Posted on 04/23/2007 9:55:57 PM PDT by Flavius
Al-Qaida leaders in Iraq are planning a mass-casualty attack against British and other western targets, possibly with radioactive-dispersal weapons, according to a secret British security intelligence assessment.
The warning is one of two reported since Friday from British and European counter-terrorism officials that a reinvigorated al-Qaida is mustering fresh resources for a major strike against the West.
"They have got to do something soon that is radical otherwise they start losing credibility," a British security source told London's Sunday Times. The newspaper reported Sunday that al-Qaida leaders in Iraq are planning "large-scale" terrorist attacks on Britain and other western targets with the help of supporters in Iran. The other western nations were not named.
The information, from a leaked report by Britain's Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre - the country's premier organization for assessing international and domestic terrorist threats - appears to provide evidence that al-Qaida is active in Iran and has ambitions far beyond the improvised attacks it has been waging against British and American soldiers in Iraq, the newspaper said.
Produced earlier this month, the intelligence assessment quotes one al-Qaida leader in Iraq saying he was planning an attack on "a par with Hiroshima and Nagasaki" in an attempt to "shake the Roman throne," a reference to the West.
Analysts believe the reference to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where more than 200,000 people died in nuclear attacks on Japan at the end of the Second World War, is unlikely to be a literal boast, the newspaper said. Despite aspiring to a nuclear capability, al-Qaida is not thought to have acquired weapons-grade material.
However, several plots involving "dirty bombs" - conventional explosive devices surrounded by radioactive material - have been foiled. What's more, an al-Qaida leader in Iraq last year called on nuclear scientists to apply their knowledge of biological and radiological weapons to "the field of jihad."
"It could be just a reference to a huge explosion," a counter-terrorist source, referring to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki claims, told the newspaper.
The assessment says al-Qaida would "ideally" like to carry out an attack before Prime Minister Tony Blair Blair steps down this summer.
It also makes it clear that senior al-Qaida figures in the Iraq region have been in recent contact with operatives in Britain. But it says there is "no indication" an attack would specifically target Britain, "although we are aware that AQI (al-Qaida in Iraq) ... networks are active in the Britain."
Details from the assessment follow a Friday report in London's Financial Times quoting unnamed European officials and terrorism specialists saying al-Qaida is reaching out from its base in Pakistan to turn militant Islamist groups in the Middle East and Africa into franchises charged with intensifying attacks on western targets. The efforts could see radical Islamist groups use al-Qaida expertise to switch their attention from local targets to western interests in their countries and abroad. . "For al-Qaida, this is a force multiplier," a British terrorism official told the newspaper.
The more immediate concern, however, appears to be al-Qaida in Iraq, backed by Iran, and its suspected intent to stage a mass-casualty assault against the West. The concerns over a plot to attack Britain before Blair steps down stem from a letter written by Abdul al-Hadi al-Iraqi, an Iraqi Kurd and senior al-Qaida commander.
According to the intelligence assessment, Hadi "stressed the need to take care to ensure that the attack was successful and on a large scale."
The plan was to be relayed to an Iran-based al-Qaida facilitator. al-Qaida's attempts to expand across the Middle East and North Africa, while still at an early stage, follow the rebuilding of the group's core in the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan, near the Afghan border, after six years of U.S.-led military action.
The group's central organization appears to have reconstituted around about 20 senior figures in farms and compounds that also act as training camps, western officials told The Financial Times. While there is no evidence of a formal relationship between al-Qaida, a Sunni group, and Iran's Shi'ite regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, experts suggest that Iran's leaders may be turning a blind eye to the terrorist organization's activities.
It was revealed last year that up to 150 Britons had travelled to Iraq to fight as part of al-Qaida's "foreign legion." A number are thought to have returned to the Britain, after receiving terrorist training, to form sleeper cells, according to the newspaper. The terrorist threat rating in Britain has remained at "severe," meaning an attack is "highly likely," since last August's discovery of alleged London-based plot to destroy a fleet of airborne trans-Atlantic jetliners bound for the United States.
Ottawa Citizen © CanWest News Service 2007
Not to worry, Sen Reid said the War is over
Which they’ll do, to spook those inclined to panic, which means don’t.
If it happens, I have a feeling that Europeans everywhere are going to be demanding that Muslims leave their countries. Except France, of course.
coast to coast and paul williams now babbling as fast as they’ll air it. Not to discount serious threats, but 18 months ago(?), PW or another c2c’er was telling me to get out of town (Charleston, SC).
c2c is like listening to fiction, isn’t it?
The word should be put out through all of the back channel means of communicating with these killers that if any western country is exposed to a radioactive attack of any kind......Mecca, Medina and the mosque in Jerusalem will be destroyed. Mecca and Medina by nuclear weapons so that the places will be hot for hundreds of years. The mosque in Jerusalem will be razed so that the Temple can be rebuilt.
I know that this is hardly an original idea...but we need to provide some terrible consequences for muslims that insist on terrorizing and killing thousands of innocent people. Got to try to find something that will really hurt.
If it happens, we should turn the Dir valley in Pakistan into a glass bowl.
Use a bunch of C-5 Galaxy transport planes to carpet bomb Mecca with live pigs during next year's pilgrimage.
Cheers!
I sleep comfortably with my lord, my wife, and faith that my President will awaken some jihadist with hellfire if they act so boldly.
In the case of France, the Muslims will demand that the French leave.
I don't agree with the interpretation that this is a metaphor. I take it much more literally. I think they plan to hit the Vatican.
It would be the worst mistake they could possibly make.
If it happens expect mass arrests of Republicans for supporting Bush — who caused the terrorists to hate us so much.
I think you're correct. Pope Benedict hasn't exactly been endearing himself to these people.
It would be the worst mistake they could possibly make.
Agreed.
L
al-Bump.
I think the “Roman Throne” refers to the Vatican too. They usually call the West “Crusaders” not nearly as specific as referring to the Roman Throne which instantly calls to mind the Vatican.
Unlikely. The PC mentality has inculcated itself too deeply in all in Europe. It seems they are all doomed. The behavior of the British government and the captured British marines shows how far they have gone to the dark side.
They will be in denial until the muzzi’s hold the knives to their throats to cut off their heads. Then their neighbors will wonder what their friends did to upset the poor members of the ROP.
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