Another Attempted Attack In Scotland

“We’re fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here” doesn’t seem to be working out too well for Great Britain.

Here’s a list of attacks and planned attacks:

Fort Dix
JFK
Madrid bombing
London train bombing
Two London car bombs
Glasgow

“Fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here” means “we don’t have to fight them over here.” There’s nothing in that mantra that says anything about “unsuccessful attacks don’t count.” Many on the Right have made the case again and again that terrorists are so busy in Iraq–or that their command structure has been so decimated–that they don’t have time or the C&C resources to ply their trade anywhere else.

That’s clearly not the case.

The British, even though they have participated in the Iraq war, have had four terrorist attacks in the past few years. That sounds to me like they’re having to fight them at home quite a bit, which is the opposite of not having to fight them at home. The Fort Dix and JFK plots were caught in time, but that’s because our law enforcement is fighting terrorists. Over here.

The policy is not working. Terrorists are a threat, but they’re not staying obligingly over in Iraq.

You rang your buzzer too soon, I think.

Remember that nobody on the Right has said, “We’re fighting them over there so we can cut down on the number of attacks over here.” The catchphrase has always ended with, “…so we don’t have to fight them over here”

I’ve lost count of the number of knockdown-dragouts I’ve had with netizens on the Right who have insisted again and again not that the Iraq war reduces the number of terror attacks in the west–which I always argued was absolutely the best-case scenario for that policy–but that it eliminates them.

That is and has always been bushwah.

That is my future fear for the U.S. Go back to my original post, though, and you’ll notice I specify Great Britain, since Great Britain is the topic of the day and the policy is clearly not working for them.

Also: your buzzer is as nothing to me.

Also: I could care less if my buzzer means anything to you, nothing you lefties care about means anything to me since it’s all hogwash anyway.

Dude, relax. I was playing around with you about the buzzer thing.

Buzzer: hands off. Got it.

My concern is that there’s too much interest in what terrorists are doing thousands of miles away in Iraq, and too little in what might happen here. Any time I get into one of these discussions with a resident of Right Blogistan, I point out that many of these troops could be used over here to beef up security at what are now essentially unsecured points of entry, like seaports. This idea is always greeted by two conjoined responses: first, I’m a Lefty, so there’s no way I could actually be concerned about terrorism, so mentioning seaports and airports is actually a transparent lie, and I really want to submit to Islam. Second, there’s always a spurious dismissal of the idea because of posse comitatus. I say “spurious” because of writings such as this.

We’ve now seen ample evidence that the Iraq war is not keeping terrorists adequately occupied, and that all they have to do to circumvent the “fighting them over there” strategy is to simply come over here. And they are. They have, fortunately, been either inept or thwarted by good law enforcement work, but even on that count, the residents of London and Madrid might disagree.

But wasn’t it law enforcement work that thwarted Fort Dix and JFK? Wasn’t it law enforcement that caught Jose Padilla and the shoebomber dude?

You’re “Curt USMC 1986 -1990 Cop 91′ – 07′,” I’m assuming. Do you not feel that law enforcement is up to the task?

“But wasn’t it law enforcement work that thwarted Fort Dix and JFK? Wasn’t it law enforcement that caught Jose Padilla and the shoebomber dude?”

Ft Dix…thwarted by an alert electronics clerk-not law enforcement

Jose Padilla…thwarted by multiple intelligence agencies of which the FBI (law enforcement) was the last to be involved

Shoebomber…thwarted by a stewardess

Let’s go further.

Millenium attacks…uncovered by Jordanian intel, thwarted in US by an alert border patrol woman (hardly “law enforcement” as it’s commonly known, and certainly not the result of a law enforcement investigation)

In fact, (I hate doing these kinda data dumps, but seems relevent here), I think just looking at a more detailed list of the thwarted attacks will demonstrate 2 things. First it will show that yes, AQ has not stopped trying to hit the US, and the never will. Second, while law enforcement has a role to play in preventing attacks, most of the time it’s either the intelligence community or alert Americans who stop the attacks. The argument that Iraq is a means of fighting AQ overseas so they don’t come here, however, is backed up by the last National Intelligence Estimate, and various other independent, bi-partisan (or non-partisan) assessments). It’s not a neocon myth, but an intel community assesment.

