US Suspects Iraqis Give Nerve Agent to al-Qaeda

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, December 13, 2002

US Suspects Iraqis Give Nerve Agent to al-Qaeda

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The Bush administration has received a credible report that Islamic extremists affiliated with al-Qaeda took possession of a chemical weapon in Iraq last month or late in October, the Washington Post (WP) reported on Thursday.

US government analysts suspect that the transaction involved nerve agent VX and that a courier managed to smuggle it overland through Turkey, the report said, citing two US officials.

The officials, speaking without White House permission, said information about the transfer came from a sensitive and credible source whom they declined to discuss.

Among the hundreds of leads in the Threat Matrix, a daily compilation by the CIA, this one has drawn the kind of attention reserved for a much smaller number, they said.

"The way we gleaned the information makes us feel confident it is accurate," said one official whose responsibilities are directly involved with the report. "I throw about 99 percent of the spot reports away when I look at them. I didn't throw this oneaway."

If the report proves true, the transaction marks two significant milestones, the report said. It would be the first known acquisition of a nonconventional weapon other than cyanide by al Qaeda or a member of its network.

It also would be the most concrete evidence to support the charge, aired for months by President George W. Bush and his advisers, that al Qaeda terrorists receive material assistance in Iraq, the report added.

Iraq on Thursday dismissed as "ridiculous assumption" a US media report that Iraq had provided VX nerve gas to Islamic extremists connected to al-Qaida.

"This is really a ridiculous assumption from the American administration," Gen. Hussam Mohammed Amin, chief of Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate, told a news conference.

"They know very well we have no prohibited substances," said the Iraqi official, commenting on a report published Thursday in The Washington Post that al-Qaida agents may have obtained VX nerve agents in Iraq and smuggled them out through Turkey.

Amin, Iraq's chief liaison officer with UN inspection mission, insisted the official line that all of Iraq's chemical weapons had been dismantled by previous UN arms inspectors before they left thecountry in December 1998.

"We're used to hearing such reports from the enemies of Iraq, from the intelligence services of the CIA (US Central Intelligence Agency), Britain and (Israeli) Mossad," he added.

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