posted on April 27, 2004 05:45:00 PM new
[taken from the WSJ - from a CNN article]
Where'd These Weapons Come From?
"Jordanian authorities said
Monday they have broken up an alleged al Qaeda plot that would have unleashed a deadly cloud of chemicals in the heart of Jordan's capital, Amman," CNN reports:
Among the alleged targets were the U.S. Embassy, the Jordanian prime minister's office and the headquarters of Jordanian intelligence.
U.S. intelligence officials expressed caution about whether the chemicals captured by Jordanian authorities were intended to create a "toxic cloud" chemical weapon, but they said the large quantities involved were at a minimum intended to create "massive explosions."
Jordan's state-run television aired a confession from ringleader Azmi Jayyousi, who said he took orders from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an Iraq-based al Qaeda terrorist. "I took explosives courses, poisons high level, then I pledged allegiance to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to obey him without any questioning," Jayyousi said.
The Jordanians say they "seized 20 tons of chemicals and numerous explosives." Could these have come from Saddam's stocks?
posted on April 27, 2004 06:08:06 PM new
Really, Linda. If you are going to quote, please do it correctly. You re-worded a quote & thereby changed its slant.
Your version:
"Jordan's state-run television aired a confession from ringleader Azmi Jayyousi, who said he took orders from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an Iraq-based al Qaeda terrorist. "I took explosives courses, poisons high level, then I pledged allegiance to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to obey him without any questioning," Jayyousi said."
CNNs version (which you linked to):
"On a confession shown on state-run Jordanian television, Jayyousi said he took orders from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a suspected terrorist leader who has been linked to al Qaeda and whom U.S. officials have said is behind some attacks in Iraq. "I took explosives courses, poisons high level, then I pledged allegiance to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to obey him without any questioning," Jayyousi said."
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is a Jordanian, not an Iraqi. Nor is he based in Iraq, though he has perpetrated attacks against us in Iraq since we invaded.
Where the wxplosives came from is anybody's guess. BTW--have they found any in Iraq yet?
******
Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there --Clare Booth Luce
posted on April 27, 2004 06:35:24 PM new
bunni - So sorry you got confused by my post.
It was not my words, as you well know, but rather I stated taken from the WSJ....which we all know leans right.
Then I included the CNN article....which we all know leans left in fairness.
The point is all these tons of weapons were found and there is a link that has been spoken of in tons of news reports and in the media.
The like between this guy and AQ.
To refresh your memory here's an article from the BBC about this terrorist.
Wednesday, 5 February, 2003, 18:11 GMT
Zarqawi and the 'al-Qaeda link'
Powell: [b]Zarqawi directs network from Baghdad
American claims of a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda rest heavily on reports that a Jordanian al-Qaeda associate, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been given a safe haven in Iraq[/b].
In his presentation to the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Colin Powell alleged that members of Mr Zarqawi's group connected with al-Qaeda have been operating freely in Baghdad for more than eight months.
Mr Powell said: "These al-Qaeda affiliates... now co-ordinate the movement of people, money and supplies into and throughout Iraq for [Mr Zarqawi's] network."
for whatever reason you anti-Bush people just don't want to acknowledge ANY link between this terrorist, Iraq and AQ. I'm pointing it out.
But what's forcused on? The possibility that these COULD BE part of the weapons saddam got rid of since the same terrorist is involved? No....didn't even want to discuss that issue.
posted on April 27, 2004 06:59:46 PM new
February 6, 2003, 9:00 a.m.
The Zarqawi Node in the Terror Matrix
Linking the terrorists.
By Matthew Levitt
In mapping out Iraq's links to international terrorism before the United Nations Security Council, Secretary of State Colin Powell highlighted the case of senior al Qaeda commander Fedel Nazzel Khalayleh, better known as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
In fact, Zarqawi exemplifies not only the Iraq role in the web of international terror but serves as a case in point of the terror matrix itself.
Zarqawi's activities on behalf of al Qaeda span the globe, from Afghanistan to Great Britain, with equally diverse links to other terrorist groups, from Ansar al-Islam in Iraq and Hezbollah in Lebanon to al-Tawhid in Germany and Beyyiat el-Imam in Turkey. At least 116 terrorist operatives from Zarqawi's global network have already been arrested, including members in France, Italy, Spain, Britain, Germany, Turkey, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.
