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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Jordan plot update |
| 2004-04-27 |
| Jordanian authorities on Monday revealed details of a purported chemical-bomb plot, which they link to al-Qaida and estimate could have killed tens of thousands in the heart of the Jordanian capital. U.S. officials said they take the plot seriously but have yet to confirm that damage could have been so extensive. Neither Jordanian nor U.S. officials would say what substances were alleged to have been involved in the plan to use chemical-bomb-laden vehicles against Jordan's intelligence headquarters, the prime minister's office and the U.S. Embassy. "We would agree with the Jordanians that it was a grave, serious and credible threat," said Justin Siberell, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy. "The investigation is ongoing and it continues in the area of the specific capabilities of the (explosive) devices we are talking about." Some critics in Jordan have suggested that the government is overstating the threat to justify tightening security. In what might have been intended as an answer to those skeptics, Jordanian state television on Monday night showcased the alleged confessions of four detainees arrested in raids during the past month on suspected al-Qaida-linked safe houses. The broadcast also showed images of a yellow truck fitted with special steel rams designed, authorities said, to break through security gates, as well as a room full of blue plastic chemical containers and laboratory equipment. Jordan says the truck and four other vehicles were seized, along with a total of 20 tons of explosives. Shown in a casual interview setting Monday night, detainees Azmi al-Jayousi and Hussein Sharif Hussein provided calm descriptions of a plot they say was hatched in Iraq and forged in Syria and Iraq. The purported leader of the plan, al-Jayousi said he took orders from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Palestinian with Jordanian citizenship who has been blamed by U.S. authorities for several of the deadliest attacks in Iraq in recent months. The U.S.-led occupation in Iraq has singled out al-Zarqawi as the pivotal figure in a monthslong bombing campaign. This would represent the first known al-Qaida plot to have been formulated and exported from the foreign terrorists that U.S. officials concede have found a new base of operation in Iraq. Al-Jayousi did not explain his relationship to al-Qaida but said he first met al-Zarqawi in Herat, Afghanistan, and later in Iraq. "In Herat I started to train as one of Abu Musab's fellows," according to a transcript of the statement translated and made available by the Jordanian government. "I took explosives courses, poisons, high-level, then I pledged allegiance to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to obey him without any questioning and be on his side." Al-Jayousi said he and another Jordanian, Muwafaq Adwan, were assigned to "instigate military work on the Jordanian arena" and relied on a Syrian national for safe houses from which to operate in Jordan. The plotters "started to collect the necessary information on the targets," he said in the broadcast. "Then we collected the chemicals to be used for manufacturing the explosives. I started to search for these materials in all institutions that sell chemicals. We managed to buy large quantities from all these companies." Al-Jayousi, a balding man who appears to be in his 30s, said messengers delivered to him a total of $170,000, in payments of $10,000 to $15,000, as well as "fraud passports, identity cards, car registrations and all that is necessary." Other detainees identified themselves in the broadcast as 18-year-old Syrian national Anas Sheikh Amin and Jordanian Ahmad Samir. Samir said he "worked on the explosives" at a secret bomb factory in Jordan, where operatives used only nicknames with each other to protect the plan if one was arrested, and barely left the site during two months of preparation. Sedans and trucks were acquired in Jordan and Syria, they said. A bearded man who identified himself as Hussein said al-Jayousi enlisted him to help obtain cars to "execute an operation to strike on Jordan and the Hashemite (royal family), a war against the crusaders and infidels," according to the transcript. "Azmi told me that this will be the first chemical suicide attack that al-Qaida will execute." Despite the new details, it remained unclear whether the alleged attackers intended to use industrial chemicals or a weapons-grade material. In a report Monday, CNN quoted an unnamed Jordanian government scientist as saying that the plot called for a combination of "71 lethal chemicals, including blistering agents and choking agents." According to the broadcast, "the chemical explosion would lead to the emission of poisonous chemical gases which cause physical deformities and direct injuries to the lungs and eyesight." The Jordanian report estimated that the chemicals could be spread more than a mile in diameter, potentially injuring another 160,000 people. It was unclear whether the aim was for simultaneous bombings at the three sites or for a single concentrated blast at the intelligence headquarters that might damage all three. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #5 pardon, my error. The CNN report DOES quote Jordanian sources that there were nerve and blistering agents. Dont say which ones. As i said, we'll see. |
| Posted by: Liberalhawk 2004-04-27 11:29:48 AM |
| #4 "This might be the big WMD break many of us have been looking for" Only if theres stuff the jordanians found that they have told us about - the only chemical ive seen mentioned is sulfuric acid, which is widely available. No nerve gas, no blister agents, etc. We'll see. |
| Posted by: Liberalhawk 2004-04-27 11:16:55 AM |
| #3 . . . estimate could have killed tens of thousands in the heart of the Jordanian capital Um - - - What is the talk about the anger of the "Arab Street" if there are no Arabs left alive in the street? |
| Posted by: Anonymous4052 2004-04-27 2:13:32 AM |
| #2 Break? Tibor : Oh no my my my It has been decreed that there are no WMDs Hans Blix, John Kerry, and Sean Penn say so. Chemical weapons? Just somebody trying to steal the recipe for Raid Roach Killer Bio Weapons? Simply Manufacture of Smallpox and Anthrax Vaccines! This isn't chem or bio weapons. Just like all the rest we've heard about the past year. . . . King Abdullah is paranoid, don't you know. How could you ever think this is a special find. Why this would ruin CNNs constant diatribe about Bush lying. Now we can't have that can we, Tibor? |
| Posted by: Anonymous4052 2004-04-27 1:15:49 AM |
| #1 This might be the big WMD break many of us have been looking for. |
| Posted by: Tibor 2004-04-27 12:42:19 AM |