circa 10/1/97 A meeting is held in Sudan between Bin Ladin, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Hasan al-Turabi, leader of Sudan’s National Islamic Front regime, about the construction of a CBW factory.

circa 7/1/98 Bin Ladin’s group reportedly purchases three CBW factories in the former Yugoslavia and hires a number of Ukrainian chemists and biologists to train its members.

circa 8/1/98 The United States charges that al-Qa`ida is producing chemical weapons at the al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum, Sudan. As a result, the United States bombs the factory on 20 August, 1998.

circa 8/1/98 John Gannon, chairman of the National Intelligence Council, reveals that the CIA discovered that Bin Ladin had attempted to acquire unspecified CW for use against U.S. troops stationed in the Persian Gulf.

8/16/98 A leaked intelligence report states that Bin Ladin allegedly paid over two million British Pounds to a middle-man in Kazakhstan for a “suitcase” bomb.

9/26/98 A Bin Ladin aide, Mamduh Mahmud Salim, is arrested in Munich, Germany, on charges of trying to obtain nuclear materials (allegedly for al-Qa`ida), including highly enriched uranium.

11/8/98 Bin Ladin is supposedly engaged in a comprehensive plan to acquire nuclear weapons, and reportedly has given a group of Chechens $30 million in cash and two tons of opium in exchange for approximately 20 nuclear warheads.

circa 12/1/98 In an interview with Time magazine, Bin Ladin asserts that acquiring weapons of any type, including chemical and nuclear, is a Muslim “religious duty.”

12/20/98 Wadi al-Hajj, a Lebanese national, is arrested in Arlington, Texas, for perjury. The FBI contends that he had lied about his affiliation with Bin Ladin in 1997 and 1998 court testimonies. A grand jury investigates al-Hajj’s possible activities in procuring CW for Bin Ladin.

circa 4/1/99 Bin Ladin allegedly purchases CW over a two-year period prior to 1998 from European states and the former Soviet Union. This information is allegedly provided under custody by the Jihad leader (arrested on August 20, 1998 in Baku, Azerbaijan) during the April 1999 “Trial of the Returnees from Albania” in Egypt.

circa 6/1/99 Usama bin Ladin reportedly constructed “crude” CBW laboratories in Khost and Jalalabad, Afghanistan, and acquired ingredients for CW and BW from former Soviet states.

circa 7/1/99 An Islamist lawyer states that Bin Ladin’s organization has CBW, and will likely use such weapons against the United States.

8/1/99 Bin Ladin and his followers allegedly obtain BW substances through the mail from countries of the former Soviet Union (the Ebola virus and salmonella bacterium), from East Asia (anthrax-causing bacteria), and from the Czech Republic (botulinum toxin).

circa 12/1/99 Local Afghan sources say that Bin Ladin is using a plant in Charassiab, a district 30 kilometers south of Kabul, to produce CW.

6/4/00 Associates of Bin Ladin are reported to have bought anthrax and plague from arms dealers in Kazakhstan.

circa 11/1/00 Bin Ladin allegedly obtains seven enriched uranium rods, which were supposedly US-made, from mafia connections.

12/24/00 Bin Ladin allegedly sends envoys to several Eastern European countries to purchase enriched uranium. These efforts reportedly were both unsuccessful and very costly for the organization.

12/24/00 The intelligence agency of an unnamed European country reportedly intercepts a shipment of approximately twenty nuclear warheads–originating from Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, and the Ukraine–intended for Bin Ladin and the Taliban regime of Afghanistan.

circa 1/5/2001 anthrax attacks

circa 2/1/01 Jamal al-Fadhl claims that, on behalf of Bin Ladin, he investigated purchasing uranium for nuclear weapons.

circa 2/1/01 The United States allegedly aborts a planned air strike against Afghanistan for fear of a retaliatory chemical attack by al-Qa`ida, after receiving warnings from an Arab embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan.