WHO IS ZARQAWI?
A Palestinian-Jordanian and veteran of the Afghan war against the Soviets, Zarqawi first appeared as a terror suspect when Jordan indicted him in absentia for his role in the al Qaeda millennial bombing plot targeting the Radison SAS hotel in Amman as well as other American, Israeli, and Christian religious sites in Jordan. In 2000 he returned to Afghanistan, where he oversaw a terrorist training camp and specialized in chemical and biological weapons. European officials maintain Zarqawi is the al Qaeda coordinator for attacks there, where chemical attacks were recently thwarted in Britain, France, and Italy.
In fact, Secretary Powell informed that Abuwatia (ph), a detainee who graduated from Zarqawi's terrorist camp in Afghanistan, admitted to dispatching at least nine North African extremists to travel to Europe to conduct poison and explosive attacks.
Zarqawi heads Jund al-Shams, an Islamic extremist group and al Qaeda affiliate which operated primarily in Syria and Jordan, but is now believed to have moved to the Ansar al-Islam enclave in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq where he helped establish a new poison and explosive training camp. Powell noted that Zarqawi's lieutenants operate the Ansar al-Islam camp in coordination with a senior Iraqi agent "in the most senior levels of the radical organization."
TERROR TO GO
Zarqawi's own movements are themselves telling. After being wounded in the leg in Afghanistan, Zarqawi escaped to Iran.
While there, he dispatched two Palestinians and a Jordanian who entered Turkey illegally from Iran on their way to conduct bombing attacks in Israel. The three, members of Beyyiat el-Imam (a group linked to al Qaeda) who fought for the Taliban and received terrorist training in Afghanistan, were intercepted and arrested by Turkish police on February 15, 2002.
From Iran Zarqawi traveled to Iraq in May 2002, where his wounded leg was amputated and the limb fitted with a prosthetic device. He spent two months recovering in Baghdad, at which time "nearly two dozen extremists converged on Baghdad and established a base of operations there." Powell informed that "these Al Qaida affiliates, based in Baghdad, now coordinate the movement of people, money and supplies into and throughout Iraq for his network, and they've now been operating freely in the capital for more than eight months."
While Iraq maintained it was unaware of the whereabouts of Zarqawi or other terrorists, Powell informed the Security Council that the United States passed information to Iraqi authorities on Zarqawi's location in the Iraqi capitol via a third party.
From Baghdad Zarqawi traveled to Syria, and from there to Lebanon where he met with leaders from Hezbollah and other extremists at a terror training camp in South Lebanon. In fact, Zarqawi has been definitively linked both to Hezballah as well as a terrorist cell apprehended in Germany that had been operating under the name Tawhid.
German prosecutors announced that the group, tied to the recently arrested Abu Qatada in Britain but controlled by Zarqawi, was planning to attack U.S. or Israeli interests in Germany. Eight men were arrested, and raids yielded hundreds of forged passports from Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Denmark, and other countries.
While in Syria Zarqawi planned and facilitated the October assassination of Lawrence Foley, a U.S. official with the Agency for International Development. In December a Libyan and a Jordanian were arrested for the attack. Jordan's prime minister announced that the pair received funding and instructions from Zarqawi, and intended to conduct attacks against "foreign embassies, Jordanian officials, some diplomatic personnel, especially Americans and Israelis." Powell revealed that after the murder, one of the assassin's associates "left Jordan to go to Iraq to obtain weapons and explosives for further operations."
Zarqawi is now believed to have returned to the Ansar al-Islam camp in northern Iraq run by his Jund al-Shams lieutenants.
Terrorists trained at the camp have plotted chemical attacks with various toxins in Britain, France, Georgia's Pankisi Gorge, and Chechnya.
THE TERROR MATRIX
The Zarqawi network highlights the matrix of relationships that define today's international terrorist threat.
Indeed, international terrorism is a web linking many disparate groups. Senior U.S. and European officials have noted that although Hezbollah and al Qaeda do not appear to share operational support, they have engaged in logistical cooperation on an ad hoc and tactical basis, as well as cooperative training.
Support networks play a particularly crucial role in the matrix of relationships among terrorists.
