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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al Qaeda is close to being able to produce anthrax and other biological and chemical weapons, according to evidence recently seized by the U.S. government, The Washington Post reported on Sunday.
Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network has assembled the material necessary to make the biological toxins botulinum and salmonella as well as the poison cyanide, the Post said.
The group is also nearly able to produce anthrax, which is far more deadly than the other agents, the newspaper said, citing three sources with access to written reports describing the capabilities.
The report appeared in Sunday's editions and was posted beforehand on the publication's Web site http://www.washingtonpost.com.
U.S. officials gleaned much of the evidence from handwritten notes and computer hard drives seized when authorities arrested suspected Sept. 11, 2001, mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed in Pakistan earlier this month, the Post said.
Authorities found a document ordering the purchase of bacillus anthracis, an ingredient needed to create the anthrax disease, the Post said. Evidence does not indicate when the manufacture of chemical weapons could be completed, the Post said.
Mohammed was one of three al Qaeda suspects detained in a raid on a house in the city of Rawalpindi near Islamabad.
The raided house was owned by Abdul Quddoos Khan, a bacteriologist who could have obtained access to chemical materials, the Post said. Khan was not captured during the raid and remains at large, the Post said.
Mohammed has not explained to interrogators the intended use of the chemical weapons, the Post said. Analysts suspect that al Qaeda intends to poison food being supplied to U.S. troops in Afghanistan by local civilians, it said.
Thousands of U.S. and allied troops are searching Afghanistan for bin Laden and members of his al Qaeda network, which the United States blames for the Sept. 11 attacks.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2430119
Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network has assembled the material necessary to make the biological toxins botulinum and salmonella as well as the poison cyanide, the Post said.
The group is also nearly able to produce anthrax, which is far more deadly than the other agents, the newspaper said, citing three sources with access to written reports describing the capabilities.
The report appeared in Sunday's editions and was posted beforehand on the publication's Web site http://www.washingtonpost.com.
U.S. officials gleaned much of the evidence from handwritten notes and computer hard drives seized when authorities arrested suspected Sept. 11, 2001, mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed in Pakistan earlier this month, the Post said.
Authorities found a document ordering the purchase of bacillus anthracis, an ingredient needed to create the anthrax disease, the Post said. Evidence does not indicate when the manufacture of chemical weapons could be completed, the Post said.
Mohammed was one of three al Qaeda suspects detained in a raid on a house in the city of Rawalpindi near Islamabad.
The raided house was owned by Abdul Quddoos Khan, a bacteriologist who could have obtained access to chemical materials, the Post said. Khan was not captured during the raid and remains at large, the Post said.
Mohammed has not explained to interrogators the intended use of the chemical weapons, the Post said. Analysts suspect that al Qaeda intends to poison food being supplied to U.S. troops in Afghanistan by local civilians, it said.
Thousands of U.S. and allied troops are searching Afghanistan for bin Laden and members of his al Qaeda network, which the United States blames for the Sept. 11 attacks.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2430119