Global Security Newswire

The terrorist organization al-Qaeda continues to work to acquire weapons of mass destruction to use in a large-scale terror attack on the United States, according to a report released yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 20).

"Their WMD procurement efforts have been managed at the most senior levels, under rules of strict compartmentalization from lower levels of the organization, and with central control over possible targets and timing of prospective attacks," according to former high-level CIA official Rolf Mowatt-Larssen (Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Harvard University Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs report, Jan. 25).

The report came even as a congressionally mandated panel issued a "report card" saying the federal government has not done nearly enough to prepare the United States for an act of biological terrorism (see related GSN story, today).

The former leader of the agency's WMD task force, Mowatt-Larssen stated that al-Qaeda leaders have been much more methodical and meticulous in their 15-year quest for biological, chemical or even nuclear weapons, than is widely understood, the Washington Post reported. Activities include fostering ties with other extremist groups to make use of their talents and resources and carrying out separate simultaneous efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction.

"If Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants had been interested in ... small-scale attacks, there is little doubt they could have done so now," reads the report.

Warnings by al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden that his organization would launch WMD strikes on Western nations are no "empty rhetoric" but a chief ambition for the group, the report states (see GSN, Jan. 25).

The document cites the efforts by al-Qaeda No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, to develop a bioterrorism capability by hiring two scientists who pursued parallel paths to establish a biological weapons facility and obtain lethal lines of anthrax bacteria. These efforts were derailed following the U.S.-led 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.

Assorted information indicates that al-Qaeda leaders had chosen anthrax as their best weapon and believed that they were nearing readiness to launch a large-scale biological assault. The organization would have liked to acquire nuclear weapons but recognized that the chances of doing so were not as good.

"They realized they needed a lucky break," Mowatt-Larssen told the Post. "That meant buying or stealing fissile material or acquiring a stolen bomb."

In 2003, U.S. intelligence officials learned of an apparent al-Qaeda-linked plan to acquire three smuggled Russian nuclear devices. The ensuing clampdown by Saudi Arabia led to the deaths and detentions of dozens of people believed to be involved with al-Qaeda.

"The crackdown was so successful," Mowatt-Larssen said, "that intelligence about the [nuclear weapon plan] basically dried up" (Joby Warrick, Washington Post, Jan. 26).

The report notes "widespread suspicion in America and abroad that WMD terrorism is another phony threat being hyped for political purposes, and to stoke fears among the public."

While acknowledging the loss of some U.S. credibility in this area following the debunking of claims regarding prewar Iraq's WMD capabilities, the report emphasizes that WMD terrorism concerns are wholly separate from those assertions and that the quality of intelligence regarding the extremist threat is much stronger (Mowatt-Larssen, Jan. 25).