2/1/01 Bin Ladin’s elite 055 Brigade is supposedly reorganized under the leadership of Midhat al-Mursi, aka Abu Khabab, an Egyptian and an expert in sarin gas production.

circa 9/13/2001 attack on US embassy in Paris and NATO HQ in Brussels

circa 9/13/01 attack on US embassy in Paris and NATO HQ in Brussels

9/19/01 Russian intelligence allegedly blocks a deal in which a Pakistani firm controlled by Bin Ladin attempted to purchase Soviet-origin uranium.

10/8/2001 attack on U.S. embassy and Eagle Base airfield, used by some 3,000 U.S. peacekeepers in Bosnia thwarted

10/8/01 attack on U.S. embassy and Eagle Base airfield, used by some 3,000 U.S. peacekeepers in Bosnia thwarted

10/14/01 Ivan Ivanov claims he met Bin Ladin just over the Pakistani border in China, and discussed setting up an environmental company to buy nuclear waste. Ivanov was then approached by a Pakistani chemical engineer interested in buying nuclear fuel rods from the Bulgarian Kozlodui reactor.

10/20/01 Various reports describe Muhammad Atta, the leader of the September 11 hijackers, meeting in Prague with an Iraqi intelligence agent, who allegedly gave him a vial of anthrax. This claim, originally made by foreign intelligence sources, was later contested by the Czech government.

10/28/01 Ahmad Rassam, arrested in a plot to bomb LAX, testifies that Bin Laden is personally interested in using low-flying aircraft to dispense BW agents.

circa 11/1/01 In an interview, Bin Ladin claims “We have chemical and nuclear weapons as a deterrent and if America used them against us we reserve the right to use them.”

11/10/01 In an interview with a Pakistani newspaper reporter, Usama bin Ladin states that “we have chemical and nuclear weapons as a deterrent, and if America used them against us we reserve the right to use them.”

11/12/01 Two Pakistani scientists allegedly share nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons information with Bin Ladin, and thereby learn of radiological material given to him by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. They tell Bin Ladin that there is insufficient material for use as a weapon.

11/14/01 al-Qa`ida reportedly acquires a Russian-made suitcase nuclear weapon from Central Asian sources. The device is reported to weigh 8 kg and to possess at least 2 kg of fissionable uranium and plutonium. The report said the device, with a serial number of 9999 and a manufacturing date of October 1998, could be set off by a mobile phone signal.

11/19/01 A Times (London) reporter discovers a blueprint for a “Nagasaki bomb” in files found in an abandoned al-Qa`ida house in Kabul, Afghanistan.

11/28/01 The Kabul office of Pakistani scientist Mehmood is reportedly found to contain documents indicating an interest in anthrax, including calculations concerning the aerial dispersal of anthrax via balloon, and an Associated Press photo showed something at the anthrax vaccine laboratory described as “anthrax spore concentrate”.

circa 12/1/2001 Dirty bomb attack on London

circa 12/1/01 Dirty bomb attack on London

circa 12/1/01 A reporter purchases two computers from a looter in Kabul, Afghanistan, that had been found in an abandoned al-Qa`ida office. The U.S. government confirms the existence of the computers. One of the computers allegedly contains a file describing “plans to launch a chemical and biological weapons program.” Bin Ladin’s deputy al-Zawahiri reportedly created computer documents describing his CW and BW program, codenamed “Curdled Milk,” which included work on a pesticide/nerve agent that used a chemical to increase absorption and was tested on rabbits and dogs. He was assisted by Midhat al-Mursi / Abu Khabbab, a chemical engineer.

circa 12/1/01 In December 2001, Yazid Sufaat was arrested in Malaysia for terrorist activities as a member of Jemaah Islamiyah. According to subsequent interrogations of two captured terrorists, Khalid Shaykh Muhammad of al-Qa’ida and Hambali of Jamaah Islamiyah, Sufaat was part of a plan to obtain and weaponize biological warfare agents. Jamaah Islamiyah maintains close ties to al-Qa’ida.

12/9/01 U.S. operatives in Afghanistan allegedly discover evidence indicating that one or more Russian scientists were helping al-Qa`ida weaponize anthrax.

