JORDAN FOILS HUGE CHEMICAL ATTACK!

Sky News ^ | 4/26/04

[areafiftyone]

Jordan has foiled a chemical attack, linked to al Qaeda, involving trucks loaded with 20 tons of explosives that could have killed 80,000 people, according to security officials.

More to follow...

[prairiebreeze]

ping

[blackie]

They're moving old Saddam's chemical weapons around.

We are winning ~ the bad guys are losing ~ trolls, terrorists, democrats and the mainstream media are sad ~ very sad!

~~ Bush/Cheney 2004 ~~

[Cap Huff]

Man, what an encyclopaedic mind!

[Eurotwit]

I guess I don't, but it doesn't exactly qualify as an outlawed WMD either.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See link at #90 for thread on the announcement.

[HitmanLV]

Not only that but the destructive force grew from 20,000 to 80,000 in about 10 days. In a month, it will be up to 800,000!

[Cap Huff]

I promise it shouldn't happen again (pun intended).

[stlnative]

If I remember correctly they had not caught all of them and they were looking for more chemicals and preps (other terrorist set-ups at different locations). This is probably the second group that was set up for another terrorist attack that was suppose to go off at about the same time as the first. Chances are there are more out there that were set-up to go along with the 2 that have been already caught.

[Dog]

Cap if I see it.....I remember it.

[CyberAnt]

Yes .. actively!

[Mitchell]

Ping.

[q_an_a]

oh yes, Tome will say, "In other world news, Jordon foiled an attack thought to be planned by Al Qeaqda. After the break we have a story about pigs that fly."

[Tarantulas]

The CNN article is here:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/04/26/jordan.terror/index.html

"The aim, Azmi told me, was to execute an operation to strike Jordan and the Hashemite Royal family, a war against the crusaders and infidels," Sharif said. "Azmi told me that this will be the first chemical attack that al Qaeda will execute."

Jordanian authorities said the attack would have mixed a combination of 71 lethal chemicals, which they said has never been done before, including blistering agents to cause third-degree burns, nerve gas and choking agents.

A Jordanian government scientist said the plot had been carefully worked out, with just the right amount of explosives to spread the deadly cloud without diminishing the effects of the chemicals. The blast would not burn up the poisonous chemicals but instead produce a toxic cloud, the scientist said, possibly spreading for a mile, maybe more.

The Jordanian intelligence buildings are within a mile of a large medical center, a shopping mall and a residential area.

"And there is no one combination of antidote to treat nerve agent, choking agent and blistering agent," the scientist said.

[Peach]

I was on another thread about this an hour or so ago.

I want to know where they got their WMD. And if we have been allowed to look at them.

[Keith]

unless we are talking US Military casualties...in which case 700 is a quagmire...

[Dog]

Azmi told me that this will be the first chemical attack that al Qaeda will execute."

Jordanian authorities said the attack would have mixed a combination of 71 lethal chemicals, which they said has never been done before, including blistering agents to cause third-degree burns, nerve gas and choking agents.

A Jordanian government scientist said the plot had been carefully worked out, with just the right amount of explosives to spread the deadly cloud without diminishing the effects of the chemicals. The blast would not burn up the poisonous chemicals but instead produce a toxic cloud, the scientist said, possibly spreading for a mile, maybe more.

HOLY MOLY!!!!!!!!

[CyberAnt]

I've already heard that it is possible to trace the chemicals.

If so .. this looks like the WMD Saddam sent to Syria, which Syria then gave to Al Quaeda - has finally surfaced.

I'm guessing, of course, but I don't think I'm that far off.

If there is a link with this stuff - and the other stuff a couple of weeks ago .. the dems are done for.

[Peach]

It was going to be big. Very big.

But today Vice President Cheney in a speech said that recently Kerry was asked if he thought this was a real war and Kerry said he would not characterize it as such.

[Dog]

They have the chemicals...so it won't be hard to trace where they came from. If I'm not mistaken ....this stuff has its own signature..

[Dog]

71 different chemicals mixed to perfection to be as lethal as can be....this game just went up a couple of notches.

[rod1]

It may be an old event in which thosrt arrested were just now persuaded to talk. So the facts of the plan with allt he iiiis dotted is now coming out. Iraq links to Al Qaida and chemical weapons. will be interesting to see if the full impolications come out on the networks. Will they (and Kerry) now apologize to Bush?

[oceanview]

good point.

why would he use them in Jordan then? why not attack the green zone directly?

[oceanview]

because a big part of the story is "where did the WMD come from"? that's the story, the fact that these guys had the weapons is one thing, where they came from is the real story. Since many of us feel they came from Syria, who got them from Iraq, that's the story we need to be validated to start the B52 runs against Syrian military targets.

[oceanview]

this redeems Loftus' credibility!

[7.62 x 51mm]

LOL!

[Azzurri]

Will they (and Kerry) now apologize to Bush?

No, the bar will just be moved and they'll just say Bush was incompetent because nobody was watching the trucks being moved to Syria.

