Belgium Finds Nerve Gas Ingredient in Letters
10 posted on 06/09/2003 2:39:41 PM PDT by Wallaby
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To: blam; Travis McGee; Dog Gone; Howlin; section9; wardaddy
Interesting.
11 posted on 06/09/2003 2:46:50 PM PDT by Southack (Media bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: seamole
A furlough candidate. You are correct. the Belgians feel that prisons are not for punishing. Look at the serial child rapist/killer Marc Dutoux(sp?). That is what a liberal society will bring you.
12 posted on 06/09/2003 2:53:28 PM PDT by cardinal4 (The Senate Armed Services Comm; the Chinese pipeline into US secrets)
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To: a history buff; Ragtime Cowgirl; aristeides; Shermy; seamole; Fred Mertz; Nita Nupress; ...
According to this Dutch report, relayed by the BBC, hydrazine can be used to make bombs.


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BELGIAN PROBE LINKS POWDER SCARE TO IRAQ WAR OR TERROR TRIAL
Source: De Standaard web site, Groot-Bijgaarden, in Dutch 5 Jun 03
BBC Monitoring International Reports
June 5, 2003


Belgian investigators suspect the people who sent 10 letters containing toxic substances may be linked to Iraqi or Muslim extremist circles. They believe a phrase written in one of the envelopes may refer to the trial of 23 Muslim extremists currently on trial in Brussels. The Belgian Interior Ministry stressed that "the quantity of toxic products was not worrying". The following is the text of a report by Belgian newspaper De Standaard web site on 5 June:

Brussels: "Set our brothers free." That was the message in one of the 10 toxic powder letters which have turned up at various official bodies in our country over the past few days. Investigators are seeking the perpetrators in Iraqi or Muslim fundamentalist circles in our country. It is virtually certain that that the letters were posted in the Deinze area.

The British and Saudi Arabian embassies yesterday intercepted the last two of 10 letters sent containing the toxic products phenarsazine and hydrazine - derivatives of pesticides. On the afternoon of Monday 2 June , postmen in the post office's logistics centre in Deinze had already discovered two powder letters. They were found by chance because powder leaked out during sorting. On Tuesday, another three suspicious letters turned up in the same way at the post sorting centre in Ghent. The five letters intercepted at the post office were addressed to the prime minister, the justice and foreign affairs ministers, the court of first instance in Brussels and the US embassy.

Three other letters did reach their destinations on Tuesday: The Court of Cassation top appeal court in Brussels, Ostend airport and the Antwerp port authority.

Various people who were near the letters when they were opened showed irritation in their eyes and bronchial tubes and were taken to hospital. Two people, including a pregnant woman, were even admitted to hospital as a precautionary measure in Brussels and Ostend. The 10 letters which turned up in our country on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were in various kinds of envelopes. However, they all looked the same inside. In all the letters, there was a folded-up cardboard container with a brownish-yellow mixture of the two toxic powers in it. The cardboard containers in two of the letters bore the legend Islamic International Society. That is an existing organization which is, however, not known to the judicial authorities for terrorist activities.

According to judicial sources, there was also on at least one cardboard container in one of the letters the message "Set our brothers free. Bastards." That last message could refer to the action which is being conducted in Brussels right now against 23 Muslim extremists, including Nizar Trabelsi.

Moreover, hydrazine was also one of the products on Nizar Trabelsi's notorious "shopping list". Two days after the 11 September attacks, investigators found in Trabelsi's apartment a chemical formula for making a bomb. He would also use hydrazine for his bomb, it emerged from the formula.


Moreover, hydrazine was also one of the products on Nizar Trabelsi's notorious "shopping list". Two days after the 11 September attacks, investigators found in Trabelsi's apartment a chemical formula for making a bomb. He would also use hydrazine for his bomb, it emerged from the formula.
In the meantime, the judicial investigation into the sender of the letters has been centralized in the federal public prosecutor's office in Brussels. It is being conducted by terrorism experts of the Brussels federal police in cooperation with the local police of the places where the letters were seized

"At first sight and following analysis of the letters' addressees, we seem to have to seek the perpetrators in Muslim fundamentalist circles or those of people who were opposed to the US arms transports from our country to Iraq," federal public prosecutor's office spokesperson Lieve Pellens says.

As a precautionary measure, the police also informed the embassies of France, Israel, Spain and Germany yesterday that they should watch out for suspicious envelopes.

The first trails to the perpetrators seem to run in the direction of Deinze. The judicial authorities concentrated their investigation on that area yesterday. The two letters which arrived at the logistic centre in Deinze yesterday were posted around there. That is confirmed by post office spokesman Francois Dorrekens.

"Letters from the mail boxes of Deinze, Aalter and Nevele end up at the Deinze logistic centre," he says. "Letters which have to go from Deinze to Brussels then pass through the Ghent sorting centre." It is, of course, also not impossible that the sender of the letter posted the letters in Deinze but himself comes from somewhere else.

Post office employees have been advised by their management to be especially on the alert for further powder letters over the next few days.

"Immediately wash your hands thoroughly with water, go and breathe in fresh air outside and change your clothes. That should be enough," Dorrekens says.

The Interior Ministry's Crisis Centre also distributed a statement yesterday in which it said that there is no reason for the population to worry.

"The envelopes were addressed to various authorities, not to citizens. Moreover, the quantity of toxic products was not worrying," it said.


13 posted on 06/09/2003 3:12:59 PM PDT by Wallaby
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To: cardinal4; seamole
>That is what a liberal society will bring you.

Their Interior Ministry is still clueless:

The Interior Ministry's Crisis Centre also distributed a statement yesterday in which it said that there is no reason for the population to worry.

"The envelopes were addressed to various authorities, not to citizens. Moreover, the quantity of toxic products was not worrying," it said.


14 posted on 06/09/2003 3:17:50 PM PDT by Wallaby
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To: aristeides; OKCSubmariner; honway; independentmind; The Great Satan; Nita Nupress
HYDRAZINE
FBI investigates possible McVeigh link to fuel buy

Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
SECTION: LOCAL; Ed. F; Pg. 5A
April 11, 1997, Friday
Staff and wire reports

FBI agents descended on a Texas auto racing track last month looking for evidence that Timothy McVeigh bought a large quantity of powerful racing fuel before the Oklahoma City bombing, ABC reported Thursday night.

Employees of VP Racing Fuels told the FBI that a man resembling McVeigh in 1994 paid $ 2,700 cash in Texas for nitromethane, ABC said.

The chemical is an accelerant the government now believes may have been used to detonate the bomb that killed 168 people.

Previously, the government has maintained that the bomb was made of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil. Some explosives experts questioned whether such a bomb could have caused the extensive damage seen in Oklahoma.

The Rocky Mountain News reported Feb. 5 that a bomb mixed with nitromethane instead of fuel oil would be much more powerful.

The News reported that an official of VP Racing Fuels warned federal agents in October 1994 that a man resembling McVeigh was trying to buy nitromethane or anhydrous hydrazine - highly explosive fuels for dragsters.


15 posted on 06/09/2003 3:40:18 PM PDT by Wallaby
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To: Southack
very interesting bump
16 posted on 06/10/2003 1:39:12 AM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge.)
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To: Wallaby
Another Iraqi with unknown stuff in an envelope...and instructions on usage:

Iraqi Soldier Captured with Anthrax

17 posted on 06/10/2003 1:53:16 AM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge.)
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