U.S. intelligence experts are in Afghanistan to investigate documents left in two Kabul houses abandoned by al-Qaeda members when anti-Taliban forces captured the city last Monday.  The documents include instructions for manufacturing nuclear devices (see GSN, Nov. 15) and for making poison to produce mass casualties (see GSN, Nov. 16).   U.S. military officials said the documents suggested al-Qaeda was actively seeking weapons of mass destruction, according to Channel NewsAsia (Channel NewsAsia, Nov. 18).

In addition to a previously reported discovery of instructions to build a nuclear device, CNN reported Friday that investigators found written references to uranium-235—a type that is suitable for weapons—under the title “how to make a nuclear bomb.”

How Significant and Reliable Are the Documents?

Many analysts said the documents and materials related to the development of a nuclear device and of the poison ricin tell more about al-Qaeda’s intentions than its capabilities, according to the Globe and Mail. 

Van Blackwood, of the Federation of American Scientists, said training terrorists to extract ricin toxin from castor beans would not be difficult, “but if you were talking of a massive biological weapons program, you’d need some automated large equipment,” he said, referring to instructions discovered in one of the houses about how to produce ricin and the doses necessary to kill adults and children.  No such equipment was found in the houses, according to the Globe and Mail (Murray Campbell, Globe and Mail, Nov. 17).

U.S. officials said the nuclear weapon-related documents proved al-Qaeda wanted to obtain such weapons, but added no evidence has surfaced indicating the organization actually possesses a nuclear device, the Wall Street Journal reported.  U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice confirmed there was no evidence al-Qaeda has a nuclear weapon, “but we do know that Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants have been very clear that they intend to acquire weapons of mass destruction,” she said (King/Cullison, Wall Street Journal, Nov. 19).

A nuclear-related document found last week may actually have been taken from a spoof article on the Internet, according to an article in the Daily Rotten.  A reporter for the online newsletter searched the Internet for phrases in the al-Qaeda document, which he saw in a BBC broadcast, and discovered the alleged source: a 1979 spoof article published in the Journal of Irreproducible Results—now known as the Annals of Improbable Research (Daily Rotten, Nov. 16).

The spoof article, deceptively titled “How to Build an Atom Bomb,” includes such instructions as “use a strong glue, such as ‘Crazy Glue’ to bind the hemisphere arrangement…” and “we recommend the ‘Blast-O-Mactic’ brand [detonator] because they are no deposit-no return.”  The article also says, “Now you are the proud owner of a working thermonuclear device!  It is a great ice-breaker at parties, and in a pinch, can be used for national defense,” and, “In next month’s column, we will learn how to clone your neighbor’s wife in six easy steps” (Barking Spider).

Other Discoveries

Other discoveries in former Taliban territory might provide information to ongoing terrorism investigations. Investigators found a form for the Microsoft Flight Simulator 98 computer program used by pilots to train for flying a commercial jet along with a page from Flying magazine that listed flight schools in Florida. Since some of the Sept. 11 hijackers trained to fly in Florida, the documents might provide possible links with the Sept. 11 attacks, according to the New York Times. Additionally, al-Qaeda had an apparent presence in a Taliban defense ministry building, which could suggest a close link between the two, according to the Times.  The Times also reported that a document in Arabic called “Before and After Precautions for Using Chemical, Biological and Nuclear Warfare” was found in one of the former al-Qaeda houses (David Rohde, New York Times, Nov. 17).

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