|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
Details Emerge on Al-Qaeda Chemical Plot in Jordan
Jordanian state television yesterday broadcast the confession of two suspects arrested recently as part of an apparent al-Qaeda plot to conduct chemical weapons attacks and conventional bombings in Amman (see GSN, April 21). One suspect, Azmi al-Jayousi, said to be the head of a terrorist cell in Jordan, described meeting senior al-Qaeda official Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq to plan the chemical attacks. Al-Jayousi said he received $170,000 to fund the operation and used some of the money to buy 20 tons of chemicals that would be “enough for all the operations in the Jordanian arena” (Jamal Halaby, Associated Press/San Diego Union-Tribune, April 26). In action this month and last, Jordanian authorities intercepted vehicles loaded with materials that included “70 chemical agents, some of which were pesticides, which mixed together could have produced a formidable chemical weapon never used before,” said a source close to the investigation. While some officials estimated that the planned attacks could have killed 80,000 people and injured 160,000 more, others were reserving judgment. “We’re still at the point of assessing what might be involved and what the lethality might be,” a U.S. official said yesterday (Randa Habib, Middle East Online, April 27).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
