UK: Poison gas attack plot foiled

icNewcastle ^ | April 06 2004

[knighthawk]

Police and the security services have foiled a terrorist plot to launch a poison gas attack in Britain.

A plan to use a highly toxic chemical called osmium tetroxide was uncovered after communications between terror suspects were monitored.

The chemical compound, which can be bought on the internet for £17 a gram, causes victims to choke to death in agony and turns skin black. It also attacks the cornea and can lead to blindness.

Anti-terror chiefs fear the target for an attack could have been the London Underground system, Gatwick airport or a crowded public area like a shopping centre.

Experts say the chemical could have been "piggy-backed" on to a conventional bomb which would see the invisible fumes dispersed into a crowd of people.

As they died victims would have suffered asthma-like symptoms known as "dryland drowning".

Suspects' conversations were eavesdropped on at the GCHQ electronic listening centre and police moved to disrupt the alleged plot at an early stage before any osmium tetroxide was obtained.

While al Qaida has included plans for chemical attacks in training manuals, it has so far used conventional devices and the use of poison gas would have marked a new departure in its strategy for causing chaos.

Andy Oppenheimer, a nuclear, biological and chemical weapons expert for Jane's Information Group, said osmium tetroxide was an unusual choice as a chemical weapon but it could kill.

He said if terrorists were going to use it they would be likely to do so in a small bomb in a confined space.

[knighthawk]

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[stanz]

Be scared...very very scared. It's only a question of time before these lunatics pull off something disastrous.

[onedoug]

There's no alternative to crushing pan-Islamism.

[stanz]

I agree, but unfortunately for us, many good men will give their lives.

[onedoug]

Was it ever thus?

[Zeppo]

I'm certainly no expert, but from a bit of quick google research, it sure looks like osmium tetroxide is nasty stuff. But at £17 a gram, isn't it going to be hugely expensive to assemble enough of it to do serious damage to a lot of people? And, since it is usually bought for staining microscope slide samples, I doubt that many people order it in 55-gallon drum quantities, so it ought to be easy to spot someone who is purchasing unusually large quantities. The chemical supply houses probably don't even stock huge quantities of the stuff, do they? And, if you were going to manufacture the stuff in a basement lab, where do you find the osmium to do it with? Supposedly, pure osmium powder reportedly sells for around $100 per gram, and it is not generally available in truckloads, either. Compare that to the cheap fertilizer that terrorists are so fond of, and you'll wonder whether it is likely to be used other than in a small "demonstration" attack.

[lainde]

Bump and thanks!

[knighthawk]

At your service!