Al Qaeda’s Pursuit of Weapons of Mass Destruction In 1. Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden declared that acquiring and using weapons of mass destruction (WMD) was his Islamic duty — an integral part of his jihad. Systemically, over the course of decades, he dispatched his top lieutenants to attempt to purchase or develop nuclear and biochemical WMD. He has never given up the goal; indeed, in a 2. Islamic caliphate.
Since the mid- 1. Qaeda’s 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 the timing of prospective attacks. The modus operandi has been top- down — more similar to the 9/1. Flight 2. 53. For instance, al Qaeda deputy chief Ayman al- Zawahiri personally shepherded the group’s ultimately unsuccessful efforts to set off an anthrax attack in the United States. Al Qaeda concentrated its efforts on nuclear devices in the run- up to the September 1.
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Based on the timing and nature of its WMD- related activity in the 1. Qaeda hoped to use such weapons in the United States during an intensified campaign following the 9/1. There is no indication that the fundamental objectives that lie behind its WMD intent have changed over time. Al Qaeda seems to have failed in its mission to successfully detonate WMD due to its overpowering interest in such big- casualty, big- impression attacks.
The organization has not pursued simpler, cheaper, and easier- to- use technologies, like crude toxins and poisons, with anything like the same fervor. To be sure, experimentation with and training in such agents was standard fare in al Qaeda’s camps in Afghanistan before 9/1. But bin Laden and his top associates left the initiative to lower- ranking planners and individual cells.
Connections between Iraq and Al-Qaeda. On August 20, 1998, President Bill Clinton ordered a cruise missile attack against a chemical weapons factory in Sudan. O’Brien’s channel contain portions of a June 2011 video presented by al-Qaeda outlet As-Saḥāb Media featuring Adam Yahiye Gadahn, a US-born al-Qaeda operative. Al Qaeda Core: A Short History. How the franchise operations of the world's most infamous terrorist organization became more potent than the mothership.
Finally, probably in 1998, al-Nashiri is alleged to have joined al-Qaeda, reporting directly to bin Laden. In late 1998, he conceived of a plot to attack a U.S. Al-Qaeda; القاعدة Participant in the Global War on Terrorism, War in Afghanistan, War in North-West Pakistan, Somali Civil War, Insurgency in the Maghreb, Iraq. In 1998, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden declared that acquiring and using weapons of mass destruction (WMD) was his Islamic duty — an integral part of his jihad. National security news and U.S. military news from The Washington Post. Full coverage of national security, the Pentagon, Department of Defense, defense budgets, and.
Once, Zawahiri even canceled a planned attack on the New York City subway in lieu of "something better" that never materialized. But just because "something better" has never materialized, and just because the threat of WMD terrorism has been used to political ends, does not mean that WMD are not a threat. This chronology provides the knowable extent of al Qaeda’s interest in, plans to obtain, and efforts to use the world’s most deadly weapons. Timeline. 19. 88: Osama bin Laden founds al Qaeda. Other founding members include Jamal al- Fadl, Abu Ayoub al- Iraqi, Ayman al- Zawahiri, and Dr. Fadhl al- Masry. Winter 1.
Spring 1. 99. 1: Bin. Laden and his associates relocate to Khartoum, Sudan. Feb. 2. 6, 1. 99.
A car bomb is detonated under the World Trade Center in New York City. According to Federal Judge Kevin Duffy, the goal of al Qaeda mastermind Ramzi Youssef was to "engulf the victims trapped in the North Trade Tower in a cloud of cyanide gas." The explosion incinerates the gas, greatly decreasing the number of casualties. Five people die. Late 1. Al Qaeda tries to acquire uranium in Sudan to use in a nuclear device. This is the first evidence of bin Laden’s plans to purchase nuclear material for an improvised nuclear device. Evidence of this attempted transaction comes from Fadl, who defected from al Qaeda in 1.
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FBI and CIA. He testifies in court that former Sudanese President Saleh Mobruk attempted to help al Qaeda acquire uranium of South African origin. Fadl says he heard later that the uranium, which al Qaeda acquired for $1. Cyprus, was "genuine." 1. Zawahiri, leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (which later merged into al Qaeda), is detained and released by the state security service in Russia. There is unconfirmed speculation that Zawahiri was seeking nuclear weapons or material there. May 2. 1, 1. 99. 6: Abu Ubeida al- Banshiri, a founder of al Qaeda, dies in a ferry accident on Lake Victoria. According to testimony from senior al Qaeda officials, he was seeking nuclear material in southern Africa.
May 1. 99. 6: Al Qaeda’s leadership relocates to Afghanistan. Early 1. 99. 8: Zawahiri’s Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) merges with al Qaeda. Zawahiri and EIJ bring technological know- how about chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons to the more ideological al Qaeda. Zawahiri takes control of nuclear and biological weapons development for the whole organization. Before this time, high- ranking al Qaeda members had held internal discussions about the wisdom and efficacy of pursuing chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear interests.
