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| Europe |
| Al-Qaeda chemical weapons threat worse than suspected |
| 2004-04-12 |
| Terrorists plotting to use chemical weapons in Europe have more advanced plans than security services previously suspected, a senior French counter-terrorism official has warned. Small groups of chemicals experts have been detected in several European countries and have developed ways of communicating with each other that allowed them to avoid being exposed. "We have underestimated the terrorists' willingness and capacity to develop chemical weapons," the French official told the Financial Times. He said a recent wave of arrests in Britain and France has revealed how far they had developed their plans. The groups appear to operate separately from other cells planning attacks using ordinary explosives. Several of them are believed to have links to Islamic militants in the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya. Western intelligence services allege that extremists linked to al-Qaeda have carried out experiments in chemical warfare in Chechnya. In January French anti-terrorist police arrested five people in the Lyons suburb of Venisseux - three of them from the same family - on suspicion of involvement in planning terrorist attacks. Nicolas Sarkozy, then interior minister, said that one of the detainees, Menad Benchallali, "was trained to produce chemical substances". Two of the detainees admitted a plan had been devised to attack Russian targets in France using ricin poison and botulinum bacteria. French officials say Mr Benchellali received chemical weapons training in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge, a haven for Chechen fighters. On April 6 British anti- terrorist officers uncovered a possible plot to use osmium tetroxide in an attack. The chemical can cause death or blindness if dispersed in an explosion. UK security officials have refused to comment on the alleged plan, though US officials said it was in its early stages. The alleged plotters were reported to have been in direct contact with extremists in Pakistan, as the plot was discovered when their telephone calls were monitored by GCHQ, the UK government's electronic surveillance centre. "The Pakistani element [in developing these weapons] was also totally underestimated, as was the experience developed in Chechnya," said the French official. He added that militants within the Pakistani Islamist group Lashkar-i-Taiba, which has close links to al-Qaeda, had helped develop chemical weapons skills now dispersed to several parts of the al-Qaeda network. "The thing that is most clear is that the people with the knowledge of chemicals are very organised," the French official said. "There are links between the groups that have chemical expertise. These groups are not present everywhere, though Chechnya is where they learned this skill." The arrests in January in Venisseux led to the discovery of vital clues about the links between alleged extremists with knowledge of chemicals and experts trained in Chechnya and Afghanistan. "The group arrested in Venisseux has links to Chechnya, but also to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi," the official said. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #15 I think Mike's suggestions are cogent, and should happen now. Of course the U.N. is powerless and becoming more so. To reframe the problem: Islomofascists are planning to kill us, as many at a time, as they can manage. Each attack need only kill or maime one Westerner to achieve "redemption." The killers want/are content to lose their lives in the attempt. The next attack may happen tommorow. What message can we send immediately to Islam, to help them save themselves? |
| Posted by: geoffg 2004-04-16 9:57:45 AM |
| #14 Has anyone seen a stray orca swimming about? I have a personal score to settle with one of the old mackerel breaths. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-04-12 7:09:25 PM |
| #13 Don't worry I'm just circlin around, real trolls tend to thrash. |
| Posted by: Shamu 2004-04-12 4:22:45 PM |
| #12 ahhhh...so we have a little subvertive troll do we. Jeesh..and I thought I needed to get off the computer and get to my life. You got issues Zenster. Get help. |
| Posted by: B 2004-04-12 12:07:38 PM |
| #11 Mike Sylvester: Excellent response--nothing like turning on the light to make the cockroaches scuttle away. If what you said would happen, AND HAPPEN FAST starting now, a lot would change. Zenster: I've been following your comments for several weeks now, and I don't buy you and what you're saying--everything always sounds great, but something doesn't add up. I still wonder why you don't support President Bush and Tony Blair. Is there another agenda or viewpoint your haven't disclosed? If you render the Islamic sites unusable, you've just killed your only bargaining chip, and invite retaliation of the greatest magnitude. Political, rather than religious targets would be more sane. I understand the "swatting at flies" issue, but learning more about how the terrorist networks operate, and then educating and convincing the public about the realities and parameters of the threat would have to be successful in order to enforce the kind of ultimatum you suggest. Public humiliation and condemnation would go a long way, and would rally more support regarding any actions we take. |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2004-04-12 12:04:47 PM |
