On al Qaeda, Totally in the Dark

[ckramer]

The WMD commission also blasted the intelligence community's failings on the al Qaeda terrorist organization. It was only after the invasion of Afghanistan, the panel says, that analysts understood the scope of Osama bin Laden's programs to develop biological and nuclear weapons.

The analysts' most weighty prewar judgment--that al Qaeda lacked a nuclear device--was "made in the absence of any hard data." But most troubling, the report suggests, is the lack of knowledge about a biological weapon referred to in the unclassified version only as "Agent X," which sources tell U.S. News was a strain of anthrax. Hints of al Qaeda experimenting with anthrax have been reported before, but the report reveals an official assessment that the group "probably" acquired "at least a small quantity of this virulent strain and had plans to assemble devices to disperse the agent." The program was based at several sites in Afghanistan, two of them stocked with commercial lab gear and staffed by operatives "with special training." At the center of the activity, sources say, was Yazid Sufaat, a former Malaysian Army captain who had studied biochemistry at a state college in California. Sufaat allegedly created several front companies for al Qaeda and its Malaysian affiliate, Jemaah Islamiyah.

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[punpirate]

1. How exactly...

... does this jive with British reports that when they went looking for secret labs in the caves that all they found were... caves?

[radwriter0555]

2. Al queda was almost a myth to begin, and merely the boogie man that

was easily attributable to various events and for facilitating the nefarious endeavors of the bush regime.

The numbers of actual so called al queda members were murky at best, but sources have said there were as few as only a few hundred members at the height of its popularity.

The various european nations made a massive effort to crack down on terrorist activities after 911; and their work ALONE has been responsible for pretty much eliminating all traces of al queda. The US's alleged endeavors are moot.

There will always be some nuts out there who will plot and kill for their own freaky reasons; doesn't mean they're all al queda.

[saigon68]

3. al Qaeda = The Bush Criminals Boogie Man

To consolidate their power to RAPE AND LOOT THE WORLD.