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Al-Qaeda Planned New York Chemical Strike, Book Says
Al-Qaeda came within 45 days of executing a gas attack on the New York City subway system, according to a book excerpt published yesterday in Time magazine (see GSN, Aug. 5, 2005). The attack could have caused more deaths than the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. However, al-Qaeda deputy Ayman al-Zawahri canceled the plan in January 2003, the Associated Press reported. An informant, who was close to al-Qaeda leaders, said operatives planned to place hydrogen cyanide into several subway cars. U.S. officials had already learned about the plans in February 2003 by way of a computer belonging to a Bahraini jihadist The device that would have been used is easy to make and is called “the mubtakkar.” The device “was the equivalent of splitting the atom,” author Ron Suskind wrote in The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America’s Pursuit of its Enemies Since 9/11. Previous attempts to cause mass casualties using the gas have met only failure, according to AP. FBI spokesman Bill Carter on Saturday declined to comment on the book’s claims. “We were aware of the plot and took appropriate action,” said Paul Browne, a New York Police Department spokesman (Associated Press/Baltimore Sun, June 18). After learning that the attack had been called off, President George W. Bush worried that other plans were in the making, Suskind wrote. Suskind said sources recalled Bush saying: “This is bad enough. What does calling this off say about what else they’re planning? … What could be the bigger operation Zawahri didn’t want to mess up?” “What has been concluded for the most part is this: al-Qaeda’s thinking is that a second-wave attack should be more destructive and more disruptive than 9/11,” Suskind told Time (Associated Press, June 18). News of the planned attack comes on the heels of major federal funding cuts for terrorism preparedness in New York City, AP reported. “This is just more evidence that what Homeland Security did to us was terribly misguided and just wrong,” said U.S. Representative Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.). “It shows that New York is the prime target and shows the importance of prior intelligence and manpower.” (Associated Press/Baltimore Sun, June 19) One official briefed about the plot in 2003 said some in the intelligence community were skeptical of the plot, especially its cancellation, the New York Times reported. “This is a simple cyanide thing, two chemicals mixed together, and it releases cyanide gas,” he said. “They’d be lucky if they killed everybody in one car — you can do that with a 9-millimeter pistol.” “None of it has been confirmed in three years, who these guys were, whether they in fact had a weapon, or whether they were able to put together a weapon, whether that weapon has been defined and what it would cause or whether they were even in New York” (Baker/Rashbaum, The New York Times, June 18).
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