| #10 excellent string..but instead of Medina , too many religous issues, just announce the intention of destroying tehran (and few other miliary/polictical complexes in iran) with nukes. this will get the attention of the mullas. |
| Posted by: Dan 2004-04-12 10:44:24 AM |
| #9 Mike, that's good advice. You have to wonder why they haven't already done it!! |
| Posted by: B 2004-04-12 9:31:11 AM |
| #8 Before we start taking hostages and threatening to bomb religious sites, let's first rachet up our diplomatic and moral pressure way, way up. We need to launch a very public, aggressive and constant criticism on fundamentalist Islam, similar to our past criticism of Communism. To take a small example, our US representative at the UN ought to deliver a daily speech against honor killings, female circumcision, and forced marriages of girls in the Moslem world. We ought to repeatedly propose UN condemnations of these Moslem practices. We ought to repeatedly propose UN condemnations of the lack of freedom of religion in Moslem countries. The US should start making a very big public stink about this issue in general and about every little violation in particular. We ought to make a similar stink about Arab mistreatment of non-Arabs and about Sunnis' mistreatment of non-Sunnis, and so forth. We need to knock Moslems off their high moral horse, just as we knocked Communists off theirs. We need more presidential declarations along the lines of Reagan's "evil empire" characterization of the Soviet Union. Bush ought to start using the expression "axis of evil" regularly again. |
| Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-04-12 9:18:55 AM |
| #7 agreed. But I'd like to think that we've moved beyond Hiroshima (sp?) and have advanced to where we can pinpoint the true evil doers and vaporize them from space. There are many good Islamic people in this world and dusting off friendly Grandmas is not productive towards the cause of world peace. It's not to say that I don't think we need to take on the Madrassas or that I don't understand your point that their silence speaks volumes. Just allow me my dreams that we can advance civilization to where we don't have to bomb an entire city full of chubby babies and happy children to eliminate the handful of badguys who make it all happen. |
| Posted by: B 2004-04-12 8:28:43 AM |
| #6 B - the issue of a peaceful silent majority of muslims is just that - there's no outcry against the Islamofascists from within Islam, is there? CAIR and the other "victim" organizations certainly pay only lip service, if that |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-04-12 8:18:08 AM |
| #5 B, do you feel that terrorism can be countered without a credible deterrent? If so, how? If not, what sort of deterrent do you suggest? I'm just trying to come up with some sort of viable solution. I refuse to advocate prohibition of Muslim worship or any kind of madness like that. I merely seek a way to avert any further atrocities. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-04-12 8:14:01 AM |
| #4 Moslem terrorists seek cultural genocide against all but Islam. This was previously considered an unacceptable conclusion, but I have noticed that it is not considered that any longer. Anyone who is paying the slightest attention or isn't busy grinding their anti-American or Jew axe understands this statement to be the truth. I think it is good that everyone is finally addressing the issue head on. You made excellent points - Z - but I have to take issue with your solutions. I still cling to the hope that we have moved beyond the stage of warfare where we cut off the leg to rid the body of gangrene in the toe. While Islam may indeed have become a petri dish for Islamofanaticism, I still believe that most of the people living under it are basically good and do not deserve to be punished for the crimes of the terrorists anymore than you or I do. |
| Posted by: B 2004-04-12 7:30:52 AM |
| #3 Excellent comment, Z. I agree more drastic action is needed, including more pre-emptive action. One thing we could do is cut off their funding by taking the Saudi oilfields. I think somehow we need to dismantle the Wahabi global network, and perhaps drying up the funding is a way to do it. Something also needs to be done about the Iranian nuke program, but we may not know where all of their secret projects are located. Anyway, I fear we will wait until another catastrophic attack before we escalate to the next level. |