12/10/01 Reports claim that al-Zawahiri’s home in Kabul tested positive (perhaps falsely) for traces of anthrax, as did five of nineteen al-Qa`ida labs in Afghanistan.

circa 1/1/2002 Arabian Gulf Shipping attacks per WH site

circa 1/1/2002 Buffalo Six

circa 1/1/2002 Straits of Hormuz attacks on Shipping per WH site

circa 1/1/2002 attacks on US using hijacked aircraft per WH site

circa 1/1/2002 Bush Assn attempt

circa 1/1/2002 LAX Attack

circa 1/1/2002 Singapore attack on Carl Vinson etc

circa 1/1/02 Arabian Gulf Shipping attacks per WH site

circa 1/1/02 Buffalo Six

circa 1/1/02 Straits of Hormuz attacks on Shipping per WH site

circa 1/1/02 attacks on US using hijacked aircraft per WH site

circa 1/1/02 LAX Attack

circa 1/1/02 Singapore attack on Carl Vinson etc

circa 1/1/02 2002 Bush Assn attempt

circa 1/1/02 Documents found in Afghanistan ostensibly reveal that al-Qa`ida was doing research on using botulinum toxin to kill 2,000 people.

1/31/02 Diagrams of U.S. nuclear power plants are found in abandoned al-Qa`ida camps and facilities in Afghanistan.

2/1/02 An apparent plot by nine Moroccans to poison the water supply of the U.S. Embassy in Rome using a cyanide compound is foiled by Italian police.

2/20/02 Zarqawi chem attack in Italy foiled

2/26/02 No evidence was discovered in Afghanistan that al-Qa`ida possesses nuclear weapons, raising the question whether al-Qa`ida might have been tricked into buying metal containers with phony nuclear symbols filled with worthless material.

3/22/02 US forces discover a BW laboratory under construction near Kandahar that was abandoned by al-Qa`ida. It was allegedly being built to produce anthrax, but no biological agents or traces thereof were found in the facility.

4/22/02 Abu Zubayda claims al-Qa`ida has the interest and know-how to produce a radiological weapon, and the group may already have one in the United States.

6/3/02 al-Qa`ida allegedly attempts to acquire 11 lbs of radioactive thallium from measuring devices on decommissioned Russian submarines, but Russia’s Federal Security Service claims to have blocked the attempt.

circa 6/5/2002 Padilla Dirty Bomb US attack

6/11/02 U.S. citizen Abdullah al-Muhajir (formerly José Pedilla), is arrested in Chicago and alleged to be involved with al-Qa`ida in planning to perpetrate a radiological bomb attack in the United States.

6/23/02 The 11th volume of al-Qa`ida’s 5,000-page Encyclopedia of Jihad is devoted to how to construct CBW.

6/23/02 A so-called “Superbomb” manual, which discusses the advanced physics of nuclear weapons and dirty bombs, is found in Kabul in November 2001.

7/13/02 Among the items seized during the arrest of Sami Uthman, a Lebanese national who moved to the US and became an Imam at a Islamist mosque in Seattle, are papers by London-based al-Qa`ida recruiter Shaykh Abu Hamza al-Masri, firearms, military manuals, and “instructions on poisoning water sources.”

7/14/02 Islamic extremists, including al-Qa`ida members, are allegedly trained in secret camps near Baghdad in how to use CW and BW by instructors from the secret Iraqi military intelligence Unit 999.

7/18/02 Stephen Younger, director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, claims that al-Qa`ida’s interest in BWs is focused mainly on anthrax.

7/31/02 CNN correspondent Mike Boettcher reports that coalition intelligence agencies have detected several recent purchases of cyanide by al-Qa`ida operatives.

8/19/02 CIA Director George Tenet tells the Senate that Bin Ladin has shown a strong interest in CW and that his operatives have “trained to conduct attacks with toxic chemicals or biological toxins.”

8/19/02 Ahmad Rassam (an al-Qa`ida terrorist who pleaded guilty to plotting to bomb LAX) claims in court in 2001 that he had witnessed the gassing of a dog with cyanide.

8/19/02 CNN releases videotapes, allegedly made by al-Qa`ida, showing dogs being killed by unidentified toxic chemicals (experts believe either a crude nerve agent or hydrogen cyanide gas is used).

