[callmejoe]

Zarqawi is not an Iraqi terrorist. He is a global terrorist operating in Iraq. His specialty is not beheadings and car bombings. He operated an advanced chemical and biological weapons program for al Qaeda for many years starting prior to 9/11 with tacit support from Iran, Iraq and Syria. His crowning organizational achievement is not his al Qaeda affiliated cells in Iraq operating within a coordinated insurgency - - it was a global WMD attack network spanning not countries, but continents.

Granted, it is assumed that much of that network was taken down two years ago (116 network members arrested) prior to the Iraq War in order to preempt a WMD attack that was likely planned on Europe and/or the U.S.

Perhaps there was more to the network than what was unearthed (after all, if we have got everyone, how can Tony Blair say there are hundreds still at large in the UK alone?) .

Or perhaps all that is needed to carry out the attack is the logistics part of that old Zarqawi network. Another set of players also backed by the same set of state sponsors might handle the actual attack - - operatives *much* more professional and competent than anything UBL, Zawahiri, or Zarqawi could ever hope to achieve.

The multi-layered Iraqi insurgency was planned years before the invasion.

Redundancy was also likely built into follow-on attack options (second wave) on the American homeland.

Blair says there are still "hundreds" prepared to strike in Britain?

If that is indeed the case, one would have a difficult job in developing a rational argument why there would be a lesser number inside the primary target - - the United States. It is not as if the UK is less aggressive with their domestic security.

The current public understanding of the national threat level and what little analysis I have seen so far in the media since the news broke yesterday is facile, naive, and divorced from reality.

Yes, both of these individuals are supposedly on the run or in hiding.

But they only need to give orders, not execute them.

And in the days before 9/11, UBL was also living in caves constantly on the move. The terrorist commanders may have been hiding under a rock on the other side of the planet, but the terrorist operatives were here and ready.

Unless I am mistaken, the nominal leader of a functional and lethal global terror organization apparently just gave an order to the longtime head of its WMD network to launch an attack on the United States and/or its global interests outside of Iraq.

And instead of generating a national alert, it seems to have provoked nothing more than a collective yawn.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/10/10/1097346696072.html?from=moreStories&oneclick=true

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/02/06/sprj.irq.alqaeda.links/

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-levitt020603.asp

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,10153024^1702,00.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A52564-2004Sep26?language=printer

[Velveeta]

Another set of players also backed by the same set of state sponsors might handle the actual attack - - operatives *much* more professional and competent than anything UBL, Zawahiri, or Zarqawi could ever hope to achieve.

Bears repeating.

Thanks for your analysis.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Unless I am mistaken, the nominal leader of a functional and lethal
global terror organization apparently just gave an order to the
longtime head of its WMD network to launch an attack on the United
States and/or its global interests outside of Iraq.

And instead of generating a national alert, it seems to have provoked
nothing more than a collective yawn.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Joe, good to see your thoughts on the alert.

You are very much in line with my thoughts......

[Quix]

THANKS, Joe.

Jives with my assessment rather closely.



Have you ever given any thought to why the Jihadis even around 911 time . . . would from time to time pontificate . . . about the horror to come and how devastated it would leave the USA . . .

and

how they sometimes seemed to sound rather similar to Soros and company?

ANYWAY, PLEASE KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK AND COMMENTARY.

[callmejoe]

I didn't know the first link requires registration. Here is a snip:

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/10/10/1097346696072.html?from=moreStories&oneclick=true

Rebels eye nerve gas: CIA

By Bob Drogin
Washington
October 11, 2004

Militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and other insurgency networks across Iraq are increasingly trying to acquire and use toxic nerve gases, blister agents and germ weapons against US and coalition forces, according to a CIA report. . .

Investigators into the insurgency's attempts to acquire chemical weapons said one group, dubbed the al-Abud network, recruited scientists and sought to prepare poisons over seven months before it was dismantled in June.

The CIA says Zarqawi has long sought to use chemical and biological weapons against targets in Europe as well as Iraq.

An exhaustive report released last week by Charles Duelfer, the CIA's chief weapons investigator in Iraq, concluded that Saddam Hussein destroyed his stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in the early 1990s and never tried to rebuild them.

But a little-noticed section of the 960-page report warns that the danger of a "devastating" attack with unconventional weapons has grown since the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Zarqawi has long sought to use chemical and biological weapons against targets in Europe as well as Iraq.

The Bush Administration has not previously disclosed that the insurgent groups that have emerged and steadily expanded since Saddam's ousting are now seeking to develop their own crude supplies of such deadly agents as mustard gas, ricin and the nerve gas, tabun. . . .

[Oorang]

Good analysis, thank you.