Interesting.

link

quote:

Terrorists planned Jordan attack From correspondents in Amman 19apr04 AL-QAEDA LINKED terrorists were plotting to detonate a large-scale chemical bomb in Jordan that could have killed up to 20,000 people, plus also attack the US embassy and Prime Minister's office with poison gas, officials said yesterday. Officials close to the investigation said several terror suspects arrested in Jordan last month had confessed that the plots were hatched by Jordanian militant Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, thought to be a close associate of al-Qaeda boss Osama bin Laden. The officials said the terrorist cell was planning to attack Jordan's secret service, the General Intelligence Department, with a chemical bomb that would have killed up to 20,000 people and caused large-scale destruction within 1km. Jordan's King Abdullah II said in a letter of thanks published this week to his intelligence chief, General Saad Kheir, that the arrests of the terror cell members had "saved thousands of lives". Had the chemical bomb plot not been uncovered, King Abdullah wrote, Jordan would have seen "a crime that would have been unprecedented in the country in terms of the size of explosives mounted on the vehicles and the methods of carrying out the attacks or the civilian locations chosen". Yesterday, the officials said the terror cell was also apparently planning to carry out simultaneous poison-gas attacks against foreign diplomatic missions, including the heavily fortified US embassy in Amman, vital Jordanian public establishments such as the Prime Minister's office and unspecified civilian targets. They declined to elaborate, but stressed the plot had been foiled with the arrests late last month and earlier this month of an unspecified number of terrorist suspects. Jordanian officials say the arrests occurred after suspected militants entered Jordan from neighbouring Syria in at least three vehicles filled with explosives, detonators and raw material to be used in bomb-making. Syrian officials have denied these claims. Among those arrested last week were two Palestinian militants identified as Suleiman Darweesh and Muwafaq Adwan, thought to be close associates of al-Zarqawi. Another Palestinian militant, Azmi al-Jayoussi, is thought to be at large.

Funny that this story is getting surprisingly little press coverage. I only found a few other sources that reported it.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/...an-terror_x.htm
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,117414,00.html
http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2877038a3600,00.html
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/4/17/112546.shtml
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...ordan_terrorism

Syria, now theres a s**thole that needs some work.

Here's the million dollar question. Are these the WMD's that intelligence agencies have been claiming were moved to the Bekka Valley?

I wonder how long it's going to take Israel, Jordan, and the US to roll into Damascus if they end up proving Syrian complicity or assistance in an attack on Jordan?

I wouldn't hold my breath. But there is one thing I can't figure out is that the administration and the UN seem to have this "hands off" policy when it comes to discussing Syrian complicity.
There are letitamate reports of satelite imagery describing convoys of tractor trailors crossing the the Syrian border from Iraq in Jan of 03'. David Kay even outlined in his report that he had discussed this with former senior regime officials corroberating this, but in smaller amounts and production material. Yet the administration has not given the impression that Syria is a target of at least diplomatic pressure much less a military target. Iran and the DPRNK are "axis" powers, but we all know what a wasteland of Islamic extremism Syria and the Bekka Valley is.

I just think there is something that their (thr administration) not letting on to.

I heared they found about 17,5(!) tons(!) of explosives. Fucking unbelievable. Seeing that now chemical and perhaps biological weapons are used makes one fear the future.

___________________
"Those are my principles, if you don't like them... well, I have others.”

I have not heard of specifics, but it was said they had the potential for thousands of casualties.


"God Blessed them for uncovering this plot.
Jordan is undergoing a quiet revolution. They are part of the changing face of the Mid East that President Bush talked about tonight. They have been supporting the US in the efforts in Iraq and have begun to prepare for some drastic liberalization in their governance. Thus, as they begin to protect civil liberties the radical-Islamists have begun to target them for death and destruction."

Mark_Felton

Last edited by Q5echo on Apr-18-2004 at 22:08

quote:

Originally posted by mps242 Here's the million dollar question. Are these the WMD's that intelligence agencies have been claiming were moved to the Bekka Valley? I wonder how long it's going to take Israel, Jordan, and the US to roll into Damascus if they end up proving Syrian complicity or assistance in an attack on Jordan?

Hey, Rumsfeld said we're going to find those WMDs sooner or later! Being used more like it, from the latest in Jordan...


[[[smoke]]]

How ironic. I posted this story over a week ago and it's gotten minimal coverage. Finally the WSJ publishes an editorial today(mentioning how little attention the media has given it). What leftist media?

quote:

Al Qaeda's Poison Gas April 29, 2004; Page A16 Jordanian authorities say that the death toll from a bomb and poison-gas attack they foiled this month could have reached 80,000. We guess the fact that most major media are barely covering this story means WMD isn't news anymore until there's a body count. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- the man cited by the Bush Administration as its strongest evidence of prewar links between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, and the current ringleader of anti-coalition terrorism in Iraq -- may be behind the plot, which would be al Qaeda's first ever attempt to use chemical weapons. The targets included the U.S. Embassy in Amman. Yet as of yesterday, most news organizations hadn't probed the story, if at all, beyond the initial wire-service copy. Perhaps the problem here is that covering this story might mean acknowledging that Tony Blair and George W. Bush have been exactly right to warn of the confluence of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. Jordan's King Abdullah called it a "major, major operation" that would have "decapitated" his government. "Anyone who doubts the terrorists' desire to obtain and use these weapons only needs to look at this example," said Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. More details of the plot emerged Monday night with the dramatic broadcast on Jordanian television of confessions from the terror cell's leader and associates. The idea apparently was to crash trucks -- fitted with special battering rams and filled with some 20 tons of explosives -- through the gates of targets that included the U.S. Embassy, the Jordanian Prime Minister's office and the national intelligence headquarters. The explosions notwithstanding, the real damage was reportedly to come from dispersing a toxic cloud of chemicals, which included nerve and blister agents. Anonymous U.S. officials have been quoted playing down the WMD wrinkle, suggesting the chemicals may have been meant to merely amplify a conventional explosion. But then much of our "intelligence" bureaucracy is still wedded to the discredited notion that secular tyrants and fundamentalist terrorists don't cooperate (see Hezbollah). They may also be defensive about their earlier, dismissive assessments of Zarqawi's significance. Plotter Hussein Sharif Hussein was shown on Jordanian television saying the aim was "carrying out the first suicide attack to be launched by al Qaeda using chemicals." A Jordanian scientist described a toxic cloud that could have spread for a mile or more. So was it really a foiled WMD attack? Here's hoping someone is trying to get to the bottom of this. The provenance of the operation is also of note. The bomb trucks and funds are said to have entered Jordan via Syria. Last fall General James R. Clapper Jr., director of satellite intelligence for the Pentagon, said there had been an unusual amount of traffic -- including possibly WMDs -- between Iraq and Syria in the lead-up to war. The terror cell's ringleader, Jordanian Azmi Jayyousi, said he was acting on the orders of Zarqawi, whom he first met at an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan: "I took courses, poisons high level, then I pledged allegiance to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi." Mr. Jayyousi said this attack had been plotted from Zarqawi's new base of operations in Iraq. A Jordanian court sentenced Zarqawi to death this month for plotting the 2002 murder of U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley in Amman. Prime Minister Blair has said it's simply "a matter of time unless we act and take a stand before terrorism and weapons of mass destruction come together." According to Jordanian authorities, that sometime was intended to be last week. That strikes us as news.

WSJ Link