Feb. 2. 3, 1. 99. Bin Laden issues a fatwa against the United States, saying, "The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies — civilians and military — is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it." Aug. Al Qaeda initiates simultaneous suicide truck- bomb attacks at the U.
S. embassies in Dar- es- Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. At least 2. 30 civilians, mostly locals, die. The FBI places bin Laden on its "1.
Qaeda closely. Aug. The United States destroys the Al- Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum, Sudan, based on suspicions that the plant might be producing the nerve agent VX for the Sudanese government and al Qaeda. Dec. 2. 4, 1. 99. Osama bin Laden states in an interview with Time‘s Rahimullah Yusufzai: "Acquiring [WMD] for the defense of Muslims is a religious duty." 1. Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan conduct basic training courses in chemical, biological, and radiological weapons for hundreds of extremists. Abu Khabab al- Masri, a chemist and top bomb- maker, and Abu Musab al- Suri (better known as Setmariam), a Spanish citizen born in Syria, conduct the training courses at the Durante and Tarnak farms.
Setmariam is captured in a raid in Pakistan on Nov. The outspoken proponent of using chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons in attacks against the United States tells authorities that al Qaeda had made a mistake by not utilizing WMD on Sept. Early 1. 99. 9: Zawahiri recruits a midlevel Pakistani government biologist with extremist sympathies, Rauf Ahmed, to develop a biological weapons program.
He is provided with a laboratory in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Early 1. 99. 9: The head of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), an al Qaeda- associated militant Islamist group based in southwest Asia, introduces an ex- Malaysian Army captain and California Polytechnic State University (better known as Cal.
Poly) graduate, Yazid Sufaat, to Zawahiri. Zawahiri starts a second, independent, parallel program to the al Qaeda Afghanistan program, with Sufaat at the helm. Neither program knows of the existence of the other; each reports to Zawahiri independently. This collaboration between al Qaeda and JI is likely the first instance of Islamist terrorist groups jointly developing WMD. The Afghanistan program, headed by Ahmed, acquires equipment and sets up labs. Sufaat, a more trusted JI member, focuses on developing the anthrax pathogen.
He has been described as the "CEO" of al Qaeda’s anthrax program. Al Qaeda’s Abdel Aziz al- Masri conducts nuclear- related explosive experiments in the desert. He is an explosives expert and chemical engineer by training, reportedly self- taught on things nuclear. January 2. 00. 1: Pakistani nuclear scientists with extremist sympathies create the humanitarian nongovernmental organization Umma Tameer e Nau (UTN). Bashiruddin Mahmood, the former head of Pakistan’s Khushab plutonium reactor, is its chair; the former head of Pakistan’s Inter- services Intelligence directorate, Hamid Gul, is on its board. Mahmood is later forced into retirement due to concerns about his extremist sympathies and reliability.
He pens controversial books predicting an imminent apocalypse, offering a radical interpretation of the Quran. June 2. 00. 1: Sufaat hosts a meeting of the 9/1. Kuala Lumpur. Sufaat provides a false Malaysian address for Zacarias Moussaoui, who was arrested shortly before 9/1. United States. Before Aug. UTN’s Mahmood discreetly offers to construct chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons programs for al Qaeda and the Libyan government.
Al Qaeda Core: A Short History Ever since launching the war on terror in 2. United States has struggled to define — let alone defeat — what has proved to be a maddeningly amorphous enemy. Al Qaeda, once a relatively defined and hierarchical group, has metastasized into a multinational movement with franchise operations in at least 1. Mali to Syria, Yemen to Nigeria. These so- called affiliates have largely replaced the Pakistan- based mothership — now known as "al Qaeda core" or "al Qaeda central" — as the driving force of global jihad. That distinction, between the original terrorist group and its offshoots, has recently grown in political significance as U.
S. President Barack Obama touts his decimation of al Qaeda’s "core leadership" — even if each new start- up renders that victory less and less reassuring. August 1. 98. 8 After years of supporting the Afghan mujahideen, Osama bin Laden and some of his top associates meet in a suburb of Peshawar, Pakistan. With Soviet forces withdrawing from Afghanistan, the idea of a global jihad suddenly seems possible, and al Qaeda, literally "the Base," is born. We used to call the training camp al Qaeda," bin Laden would later recall.
And the name stayed." 1. Bin Laden moves his base of operations to Sudan, where he forges links with militants across the Middle East and North Africa who play a role in numerous terrorist attacks, including the 1. World Trade Center. In February 1. 99.
Sudan and returning to Afghanistan, he issues a fatwa against the United States. Later that year, he orders the U. S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, which kill 2. October 7, 2. 00. U. S. and British forces attack Afghanistan after the Taliban regime fails to produce bin Laden, who is accused of masterminding the 9/1. Within months, the bulk of al Qaeda has been driven into Pakistan, where the organization reconstitutes itself and proceeds to play a role in bombings from Bali in 2. Madrid in 2. 00. 4 to London in 2.
