Political effects if two major Zarqawi terror attacks succeeded

[jmc247]

Three Jordanians and an Algerian linked to al-Qaida's frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, were each sentenced to between five and eight years in jail yesterday for planning attacks on Jewish targets in Germany.

Mohamed Abu Dhess, Ashraf al-Dagma and Ismail Shalabi were convicted in a Düsseldorf court of plotting to attack Berlin's famous Jewish museum and a Jewish-owned bar in the city of Düsseldorf. They were also found guilty of being members of al-Tawhid - a radical Palestinian network linked to al-Qaida and headed by Zarqawi, whom the US accuses of carrying out numerous terrorist attacks in Iraq. All three had rejected the charges made against them.

Abdulla, who briefly served in Afghanistan as Osama bin Laden's bodyguard, revealed how the German cell of al-Tawhid had been in regular contact with Zarqawi. Members of the group phoned him up and discussed with him "honey" and "medicine" - codewords for explosives, the court heard. The group addressed Zarqawi as "the Sheikh".

"I swear to you, Sheikh, I swear that if you ordered me to die, I would do it, Dhess allegedly told Zarqawi in one of the intercepted conversations in October 2001. The fourth man, Djamel Mustafa, an Algerian, was sentenced to five years in prison for his role in plotting the attacks and for supporting a terrorist group.

"Both al-Tawhid cases need not have happened if immigration law had been conscientiously applied," the judge said. He added: "In this case, Abu Musad al-Zarqawi should also be sitting on the defendants' bench."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/oct/27/alqaida.germany

The first one was an attempted attack planned in 2001 and 2002 that was supposed to be executed in 2002 to blow up several Jewish centers in Germany and if they had bombs left over to destroy a train.

The second one which was Zarqawi's second most ambitious attack next to blowing up the Golden Dome shrine in Samara. This was staging a massive chemical weapons attack in Jordan to take out the intelligence HQ as well as kill many thousands and create total anarchy in the capital. This would have been carried out in the start of 2004 if not foiled.

Here is a NBC video on the attack and animated recreation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK7WIDy_WmU

Plot to kill 80,000 foiled, says Jordan

Jordan foiled an al-Qaeda chemical bomb plot against the intelligence services HQ to use trucks packed with 20 tonnes of explosives that could have killed as many as 80,000 people, security officials said today.

Several suspects, including Jordanian ringleader Azmi al-Jayussi who was recruited in Iraq, were shown shown on television which aired their confessions. Jordan's King Abdullah II said on April 13 that the security services had dismantled a "terror network", thwarting plans by the group to commit "a crime never before seen in the kingdom" which would have killed thousands.

The television showed jerry cans said to contain chemicals, which officials did not name, and trucks "that the terrorists planned to load with 20 tonnes of chemical explosives in a suicide attack against the General Intelligence Department".

"This operation, which would have been the largest in the history of the kingdom in terms of its volume and number of victims, would have killed 80,000 Jordanian citizens," the report said.

Six members of the network were arrested and four others killed in a series of raids, the last of which took place on April 20, security officials said. "Terrorist Ahmad Fadel al-Khalayleh, nicknamed Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, a prominent Qaeda leader, masterminded these operations," one security official said.

Zarqawi, a fugitive Islamist sentenced to death here earlier this month for the October 2002 killing of a US diplomat, "decided that the first target shall be the General Intelligence Department" and recruited the operatives. "Jayussi started to plan for the operation in Iraq where he had moved to from Afghanistan," the official said.

"He received direct orders from his leader Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi (to whom) Jayussi had pledged allegiance and absolute obedience since he met him in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan," he added.

In a taped testimony, Jayussi gave an account of his first encounter with Zarqawi in Herat, Afghanistan, and later in Iraq, and told of how he was trained by his mentor on the use of "explosives and strong poisons". He said he met Zarqawi again in Iraq and was introduced to another of his Jordanian followers, Muwafaq Adwan, who was killed in a shootout with police in Amman on April 20.

"Abu Mussab ordered me to go to Jordan with Muwafaq. Our mission was to instigate military work in Jordan," he added. In Jordan he was aided by several Syrians sent by Zarqawi, including Haitham Omar Ibrahim who "arranged safe houses" for the pair, who then began to work to collect information on the targets and chemicals for the attacks.

"We managed to buy large quantities ... We collected around 20 tonnes of chemicals, enough to carry out all the operations in Jordan," Jayussi said, adding that he then started to build the bombs. A member of the network also testified that Jayussi told him "the aim was to strike Jordan and the Hashemites (its ruling family), a war against crusaders and infidels".

An expert cited in the program said that the 20 tonnes of explosives would have caused "two explosions: a traditional one and a chemical in an area of two square kilometres".

"The chemical explosion would lead to the emission of poisonous chemical gases which would cause physical deformities and direct injuries to the lungs and eyesight. "Outside this circle, the human loss would amount to around 80,000 people dead and 160,000 injured," according to one of the experts.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/27/1082831523596.html

What effect would the 2002 attacks have had on European public opinion if any in the run up to the Iraq War? And, how would the world respond to much of Jordan being plunged into anarchy by Zarqawi in early 2004? That gives me an idea for a ASB timeline.