8/20/02 Iraqi military instructors allegedly trained al-Qa`ida fighters in northern Iraq in the use of CBW agents, and possibly also in the handling of nuclear devices. Between 150 and 250 al-Qa`ida trainees purportedly passed through the training facilities.

8/20/02 Ansar al-Islam is reported to have been experimenting with ricin, a deadly toxin, including on at least one human being. This report is denied by Ansar spokesman Muhammad Hasan Muhammad.

8/25/02 One of the facilities of Ansar al-Islam, a radical Islamist group operating in northern Iraq with ties to al-Qa`ida and Iran, produces a form of cyanide cream (not a WMD) that kills on contact.

circa 9/1/2002

9/8/02 Bin Ladin allegedly buys 48 “suitcase nukes” from the Russian mafiya.

9/14/02 Pentagon officials admit that lab equipment found near Kandahar, Afghanistan, supports the assessment that al-Qa`ida might have acquired what it needed for “a very limited production of biological and chemical agents.”

10/3/02 John Walker Lindh allegedly told interrogators that battlefield rumors suggested that a biological attack was expected to be a “second wave” al-Qa`ida attack.

11/18/02 British security officials arrest three men reportedly plotting a cyanide attack on the London subway.

circa 12/1/2002 possible IIS terror strike on Turkey

circa 12/1/02 possible IIS terror strike on Turkey

12/12/02 The Islamist group Asbat al-Ansar, a Lebanon-based Sunni organization affiliated with al-Qa`ida that is currently operating in northern Iraq, reportedly obtained the nerve agent VX from the Iraqi regime.

circa 1/1/2003 attacks on Heathrow per WH site

circa 1/1/2003 attacks on Saudi per Mark

circa 1/1/2003 attacks on W coast USA per WH site

circa 1/1/03 attacks on Heathrow per WH site

circa 1/1/03 attacks on Saudi per Mark

circa 1/1/03 attacks on E coast USA per WH site

1/5/2003 • British police raid two addresses in north and east London and discover traces of ricin, one of the world’s deadliest poisons. Six men of Algerian origin are arrested, as is a woman who is later released.

1/5/2003 • French intelligence services provided the tip that led British authorities to make the arrests, sources tell CNN.

1/5/2003 • Sources tell CNN the suspects have been in Britain no more than three months. Two of them are asylum-seekers living in government housing.

1/5/03 ricin attacks in UK, France, and poss Italy and Spain

1/7/2003 • Anti-terrorism police investigating the ricin discovery in London arrest a seventh man, aged 33, and hold him at a London police station.

1/9/03 Six Algerians were arrested in London and charged with plotting to produce ricin. Authorities discovered traces of ricin and equipment used to process castor beans in the apartment. According to news sources, the group was plotting to attack a British military base by poisoning the food. Later reports indicate that the substance tested in the apartment was not ricin.

1/10/2003 • The FBI advises U.S. law enforcement agencies about the dangers associated with ricin following the discovery of the deadly poison in London. The FBI notice says ricin “could be used in a terrorist operation to contaminate closed ventilation systems … drinking water, lakes, rivers and food supplies.”

1/11/2003 • Four of the seven men arrested in connection with the ricin investigation are charged with terrorism offences, Scotland Yard tells CNN. The four are charged with “possession of articles of value to a terrorist” under the Terrorist Act 2000 and with “being concerned in the development or production of chemical weapons” under the Chemical Weapons Act 1996.

1/12/2003 • Anti-terrorism police arrest five men and a woman in Bournemouth, on England’s south coast, in connection with the London ricin discovery. Police refuse to confirm the arrests are connected to the ricin discovery, but sources admit privately to CNN the arrests are linked. Officers search two premises in the Bournemouth area; no chemical materials are found.

1/13/2003 • Four men charged with terrorism offences in connection with the ricin discovery appear at Bow Street Magistrates’ Court in central London and are remanded in custody. Three of them are named as Mouloud Feddag, Samir Feddag and Mustapha Taleb. The fourth is a 17-year-old who can not be named for legal reasons.

