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Iraq
7-Pound Cyanide Salt Block Found in Iraq
2004-02-03
The potentially lethal compound was located in what was believed to be the safe house of Abu Musab Zarqawi, a poisons specialist described by some U.S. intelligence officials as having been a key link between deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and the Al Qaeda terror network.
The fact that we're hitting his safe houses is even more significant than the poison...
Cyanides salts are extremely toxic. According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, exposure to even a small amount through contact or inhalation can cause immediate death. Zarqawi, believed to have been operating in Iraq before March’s invasion, was still being sought by coalition forces. It was not clear if anyone had been apprehended in connection with last month’s find.
Hmmm...
Early last year, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell detailed Zarqawi’s significance in an appearance before the U.N. Security Council. "Iraq today harbors a deadly terrorist network headed by Abu Musab Zarqawi, an associate and collaborator of Usama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda lieutenants," Powell said. Zarqawi was described as a poisons expert with strong ties to the former Iraqi regime and the terrorist groups Al Qaeda and Ansar al-Islam. A Palestinian born in Jordan who fought in Afghanistan more than a decade ago, Zarqawi returned to Afghanistan in 2000 to oversee terrorist training camps, Powell told the Security Council. "One of his specialties at the camp was poisons," Powell said. "When our coalition ousted the Taliban, the Zarqawi network helped establish another poison and explosives training center." Zarqawi is believed to have begun establishing terror cells in and around Baghdad prior to the start of the war last March, and is thought by U.S. officials to still be in the country. U.S. officials, who said they were getting new intelligence in the hunt for Zarqawi, also believe he had been attempting to produce large quantities of the toxin ricin in northern Iraq.
Posted by:TS

#4  ya know, we got that guy Hassan Ghul(big al-qaida capture) last month coming into northern Iraq, and then afterwards we said we think Zarqawi was behind the UN bombing, the mosque in Najaf, etc....so obviously Ghul was giving up information.
Seems we may have gotten Zarqawi as they seem to be seeking the famous 'dire revenge'.
Chem attack warnings, chem attack in DC, huge suicide bombing on the kurds...sounds like revenge attacks to me.
Of course it could be revenge for the
capture of Ghul,done by Zarqawi.
In any matter seems like ol' Zarqawis time has come.
Posted by: TS   2004-2-3 11:56:00 PM  

#3  Hmmm, yeah, maybe we got Zarqawi, and that is why the suicide bombings of kurds,(since ansar al-islam operates out of northern Iraq, kurds found him and told us where he was?) and also maybe he ordered to release the toxins if caught and that is why they were worried about the bio/chem plane plot?
If they did get him and then we got ricin in DC, well, there should be no question as to who did it.
Posted by: TS   2004-2-3 11:11:49 PM  

#2  "AW, shucks, boys 'at dere cyanide's fer ma gold mine", he claimed.
Posted by: Gasse Katze   2004-2-3 10:13:27 PM  

#1  Not that Zarqawi's hunt for ricin has any connection to ricin letters in the US. Oh, no, no, no.

I wonder if the reports about fears of a bioweapon on a plane are garbled versions of us figuring out that al'Qaeda's moving ricin into the US on planes?

Oh, and I figured out why they'd switch to ricin from anthrax: anthrax can be defended against by irradiating the mail. That doesn't do a thing to ricin.
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2004-2-3 9:46:48 PM  

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