[iwar] [fc:Bin.Laden.Terror.Group.Tries.To.Acquire.Chemical.Arms]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-09-26 22:53:19


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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 22:53:19 -0700 (PDT)
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Subject: [iwar] [fc:Bin.Laden.Terror.Group.Tries.To.Acquire.Chemical.Arms]
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Washington Times September 26, 2001 Pg. 3
 By Bill Gertz, The Washington Times

U.S.  intelligence agencies have uncovered new information that Osama
bin Laden and his terrorist group, al Qaeda, are acquiring from the
Russian mafia components for weapons of mass destruction. 

Bin Laden, the key suspect in the Sept.  11 terror attacks, also is
believed by U.S.  intelligence to have a secret nuclear weapons
laboratory inside Afghanistan, say officials speaking on the condition
of anonymity. 

There is no hard evidence that bin Laden or his followers have actually
produced chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.  A CIA spokesman
declined to comment. 

But a U.S.  official said contacts between bin Laden and the Russian
mafia, and efforts to obtain materials used to make weapons of mass
destruction, could not be ruled out because of Afghanistan's porous
borders.  This official suggested that the reports about the contacts
could not confirmed independently by U.S.  intelligence agencies.  Bin
Laden has worked with Russian mafia groups in obtaining chemical and
biological weapons materials and nuclear components, according to
officials familiar with intelligence reports on the contacts. 

"There are signs they have been supplying [bin Laden] with chemical and
biological materials and nuclear components," said a second official
familiar with the reports. 

Transporting and then using weapons of mass destruction is difficult,
though al Qaeda's use of suicide attackers makes the use of deadly
chemical, biological or nuclear weapons somewhat easier, those familiar
with terrorist tactics and capabilities say. 

U.S.  intelligence agencies have information that bin Laden is operating
a secret nuclear weapons laboratory somewhere in Afghanistan.  The
laboratory is believed to be where bin Laden associates are working on
developing nuclear or radiological weapons.  Radiological weapons are
bombs that kill by spreading radioactive material.  This is believed to
be one of the sites sought for U.S.  military strikes, expected in the
next several weeks. 

A recent foreign intelligence service report stated that al Qaeda has
obtained some type of nuclear device, but U.S.  intelligence officials
said they could not confirm that report.  The new intelligence report on
bin Laden's contacts with the Russian mafia provide new details on al
Qaeda's efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction. 

An FBI court document made public in 1998 in New York stated that al
Qaeda has tried to purchase enriched uranium since 1993 "for the purpose
of developing nuclear weapons." The State Department's latest report on
international terrorism says that al Qaeda "continued" to seek chemical,
biological, radiological and nuclear capabilities. 

Intelligence officials say classified analysis of the types of chemicals
and toxins sought by al Qaeda indicate the group probably is trying to
produce the nerve agent Sarin, or biological weapons made up of anthrax
spores.  Sarin can be produced from the components used to make
fertilizer and kills by disrupting the central nervous system.  Anthrax
is a highly lethal biological weapon that causes death after spores are
ingested. 

At its height during the Cold War, the Soviet biological weapons program
employed some 65,000 persons, and U.S.  officials have feared for years
that some of the out-of-work biological weapons scientists would sell
their expertise to terrorists like bin Laden. 

The FBI has obtained specific threats since the Sept.  11 attacks on the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon that terrorists plan to retaliate
for any U.S.  strikes on Afghanistan or terrorists around the world by
using chemical or biological weapons, the officials said. 

Russian crime groups also have provided bin Laden's Islamic extremists
with small arms, the U.S.  intelligence officials say.  They also are
believed to help bin Laden launder the proceeds from drug trafficking. 

Larry Johnson, a former State Department counterterrorism official, says
contacts between the Russian mafia and bin Laden could be related to
drug trafficking and that cooperation between the two is not surprising. 

"There has been evidence in the past of links between the Taliban
militia and the Russian mob on opium," Mr.  Johnson says, noting that
the Taliban has been a major patron of bin Laden. 

The Russian crime groups purchase opium from Afghanistan and refine it
into heroin that is sold in Europe and the United States, he says. 

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