1/14/2003 • A police officer is killed and four others are wounded during a raid in Manchester, England, into the alleged ricin terror plot. Detective Constable Stephen Oake is stabbed to death as police arrest three men — all described as north Africans — in the northern England city.

1/23/2003 • A 31-year-old north African man is arrested by police investigating the January 5 discovery of ricin in north London.

1/30/03 British intelligence discovered documents in western Afghanistan which suggest that al-Qa`ida members built a dirty bomb in Afghanistan. British officials also claim that the Taliban provided medical isotopes to al-Qa`ida members to help construct the bomb. U.S. officials cannot substantiate this claim.

1/30/03 With the capture of Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, investigators uncovered detailed information about production plans for chemical and biological weapons. According to captured documents, certain members of al-Qa`ida had plans and the requisite material to manufacture cyanide and two biological toxins, and were close to producing anthrax bacteria.

circa 2/1/03 Al-Qa’ida operatives allegedly planned to poison U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan and Kuwait. Afghan terrorists allegedly delivered an “unspecified poison” to Afghan nationals who were hired as cooks for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The incident has been tied to the January 2003 arrest of 11 al-Qa’ida suspects in Britain who were reportedly in possession of the biological toxin ricin. Some sources also indicate that the group Ansar al-Islam was involved in this plot to use ricin against U.S. troops.

circa 3/1/2003 NYC subway chem attack per TIME

circa 3/1/2003 Spring Pakistan bombings per WH site

circa 3/1/03 NYC subway chem attack per TIME

circa 3/1/03 Spring Pakistan bombings per WH site

circa 3/1/03 On 20 March 2003, the FBI announced that they were searching for Adnan al- Shukrijuma in connection with the Jose Padilla case. Padilla was arrested May 2002 for plotting to obtain materials in Canada for a dirty bomb. Shukrijuma was identified from documents obtained in connection with the 2002 arrest of Ramzi bin al-Shib, a key 9/11 architect.

circa 5/1/2003 Yemen bombings thwarted

circa 5/1/03 Yemen bombings thwarted

circa 5/15/2003 Kenya flights

circa 5/15/03 Kenya flights

6/7/03 After the 2003 Casablanca bombings, a police roundup of Salafia Jihadia exposed a plot by ‘Abd al-’Aziz ibn Laysh to attack a French nuclear power plant at Cap de la Hague. Additional evidence indicates that members of al-Qa`ida trained Salafia Jihadia for this mission.

circa 1/1/2004 London bomb plots per WH site

circa 1/1/04 London bomb plots per WH site

circa 1/1/04 Reports indicate that an al-Qa’ida affiliate named Midhat Mursi may have been constructing a “dirty bomb” in early 2004. Mursi is reportedly in contact with Ayman al-Zawahiri and was suspected of managing al-Qa’ida chemical labs in Afghanistan. Mursi allegedly uses the name “Abu Khabab”.

1/18/04 A publication posted by members of al-Qa`ida on the internet included an article by ‘Abd al-’Aziz al-Muqrin (Abu Hajir), a leading al-Qa`ida fugitive in Saudi Arabia, which called for supporters to use nuclear and biological weapons in attacks against the Saudi government.

1/25/04 On 23 January 2005, German police announced the arrest of an Iraqi al-Qa’ida member who had allegedly attempted to purchase uranium in Luxembourg. In September 2002, Ibrahim Muhammad K. attempted to purchase 48 grams (1.5) ounces of uranium from an unnamed group in Luxembourg. Prosecutors claim that the amount of uranium was insufficient for the construction of a nuclear device.

circa 2/1/2004 British Airways attacks

circa 2/1/04 British Airways attacks

2/7/04 U.S. forces found 3kg of cyanide at the Baghdad house of Ahmad Fadhl Nazzal al-Khalayila, an aide to Zarqawi. The cyanide was to be placed in construction bricks and used against coalition troops. Troops also uncovered a document thought to be written by Zarqawi asking al-Qa’ida for aid.

