Tuesday, February 03, 2004
WASHINGTON A 7-pound block of cyanide salt (search) was discovered by U.S.
troops in Baghdad at the end of January, officials confirmed to Fox News.
The potentially lethal compound was located in what was believed to be the
safe house of Abu Musab Zarqawi (search), 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 (search) terror network.
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.
Early last year, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell (search) 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. www.foxnews.com
Positive test for terror toxins in Iraq
MSNBC.com finds signs of ricin, botulinum at Islamic militants' camp
Tests like those used by U.N. weapons inspectors gave positive results for
the toxins ricin and botulinum in a training camp linked to al-Qaida.
EXCLUSIVE
By Preston Mendenhall
MSNBC
SARGAT, Iraq, April 4 MSNBC.com tests reveal evidence of the deadly toxins
ricin and botulinum at a laboratory in a remote mountain region of northern
Iraq allegedly used as a terrorist training camp by Islamic militants with
ties to the al-Qaida terrorist network. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
is conducting its own tests at the same area, but has not yet released the
results, according to officials in northern Iraq.
MSNBC.COM'S TESTS were conducted over a two-day period at Sargat, an alleged
terrorist training camp a mile from the Iraq-Iran border. The camp, set back
in an isolated valley and surrounded by snowcapped peaks, was home to the
radical Islamic militant group Ansar al-Islam, which counts among its some
700 followers scores of al-Qaida fighters.
In a Feb. 5 speech to the U.N. Security Council, U.S. Secretary of State
Colin Powell showed a satellite photo of the Sargat camp and described Ansar
al-Islam as "teaching its operatives how to produce ricin and other
poisons." U.S. officials have repeated the allegations in recent weeks.
In an operation timed to coincide with the war on Iraq, U.S. special
operations forces have targeted Ansar al-Islam's militants in northern Iraq.
Hundreds of Islamists, including al-Qaida fighters who took refuge in
northern Iraq after the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, have been
killed.
Although U.S. officials for months have leveled charges that the Ansar
al-Islam and al-Qaida militants were producing poisons in northern Iraq, it
wasn't until this week that specialist American teams were able to gain
access to the Sargat camp to test for traces of biological and chemical
weapons.
Experts believe the Islamic group was producing the substances in the camp
as both toxins can be created from everyday products and simple procedures.
TERRORISTS TEMPTED BY TOXINS
MSNBC.com's samples of ricin and botulinum, two deadly biological agents,
were taken from the soles of a boot and a shoe recovered from the Sargat
camp. The facility has been flattened by several Tomahawk cruise missiles,
fired as part of the U.S. campaign against Ansar al-Islam.
The thick rubber boot twice tested positive for ricin, a toxin derived from
castor beans. Ingesting a pinch of ricin, which causes shock and respiratory
failure, can kill a human being within 72 hours. There is no cure.
A black running shoe, shredded by the U.S. bombing, tested positive for
botulinum. U.S. officials say terrorists have a particular interest in
botulinum and ricin toxins, which may be delivered through release in food
and water.
Botulism, the illness resulting from botulinum ingestion, is a
muscle-paralyzing disease that can cause a person to stop breathing and die,
according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, law enforcement officials have seen an increase in
attempts to produce deadly toxins like ricin and botulinum.
In Britain, anti-terrorism authorities in January charged four men with
producing deadly agents after they found traces of ricin in a north London
apartment. More than a dozen arrests have been made in the investigation.
On Thursday, the FBI issued a warning to Americans that deadly agents like
ricin and botulinum could be used to contaminate the nation's water or food
supply.
And in France, police are on alert after recently finding traces of ricin in
flasks in a train station locker in Paris.
The territory of northern Iraq where the traces of ricin were detected is
not under the control of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Baghdad admitted to U.N. weapons inspectors in the 1990s that it had
successfully weaponized ricin, botulinum and anthrax. There is no immediate
evidence that suggests Saddam's regime provided the easily produced toxins
to Ansar al-Islam or al-Qaida.
A test for anthrax at the Sargat camp gave a negative result.
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