The CIA’s Senior Executive Intelligence Brief (SEIB) contains a Top Secret article: “Bin Ladin’s Interest in Biological, Radiological Weapons” summarizing intelligence since Osama bin Laden’s May 1998 “Nuclear Bomb of Islam” fatwa, where he stated that “it is the duty of the Muslims to prepare as much force as possible to terrorize the enemies of God.”
The intelligence on Al Qaeda’s interest in WMD started to flow with the detection of Jamal al-Fadl, who spoke of efforts to acquire nuclear materials and of manufacturing of chemical and biological weapons (Fadl’s false testimony leads to the attack on the al Shifa plant in Sudan in 1998, where al Qaeda was supposedly working on VX nerve gas.)
Later there are reports of al Qaeda attempts to purchase loose nukes, chemical and biological weapons from arms dealers, as well as laboratories in Afghanistan that are engaged in manufacturing WMD. There are elliptical reports of al Qaeda seeking access to small crop-dusting planes to deliver WMD inside the United States.
Day: February 11, 2021