2/8/04 On 8 February 2004, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Hayat reported that al-Qa’ida had purchased tactical nuclear weapons from the Ukraine in 1998 and was “storing them for possible use”. Al-Qa’ida allegedly purchased the bombs in Kandahar after a visit from Ukrainian scientists. The Ukrainian government denied that the transaction had taken place, stating that all nuclear weapons stored in the Ukraine had been transferred to Russia as of 1996.

3/2/04 U.S. Government officials announced that a group of al-Qa’ida members along with Zarqawi established a weapons lab in Kirma, Iraq. The lab was to be used to produce ricin and cyanide.

3/3/04 In a secret interview with Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir, Ayman al-Zawahiri allegedly claimed that al-Qa’ida possessed nuclear weapons purchased in Central Asia. Zawahiri reportedly told Mir that al-Qa’ida sent representatives to “Moscow, Tashkent, [and] countries in Central Asia” in order to purchase “portable nuclear material.”

4/5/04 British authorities announced they had thwarted a possible chemical attack tenuously linked to al-Qa’ida. The plot, which was in an early planning stage, involved the use of conventional explosions enhanced with osmium tetroxide in London’s shopping centers, railway stations, and the Underground.

circa 4/17/2004 Jordan chem attack by Zarqawi

circa 4/17/04 Jordan chem attack by Zarqawi

4/21/04 The Jordanian Intelligence Service seized six trucks wired with explosives containing 20 tons of an unknown chemical. The trucks were reportedly part of a plot by Zarqawi and a number of al-Qa’ida members to destroy Jordan’s Intelligence Department, Prime Minister’s Office, and the U.S. Embassy.

circa 6/14/2004 Ohio malls

circa 6/14/04 Ohio malls

6/16/04 According to the 9/11 Commission, al-Qa’ida operatives in Afghanistan prior to the 9/11 attacks were considering ways of using WMD, including mustard and cyanide, against Jews in Iran, “forcing Russian sceintists to fire a nuclear-armed missile at the U.S.”, and using air conditioning systems in buildings to pump poisonous gas.

8/1/04 Eight men were arrested in Britain and charged with conspiracy to murder after they were discovered with information on chemicals, explosives, and radiological materials. Also in their possession were plans of the New York Stock Exchange, the Citigroup Building in New York, the International Monetary Fund in Washington, and the Prudential Building in New Jersey. The arrests occured two weeks after a series of 13 arrests of men allegedly affiliated with the al-Qa’ida network. The men were identified as Dhiren Barot, Omar Abdur Rehman, Zia ul Haq, Abdul Aziz Jalil, Nadeem Tarmohammed, Moammed Naveed Bhatti, Quaisar Shaffi, and Junade Feroze.

circa 8/2/2004 NYC Citicorp plots

circa 8/5/2004 Chicago bomb plot

circa 11/23/2004 hijacked flights against London

12/19/04 An al-Qa’ida insider has alleged that Usama Bin Ladin was pressured by network affiliates to purchase radiological material through contacts in Chechnya. The insider has been named as Abu Walid al-Misri. Misri is reportedly planning to publish a book detailing his relationship with Usama Bin Ladin and al-Qa’ida leadership.

1/3/05 French Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin claimed that al-Qa’ida affiliates have produced chemical and biological weapons in Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge. De Villepin told members of a bio-terrorism conference in Lyons, France, that after the fall of the Taliban, al-Qa’ida cells moved to the Pankisi Gorge in order to continue efforts to produce anthrax bacteria, ricin, and botulinum toxin.

2/11/05 Pakistani businessman Saifullah Paracha allegedly told al-Qa’ida operatives that he knew where to obtain nuclear weapons that could be used against U.S. troops. Paracha denied the allegations but admitted to meeting Usama Bin Ladin in 1999 to discuss business deals. Paracha owns an import company in New York.

8/21/2005 London gas attacks

circa 1/1/2006 Canadian Parliament attacks

circa 1/1/2006 Jordan bomb plots

circa 1/1/2006 UK bomb plots

circa 1/1/2006 plot to attack SEARS Tower and FBI HQs

circa 1/1/06 Canadian Parliament attacks

circa 1/1/06 Jordan bomb plots

circa 1/1/06 UK bomb plots

circa 1/1/06 2006 plot to attack SEARS Tower and FBI HQs