May 1. 2, 2. 00. 3 Al Qaeda launches a sustained insurgency against Saudi Arabia, carrying out a series of bombings in Riyadh. In November, the indigenous wing of bin Laden’s organization becomes the first to take on the "al Qaeda in" formulation, dubbing itself al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
Over the next three years, AQAP kills hundreds before Saudi security forces are able to stomp it out. October 1. 7, 2. 00. Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, whose terrorist group has perpetrated some of the most dramatic attacks of the Iraq war, pledges allegiance to bin Laden and founds al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). Around this time, the CIA begins using the term "AQCore," for al Qaeda core, to distinguish bin Laden’s Pakistan- based group from such offshoots. July 2. 00. 5 Bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al- Zawahiri, chastises Zarqawi for his extreme tactics, warning that AQI’s brutal beheading videos could alienate potential supporters. Terrorism analysts see this as evidence that al Qaeda core is not in control of its affiliates.
February 3, 2. 00. Twenty- three al Qaeda suspects escape from a Yemeni prison. Widely considered the moment of conception for a "new" AQAP — one of the inmates, Nasser al- Wuhayshi, would go on to lead the organization after its official founding in 2. Qaeda’s presence in Yemen. September 1. 1, 2. Zawahiri announces the union of al Qaeda and the Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC)*, a militant Salafi organization with roots in the Algerian civil war. Four months later, GSPC rebrands itself al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and carries out a series of deadly attacks in Algeria.
By 2. 01. 2, AQIM has established footholds in Niger and Mauritania and has briefly joined forces with Tuareg rebels to seize control of northern Mali. December 2. 5, 2. As Northwest Airlines Flight 2. Detroit, passenger Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempts to detonate plastic explosives sewn into his underwear. The attack, which would have been the first on American soil by an al Qaeda affiliate, fails.
He tells the FBI that he received training and the explosive device from AQAP. But there is no evidence that the group coordinated the plot with al Qaeda core. July- October 2. 01.
Bin Laden asks a senior al Qaeda associate in Pakistan to draft a memorandum requiring regional al Qaeda affiliates ("brothers") to consult with "al Qaeda central" before carrying out operations — another apparent sign that the core is losing control of the periphery. May 2, 2. 01. 1 U. S. Navy SEALs storm a nondescript compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and kill bin Laden. Zawahiri is tapped to succeed him, but the death of its longtime leader is seen as a near- knockout blow for al Qaeda core.
January 3. 1, 2. 01. As long as we sustain the pressure on it, we judge that core al Qaeda will be of largely symbolic importance to the global jihadist movement," National Director of Intelligence James Clapper tells the U.
S. Senate. "But regional affiliates … and, to a lesser extent, small cells and individuals will drive the global jihad agenda." February 2. Al Qaeda merges with Somali insurgent group al- Shabab, with which it had long maintained close ties. The following year, al- Shabab kills 6. Nairobi’s Westgate mall. September 2. 01. 2 Zawahiri calls on his followers to exploit the violence in Syria, where rebels are battling Bashar al- Assad’s regime. Seven months later, al Qaeda in Iraq changes its name to the Islamic State of Iraq and al- Sham (ISIS) to emphasize its growing involvement in the Syrian conflict.
But ISIS soon begins to feud with another al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, Jabhat al- Nusra. June 1. 5, 2. 01. ISIS becomes the first al Qaeda affiliate to go rogue, defying an order from Zawahiri to quit fighting in Syria and return to Iraq. I have to choose between the rule of God and the rule of al- Zawahiri, and I choose the rule of God," ISIS leader Abu Bakr al- Baghdadi declares. In February 2. 01. Qaeda’s central command washes its hands of ISIS, saying it "is not a branch of the al Qaeda group." August 2.
Zawahiri promotes AQAP chief Wuhayshi to the No. Qaeda’s core and orders him to carry out an attack, triggering the closure of 2. U. S. embassies across the Muslim world. The promotion "discredits the widespread claim that al Qaeda’s ‘core’ is based solely in the Afghanistan- Pakistan border area," notes the Long War Journal. January 3, 2. 01. As Iraq slides toward civil war, ISIS captures the city of Fallujah. The police and the Army have abandoned the city," a local journalist tells the Washington Post.
Al Qaeda has taken down all the Iraqi flags and burned them, and it has raised its own flag on all the buildings." January 2. Terrorism experts Peter Bergen and Jennifer Rowland report that, with recent gains in Syria and Iraq, al Qaeda and its affiliates "control more territory in the Arab world than … at any time in its history." Obama later argues, "There is a distinction between the capacity and reach of a bin Laden and a network that is actively planning major terrorist plots against the homeland versus jihadists who are engaged in various local power struggles and disputes, often sectarian." His analogy: "If a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms, that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant." *Correction, March 1. This article originally misstated that Ayman al- Zawahiri announced the union of al Qaeda and the Armed Islamic Group (GIA).
The union was between al Qaeda and the Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which had previously broken away from GIA. Special thanks to Peter Bergen, Thomas Hegghammer, and Bruce Riedel. Illustration by Sarah King.