Apocalypse Now, or Alottanukes Soon

At a time when a tape handed over to the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television station has received widespread expose for its purported comments by Osama bin Laden in praise of recent terror events around the world, another al-Qaeda message released to the same station has received little coverage.

Al-Jazeera was granted an interview with one Mohammed al-Usuquf, allegedly al-Qaeda's number three. Al-Usuquf is said to be a doctor in physics and to hold a masters degree in international economics. A copy of the interview was sent to the prestigious Arab-language daily Al Quds Al Arabi, edited in London, but it was not printed. Asia Times Online has obtained a copy of the interview, and reproduces excerpts here, with the caveat that the identity of the man has not yet been confirmed, nor has his membership within al-Qaeda.

Al-Usuquf says that al-Qaeda's Kuwaiti spokesman, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, and bin Laden himself, suggested that he grant the interview. Bin Laden, he says, is "alive and healthy, along with his commanders Mohammed Atef, Khalid Shaik Mohammed and Mullah Omar".

Al-Usuquf starts by criticizing Washington's disrespect of the Kyoto Protocol on climatic change, the International Criminal Court and the Palestinian cause, as well as the "financial greed" engendering speculative gains over Third World countries. He also criticizes the manner in which America wastes wealth, like US$80 billion a year on gambling. "They [have] lost the notion of spirituality and only live in sin."

For this reason, America must be destroyed, and al-Usuquf insists that "aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and spy satellites will be worthless in the next war".

Al-Qaeda, according to him, has 5,000 first rank operatives and around 20,000 all over the world. Of all the prisoners in the US, only "20 or 30" are al-Qaeda, and all of them "second-rank". Confirming Asia Times Online information, he swears that there are no first-rank prisoners in Guantanamo in Cuba. Al-Usuquf says, "We have more than 500 first-rank and 800 second-rank [operatives] inside the US." "First rank" are considered ones that have lived in the US for more than 10 years, most of them married with children. "They have an idea about the plans, and they are just waiting for a call." "Second-rank" operatives arrived in the past five years and "have no idea about the plans". They are all willing to die. Al-Usuquf insists that September 11 "was just the beginning. It was a way to call the world's attention to what's going to happen." He then details a plan to destroy the US by "attacking the heart of what they consider the most important thing in the world: money".

"The American economy is an economy of false appearances," says al-Usuquf. "There's no real economic weight. American GNP is something around $10 trillion, but only 1 percent comes from agriculture, and only 24 percent from industry. So 75 percent of its GNP comes from services, and most of it is financial speculation. For someone who understands economics, and apparently America's Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill does not, or cannot, the US as a whole behaves like an immense dot.com, and dollars are its stocks. The value of stocks from a given company is directly proportional to its profitability. When a company only provides services, but does not produce goods, the value of its stocks depends on its credibility. What I'm saying is if US credibility is affected, its stocks - the US dollar - will fall at tremendous speed, and the whole American economy will collapse."

Al-Usuquf is absolutely positive, "because, in a smaller scale, this is exactly what big financial conglomerates do with Third World countries to collect profits in one month that no Swiss bank would guarantee in four to five years". Al-Usuquf says that al-Qaeda could do the same by "provoking a deficit of $50 to 70 trillion, the equivalent to five to seven years of the GNP of the US". How? By "destroying America's seven largest cities and some other measures". The means? "Atomic bombs." Al-Usuquf's most startling revelation is that the bombs "won't be launched, they are already there". "Seven nuclear heads have already been positioned on American soil, before September 11, and they are ready to be detonated. Before September 11, American security was a fiasco, and even later, if we needed, we could position the bombs there. They arrived through seaports, as normal cargo. A nuclear head is not bigger than a fridge, so it can easily be camouflaged as one. Thousands of containers arrive at a seaport every day, and even with very efficient security, it's impossible to check and examine each one of them."

Al-Usuquf says that the bombs were bought on the black market: five from the former USSR and two from Pakistan. The five Russian heads "are from T-3 missiles, also known as RD-107, and their power is around 100 kilotons each, that is five times the Hiroshima bomb. The Pakistani ones are less powerful, something around 10 kilotons each." Each of the Russian bombs would have cost around $200 million. Al-Qaeda was able to raise the money "because we have many sponsors. Many countries sponsor us, and also some very rich people." And not all of these are Arab countries. "Some European countries as well are also interested in the fall of the US." As to the "rich people", they are "people who are also tired of seeing the US bleeding the rest of the world."

And Iraq's Saddam Hussein, says Al-Usuquf, is not one of these people, "but just a collaborator, represented by Abdul Tawab Hawaish, his vice prime minister and responsible for Iraq's arms program".

Al-Usuquf says that the bombs cannot be detected by US authorities. "Even if they are old, they were modernized and are very well hidden. Even if they were located, they have autodetonation mechanisms in case something or someone gets close. Even an electromagnetic pulse is not capable of deactivating them." The bombs allegedly cannot be detected because "they are enveloped in thick layers of lead". They could be detonated "by various methods - cellphone call, radio frequency, seismic shock or by their regressive clock".

