Mission Accomplished: The long reach of al-Qaida

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Mission Accomplished: The long reach of al-Qaida

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

MSNBC - Apr 30, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18357494/

The long reach of al-Qaida

Tenet book details chilling plots to kill Gore, acquire nuclear weapons

By Robert Windrem and Alex Johnson
NBC News

NEW YORK - Former CIA Director George Tenetâ??s defense of his agencyâ??s
performance in the lead-up to the war in Iraq will echo from now
through Election Day next year, but other disclosures in his new book
are equally sobering and, in laying out the scope of al-Qaidaâ??s
ambitions, sometimes far more frightening.

The book, â??At the Center of the Storm,â?? which is being published
Monday, reveals that al-Qaida or groups affiliated with it have
undertaken several other operations aimed at equaling or even
surpassing the carnage of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The operations, which either were thwarted by authorities or were
canceled for one reason or another, included efforts to assassinate
Vice President Al Gore with anti-tank missiles during a trip to Saudi
Arabia, release cyanide in the New York subway system and procure
weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, from Pakistani
nuclear scientists.

In one especially chilling assertion, Tenet reveals that several
intelligence sources were indicating in fall 2001 that a small nuclear
weapon may have been smuggled into the United States.

The plot to kill Gore

Tenet discloses that in 1998, Saudi officials foiled a plot by Abdel
Rahim al-Nashiri to smuggle four Sagger anti-tank missiles from Yemen
into Saudi Arabia a week or so before Gore was scheduled to visit the
kingdom. But their reluctance to let the United States know what was
going on created significant tension between the two nations.

Tenet writes that it was reasonable to have expected the Saudis to pass
the information along as soon as possible, but they did not.

After low-level discussions failed to produce a sense of urgency among
the Saudis, Tenet flew to Riyadh to meet with Prince Naif, the interior
minister and the man in charge of the Saudi secret police.

Tenet describes meeting with Naif in an opulent palace in Riyadh. He
was accompanied by two colleagues, Deputy Director John McLaughlin and
John Brennan, director of the CIAâ??s National Counterterrorism Center.
Naif, by contrast, was joined by dozens of Saudi officials.

Tenet said he struggled to remain polite as Naif filibustered.
Eventually, he had enough. He edged toward the prince, put his hand on
his knee and asked, â??Your royal highness, what do you think it will
look like if someday I have to tell the Washington Post that you held
out data that might have helped us track down al Qaeda murderers,
perhaps even plotters who want to assassinate our vice president?â??

Tenet told the prince he would be coming back each week to make sure
intelligence flowed both ways.

Overall, however, Tenet makes it clear that he had warm relations with
Saudi leaders. He says King Abdullah was instrumental in breaking
logjam of the flow of intelligence and cites Naifâ??s son, the Saudisâ??
counterterrorism chief, as one of Washingtonâ??s best friends in
countering al-Qaida.

Al-Qaidaâ??s WMD plans

Tenetâ??s most frightening chapter is on al-Qaidaâ??s plans to develop
weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons. It is titled
â??They Want to Change the World.â??

Tenet writes that U.S. intelligence agencies â??established that Al Qaeda
had clear intent to acquire chemical, biological, radiological and
nuclear weapons to cause mass casualties in the United States.â??

According to Tenet, intelligence officials learned that Saudi extremist
elements were planning to conduct a cyanide gas attack on the New York
subway system in fall 2003 using a homemade device. But first, they
requested permission from al-Qaida leaders.

â??Chillingly, word came back from Ayman al-Zawahiri in early 2003 to
cancel the operation and recall the operatives who were already staged
in New York â??because we have something better in mind.â?? â??

Al-Qaidaâ??s nuclear ambitions

It is the story of al-Qaidaâ??s efforts to acquire weapons or weapons
technology from Pakistan that anchors the most chilling part of that
section.

The terrorist network made two separate efforts to persuade Pakistani
scientists to provide it with nuclear weapons from their stockpile of
about 50 nuclear weapons, highly enriched uranium and plutonium, and
vast weapons infrastructure.

In 1998, Osama bin Laden, al-Qaidaâ??s leader, was rebuffed, for unclear
reasons. About two years later, he had better luck when al-Qaida
reached out to a charity for Afghan refugees run by Pakistani nuclear
scientists. Although some of the details of this effort have been
previously reported, the extent of the effort went much further than
what was publicly known.

In 2000, Tenet writes, the charityâ??s founder, Sultan Bashir-ud-Din
Mahmood, and others at Pakistanâ??s nuclear weapons agency agreed to help
Mahmood in his effort to share weapons of mass destruction with the
Taliban leaders of Afghanistan.

In fact, Tenet said, U.S. intelligence learned that bin Laden and
Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Talibanâ??s leader, had met with Mahmood and an
aide in August 2001 in Afghanistan.

Tenet describes the initial Pakistani investigation as â??ill-fatedâ?? and
writes that the Pakistanis treated the charity officials with deference
in their interrogations.

Showdown with Musharraf

So he went to Pakistan and met with Musharraf, warning about the
outrage that would explode if it emerged that Pakistan was allowing
nuclear scientists to help bin Laden acquire nuclear weapons.

Musharraf pooh-poohed the concerns, arguing that bin Laden and his
associates were â??men living in cavesâ?? who could not possibly take
possession of such weapons, Tenet writes. Under interrogation, however,
Mahmood subsequently confirmed the details of the August 2001 meeting
with bin Laden.

At the same time, in the fall of 2001, Tenet writes, U.S. intelligence
began picking up rumors from several reliable sources that a small
nuclear device had been smuggled into the United States, for probable
use in New York City. The Energy Department sent detection equipment to
New York, he adds.

Tenet concludes that a nuclear detonation in a U.S. city is al-Qaidaâ??s
ultimate goal.

â??Iâ??m concerned this is where UBL and his operatives want to go,â?? he
writes. â??If they can arrange to set off a mushroom cloud, they make
history. ... My deepest fear is that this exactly what they intend.â??

[Robert Windrem is an investigative producer for NBC News. Alex Johnson
is a reporter for MSNBC.com.]

© 2007 MSNBC InteractiveRobert
© 2007 MSNBC.com


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