Confronting the Threat of an Al Qaida WMD Attack By James J.F. Forest | December 12, 2006
A previous issue of this column examined the Salafi-Jihadi ideology which motivates members of al Qaida and affiliated groups. As described in the Militant Ideology Atlas, published by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, this ideology is built upon the precepts of an existing Salafi tradition within the broader Islamic faith, and resonates in the Muslim world because of several pre-existing perceptions and environmental factors, including a sense of crisis, humiliation, impotence and resentment directed at their local rulers and powerful Western allies. An understanding of this ideology leads to important insights on the potential threat posed to the United States and our allies if these groups were to acquire a weapon of mass destruction.
In October 2006, an audio statement was released by Abu Hamza al-Muhajir—the leader of al Qaida in Iraq—calling for nuclear scientists to join his mujahideen group, emphasizing that "the battlefield will accommodate your scientific aspirations." That same month, Dhiren Barot—a British jihadist and convert to Islam—pled guilty in a London courtroom to a series of terrorist plots in the UK and U.S. that were, according to authorities, "designed to kill as many innocent people as possible." In one plot, Barot intended to detonate a radiological dispersion device (also known as a "dirty bomb") in London. These and other recent examples are pointed to as evidence of the global Salafi-Jihadist movement's growing interest in weapons of mass destruction. Contemporary members of this movement rationalize the need for these weapons as part of a power/capability/force multiplier calculation within the context of the larger socio-political vision being pursued.
Initially, in the late 1990s, al Qaida sought to acquire WMD in order to defend their safe haven in Afghanistan. Today, research indicates that al Qaida wishes to acquire a WMD to use as a first strike weapon against the United States and its allies. Their calculus for WMD acquisition is rational, not apocalyptic. They believe that WMD will advance their strategic objective of exhausting the United States economically and militarily by forcing the U.S. to expend massive amounts of money on protecting our critical infrastructure, borders and ports of entry, and on military deployments in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. They are convinced that acquiring WMD will allow them to achieve military and strategic parity with the West, bestow credibility on the mujahideen, exaggerate the movement's power and capability, and frighten the enemies of Islam.
They also rationalize the acquisition and use of WMD as necessary to avenge Western "killing of Muslims" by killing large number of western civilians. In 2003, Al Qaida received some modicum of religious sanction for the use of WMD against the enemies of Islam by Saudi cleric Nassir bin Hamad al-Fahd, who issued an important and detailed fatwa on the permissibility of WMD in jihad. He stated that since America has destroyed countless lands and killed millions of Muslims, it would obviously be permitted to respond in kind. Similarly, al Qaida spokesman Suleiman Abu Gheith stated in 2002 that "we have the right to kill 4 million Americans, 2 million of them children . . . and cripple them in the hundreds of thousands. Furthermore, it is our obligation to fight them with chemical and biological weapons, to afflict them with the fatal woes that have afflicted Muslims because of their chemical and biological weapons." And al Qaida member Abu Muhammad al-Ablaj noted that a chemical, biological, or nuclear weapon "must be used at a time that makes the crusader enemy beg on his knee that he does not want more strikes."
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