[Mo1]

Gee and I wonder were Al-Q got them chemical weapons

[Eurotwit]

It might be really big involving WMD's originaring in Iraq.

But, it might also be just a creative mixture of industrial chemicals such as sulfuric acid and incecticides...


Either way it is terrible, but the implications for missing Iraqi WMD's are different.

Or so I would think.

[oceanview]

why would Jordan lie, and carry it this far? if they had made a mistake and this was reported incorrectly, they could have just let this story die (it was dying anyway), why didn't they?

[Peach]

Do we know if these are chemicals that had to be purchased illegally?

[nuffsenuff]

Hmmm... ABC decides to go after Kerry.

And CNN suddenly "breaks" this week old news that same afternoon.

Ted Turner must have gotten a "call"...

[Lady In Blue]

Fox News and MSNBC are reporting Jordanian TV is showing the confession of the captured terrorist.....in the confession he explains that it was Zarqawi who sent them on this mission from INSIDE IRAQ.

WOW!!

[b4its2late]

I guess we know where the chemical weapons were sent....

[Eurotwit]

Well, they stated on CNN Int that the blister agent in question was sulfuric acid.

And also taking into account that you can get some fairly nasty pecticides in developing countries that are banned in the US, it is a real possibility that these chemicals are fairly available. In other words, it doesn't have to be related to Saddam's WMD's. The interesting thing though is that many of the "WMD finds" in Iraq involved just pecticides which where often hidden in military bunkers and dug into the sand.

I don't know what is more scary?

That Saddam's WMD's are in Zarqawi's hands, or that all these toxins can be aquired at the baazar in any of the trashcanistans.

[Peach]

Thanks for telling me! I'm setting the VCR right now.

[BushisTheMan]

And lo and behold, they can actually test if the VX material is the same VX that Saddam had. So, if this test comes up as a match...WMD FROM IRAQ FOUND!

And the best part? Well, that it was a Muslim country in which WMD was found in (not Iraq) and the UN's own tests from previous inspections would be used to confirm the match. Therefore, no planting of WMD can be claimed!

[Allan]

this redeems Loftus' credibility!

John Loftus reported this story on WABC
two nights before NewsMax 'broke' the story.

[Angelus Errare]

Here's my take on it, for whatever it's worth:

http://regnumcrucis.blogspot.com/2004_04_25_regnumcrucis_archive.html#108301312374985786

From the looks of things, the sulfuric acid is the blister agent in question being referred to, but that still doesn't identify the nerve agent that was also allegedly involved here. Reuters sez that Jayyousi is an Afghan alumni who worked for Zarqawi back in the good old days in Afghanistan and worked with him again in Iraq to plot the overthrow of the Hashemites. My guess is that Jayyousi and the other Jordanians in on the plot are probably either members of Zarqawi's Bani Hassan tribe or else Jordanian Palestinians who hate their generally sane and pro-American Hashemite monarchy.

The most ominous thing is that Jayyousi and another Zarqawi lieutenant set up a plant near the Syrian border to produce all of these chemicals according to the Reuters account. Fortunately, the city where the plant was located, Irbid, is in Jordanian territory and hence has probably already been taken down.

[Boot Hill]

"If that is correct then Zarqawi has his hands on chemical weapons and has them in Iraq."

Possibly, but not necessarily. The other likelihood is that he simply has deployment authority over the Iraqi WMD stockpiles that were hidden (read: "forward based") in Syria.

--Boot Hill

[Eurotwit]

Well for whatever it is worth (probably not much) I have suggested that the nerve agent might be some form of insecticide.

[Angelus Errare]

I read that but don't know enough about chemistry to comment. Doesn't insecticide burn fairly easily?

[Brandon]

But that's impossible! There was no connection between Saddam and al Qaeda! The liberals told me so, and they would never lie!

[Eurotwit]

Don't get technical on me and expose me as a total fool :-)

I am obviously just speculating, putting up an alternative hypothesis to it neccessarily being from Saddam's old arsenal.

It might very well be from Saddam's missing stock. Who knows? I just doubt it.

But, if it was from Saddams arsenal, in that case why didn't they use mustard gas instead of sulfuric acid as a blister agent? Perhaps sulfuric acid tolerates heat better?

Oh, well these are just useless speculations since I just barely passed organic chemistry 101 :-)

I guess my strongest reason to doubt it being anything like Vx are the tidbits from the CNN story regarding the views of US intelligence analysts.

Who knows.

Anyways, I appreciated your account and thoughts from the link.

What is also interesting from the story is that

[TexKat]

Jordanian Militants Shown Confessing on State TV

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1124800/posts?page=16

In a videotape shown on Jordanian TV, Hussein Sharif said he was recruited as a suicide bomber.

[idkfa]

Just heard on CNN that the possible death toll could have been in the "thousands, even higher than the WTC."

[DonaldDuke]

but that still doesn't identify the nerve agent that was also allegedly involved here

Sulfur is one of the two components in binary VX.

[kinghorse]

looks like a jordanian soap opera actor to me. mossad gin up this clown? suicide bomber? ok.