For example, over the past year, evidence has shown that the al-Taqwa banking network — which was shut down shortly after the September 11 attacks in light of its ties to al Qaeda — was a preferred conduit for transferring funds to Hamas and a host of North African terrorist groups, in addition to being established with seed money from the Muslim Brotherhood.
Moreover, state sponsors of terrorism continue to play a central role, as evidenced by the hospitality showed Zarqawi by Iran, Iraq, and Syria. For example, Syria has provided a great deal of assistance against al Qaeda, but is nevertheless believed to be supplying rockets directly to Hezbollah.
Damascus should be told in no uncertain terms to direct its counterterrorism cooperation against all terrorists. Tehran continues to support Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorist groups as well, and has given senior al Qaeda officials sanctuary in villages along its eastern border with Afghanistan and Pakistan. And the Iraqi embassy in Pakistan, Powell announced, served as Saddam's liaison to al Qaeda from 1999 through 2001.
To ignore these links is to forfeit hope of any real progress toward constricting the operating environment in which terrorist plan, fund and execute terrorist attacks.
To be effective, the war on terror must have a strategic focus on the entirety of the terror matrix. Tactically, this must translate into taking action against both operational and logistical networks, as well as targeting the full range of groups making up terror web — from Jund al-Shams, Beyyiat el-Imam and al-Tawhid to al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Hamas — and the states that continue to support them.
— Matthew A. Levitt is senior fellow in terrorism studies at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
posted on April 30, 2004 10:20:15 AM new
Looks like the "chemical" weapons came from Jordan.
Foiled Jordan Attack Not Chemical-'Qaeda Tape'
April 30 — By Ghaida Ghantous
DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda planned an attack on Jordanian intelligence services but not using chemical weapons as Amman has charged, according to a new audio tape purportedly from a leading al Qaeda figure aired on Friday.
Jordan said earlier this month it had foiled a major attack that could have killed thousands. The tape purporting to be the voice of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi accused Jordan of lying and of extracting "false" confessions from militants under torture.
Jordanian state television has aired what it said were confessions by captured militants linked to al Qaeda who said they had planned chemical attacks in Jordan, a key U.S. ally.
"Yes, the plan was to totally destroy the building of the intelligence apparatus," the voice on the tape said in excerpts aired by an Arab satellite television station on Friday.
"(But) their claims of unimaginable casualties and that it was a chemical bomb that would have killed thousands of people is a pure lie...The chemical and poisonous bomb is a fabrication by the evil Jordanian mechanism," he said in a full text of his statement carried on Islamist Web sites.
"God knows, that if we possessed such a bomb that we would not have hesitated for a second to avidly seek to strike Israeli cities such as Eilat, Tel Aviv and others."
He said the bomb was made of primary substances available on the market as claimed by one of the captured militants, the head of the captured group Azmi Jayousi. The group did not intend to kill Muslims as Jordan claimed, the statement added.
"The Jordanian intelligence lied twice...to protect their masters and sponsors from the Jews and Christians," he said, accusing Jordanian intelligence of helping their Israeli counterparts to penetrate Iraq.
It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the tape.
The arrested militants shown on television, who included Syrians, said they were ordered by Zarqawi to attack targets that included the U.S. embassy and intelligence headquarters.
The purported Zarqawi statement said the operation was meant to target "the black source of evil in our homeland."
Jordan television showed pictures of the site of the alleged chemical plants and trucks that were to be used in the attacks.
The tape purporting to be Jordanian-born Zarqawi said the attack was to punish Jordanian authorities whom he accused of "infidelity" by aiding the "treacherous enemy" America.
He said they played a key role in the fall of Baghdad by helping U.S. intelligence.
"Jordan was and still is a support base for arms and ammunition supplies for the U.S. army occupying Iraq," he said, adding Amman was also providing its air space to areas in Iraq.
A purported statement by Zarqawi last week claimed responsibility for suicide boat attacks on Iraq's vital Basra oil terminal. U.S. authorities believe he is probably in Iraq.
"Jordanian intelligence...did its utmost to hunt the knights of Islam until its jails became the Arab Guantanamo," he said referring to the U.S. base in Cuba holding al Qaeda suspects.
The Jordanian embassy in Iraq was one of the first to be attacked following the ouster of Saddam Hussein last April.