| Posted by: virginian 2004-04-12 7:07:27 AM |
| #2 I want to know when the free world is going to bother putting in place a credible deterrent to terrorism. Such a thing must exist. I've been supporting a fairly radical version of it lately. I'm open to other less drastic solutions, but I would really like to see some suggestions. The only way to disable terror is to hold hostage something or someone so dear to them that they will not act. The deterrent has to be in the form of a devastating response. Just like a SWAT sniper at an ongoing crime scene. There must be a retaliation for this random violence. Moslem terrorists seek cultural genocide against all but Islam. There is no negotiating with such a cancer. To do so encourages metastasis. A diseased thing like this can only be excised, poisoned or irradiated. If Islam is unwilling to shun such malevolence, they themselves will stray into the crosshairs of terror's interdiction. Terror must be stopped. Prevention is incredibly expensive. The ratio of personnel to terrorists is orders of magnitude. Where is it writ large that terrorists deserve to have so much wealth ill-distributed solely because of their psychotic behavior? Our world must fight AIDS, famine, disease, illiteracy and communism, not terrorism. Islamist terrorism represents an enormous hole in the fabric of global progress. Not since the Cold War's end has such a virulent threat overhung our world. It impedes every other form of religious, political, sexual, commercial and intellectual freedom known elsewhere on the entire planet. Jihadist Islamic fundamentalists represent such a small proportion of our earth's population that the asymmetrical impact they have is utterly preposterous. No individual society can endure terrorism's sort of interruption to its daily function. There is no reason why our global economy should tolerate the presence of such an overhead intensive threat either. It is regretable that any established faith should be saddled with a faction of psychopathic fanatics. In this case, Islam is. It is becoming vividly apparent that the Muslim community neither possesses the will or potentially even the means to moderate its internal fanaticism. There has been no outpouring of anti-jihadist clerics and Imams into the extremist regions risking martyrdom to make clear the blasphemy of terrorism. If the more moderate factions do not quickly assume the responsibility of reining in their violent brethren, then they cannot wail about the consequences of others doing it for them. As a credible deterrent, I suggest that announced or unannounced biochem attacks should result in a reciprocal action. There would necessarily be a few moderated stages. I can only hope that no escalation would be needed at all. These scenarios apply to biochem attacks only since that is the lead article's theme. A.) Even if no attack warning was given by the terrorists, the first retaliation would be preceded by an announcement. The response would be to dust Medina just before the Haj with whatever same agent was used in the biochem terror attack. All of the Muslim world will be denied their pilgrimage's second-most Holy site for that year. B.) Next biochem attack. Dust Medina for one entire year. No off season Haj circuit either, not for almost twelve months. The vacancy sign will come in time for next year's Haj. C.) Next biochem attack. Dust the most Holy site of Mecca just before the Haj. D.) Next biochem attack. Dust Mecca all year. E.) After that. Continuously contaminate both sites until the attacks have stopped for over twelve calendar months. Site visits are denied to all unless they sufficiently repress psychotic factions of their faith. A single attack begins the cycle all over again at step A. I don't like this idea of dusting the Islamic Holy land one bit. Even less do I like the idea of our world's economic growth and social advancement being stifled during this crucial period of progress. We are finally reversing every sort of disease and ecological plunder. We have all the technology, skill and money to avert the looming ecological and population meltdowns. This will not happen if we must divert asymmetrical assets to the war on terror. Once again: Minuscule factions of a secondary religion must not be permitted to obstruct overall global progress. By doing so, they declare war on the entire world, one and all, nation, state and person alike. No country is immune to this threat and all are at risk of monstrous attack. No further persuasion is needed, just an implacable desire to end this absurdly festering disruption and an equally determined sense of fairness. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-04-12 4:53:32 AM |
| #1 I wonder if there's going to be a European clean-up in Chechnya Aisle 3? |
| Posted by: Anonymous2U 2004-04-12 1:48:28 AM |