Al-Usuquf details the whole plan. "First, one head would be detonated, which would cause the deaths of 800,000 to 1 million people and a chaos never seen before. During this chaos, two or three planes, which are now disassembled inside barns near empty roads in the US countryside, would take off in suicide missions to pulverize another two or three big American cities with chemicals. Once the disease was identified, all seaports and airports would be quarantined. Land borders would also be closed. No plane, boat or car would enter or leave the US. This would be total chaos." The first target would be the city "that would offer the best conditions, for example bright sky and winds of eight or more miles an hour blowing towards the center of the country, so radioactive dust can contaminate the largest possible area".

This attack would not knock out the US, recognizes al-Usuquf, "But the process would be initiated. As with the World Trade Center, it would be just a question of time for the whole economic structure to be turned to dust. If the objectives are reached with one bomb and diseases, probably we will save the lives of other people, but it's risky, and probably six more bombs will be detonated, one a week, and more attacks with chemical weapons will be launched." According to estimates made by al-Usuquf "and Ayman al-Zawahiri", al-Qaeda's number 2, about 15 million people would die, victims of the bombs and the radiation. Among those contaminated by diseases, "25 percent will die, a figure around more than 5 million, plus many others due to the chaos and disorder".

Al-Usuquf does not fear an American military response. "Even if five or 10 cities are chosen at random to be destroyed, it will still be a small price to pay. The problem is that the economic despair will be so great that even if it saves [money] by not using weapons, American liquidity will be near zero, and the US will make more money selling a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier to Turkey or Italy for $5 billion, because they will urgently need to recapitalize. But it will be too late. Moreover, what will remain of an American soldier's morale to fight knowing that his whole family died and his country ceased to exist? To fight for what?"

The world economy would not collapse, says al-Usuquf, although "in the beginning, it will be very difficult. But without the US the world will soon rise in a more just and fraternal manner. Nothing can stop the plan."

And whatever America does, "it's too late". When will the attack begin? "I can't tell."

Let's assume, arguendo, that one of these terror groups managed to detonate a nuke in a western city. It would inaugurate the Third World War, for sure. China, Russia, Western Europe, Australia, most of Central and South America, India, Canada and the USA would align in a completely mobilized campaign that would essentially destroy Islamic regimes worldwide and occupy whole nations for generations.

If you think that, you're fooling yourself.

Sorry, but it's the truth.

B-chan

,,, I'd imagine US nuclear strike capacity will be maintained by subs and the list of countries on the hot list, should this sort of event occur, would all get calling cards to counter. Disaster by remote control works well. The cold war threats proved that.

It would not take a detonation in a city to wreck the economy. In fact, the US does not even have to be physically attacked to bring the economy into a spiral. Just think what a single nuclear burst would do at a low orbit (400 mile) altitude. Very few of the satellites at that altitude are hardend. The nuclear debris and radioactive particles in orbit would have a devasting effect on anything launched for the next 10-15 years.

No individual country would be attacked, as all low orbit satellites would be affected. No one would be killed, because the blast would be at such a high altitude. But every country in the world that uses technology would be affected.

I did a google search and looked up on the Fas.org military links and found nothing about a t3 icbm. The rd-107 is a rocket engine used for Soyuz boosters.

Why would these evil islamonazis wait if they had such nuclear capability here pre-Sept. 11? If they are so gung-ho as to slam jumbo jets into buildings full of people, then there's no reason to wait to use nukes against us... UNLESS this whole 'message' from one of bin laden's guys is a total farce.

The thing to be feared after such an event is not that the west would be defeated by Islamic fundamentalists, but that the hysterical, revenge-driven environment would invariably lead to the emergence of an ultra-powerful central government (or leader) who would be given carte blanche to do whatever.

bingo. I was thinking the same thing. Global catastrophes of whatever form, nuclear terrorism, meteor, etc raise this sort of arlan spector.

HOW MANY *DIFFERENT* EVIDENTLY CREDIBLE SOURCES

share the essential elements of such

before YOU consider it credible?

I think the terrorist is greatly underestimating our response.

But the degree of destruction and the degree of chaos is probably understated by even him.

God Almighty has ALSO been sharing input of this sort. So we have the full spectrum from satan's crew to God's crew saying essentially the same thing about America's humbling that's scheduled.

And virtually nobody--even most churches--seems to be paying much of any attention.

Regardless it is fascinating. A very fascinating social phenomenon.

Even evil idiots can have a schedule, a strategy.

There may be a dozen reasons they haven't used them yet.

Certainly they'd want to observe after 9/11.

Tney'd like a maximum effect time to begin the next level of chaos.

I don't think your smugness has a solid foundation.

ABSOLUTELY.

GIVEN DILLDO'S BEHAVIOR WITH CHINA, HE MAY HAVE ORDERED THE NAVY TO BRING THEM IN FOR THE TERRORISTS.

And then had all the personnel . . . turn up MIA somehow.

Farfetched . . . but not any more farfetched than that a president of the USA would be getting his rocks off courtesy of an intern while talking to a congressional leader or a foreign leader.

SADLY, I'M SKEPTICAL OF THAT.

I doubt we'd have the courage and decisive immediate action to do what's necessary.

We MIGHT nuke Bagdahd sp? We might nuke some air bases in some other Moslem countries. Doubt even W would nuke Medina or Mecca--when both SHOULD BE GONE IMMEDIATELY upon the first use of WMD, IMHO.

,,, I think Rumsfeld said it was a certainty that a nuke would go off in the US - it wasn't if, it was when. "Inevitable" was the word he used, if my memory serves me corretly. They must be pretty sure. Any searches at ports now are to make sure the problem doesn't get worse.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.