al Qaeda nuke and Plague

Jamestown Report:

February 6, 2009 -- Volume 6, Issue 4

Leader of Yemen's Mujahideen Claims al-Qaeda has a Nuclear Weapon

In a recent interview posted to jihadi websites, al-Qaeda's leader in Yemen claims the organization possesses nuclear weapons and vows to attack U.S. and Western interests to compel them to withdraw their forces from the region (hanein.info, January 27).

According to the interview, the leader of al-Qaeda in Yemen, 33-year-old Nasir Abdul Kareem al-Wahayshi (a.k.a. Abu Basir), was Osama Bin Laden's secretary until he was arrested by Iran and extradited to Yemen in February 2002. Al-Wahayshi has been a fugitive since he escaped from a Yemeni prison in 2006 (see Terrorism Focus, February 7, 2006; March 18, 2008). In 2008, the second man in al-Qaeda, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, commended al-Wahayshi and named him the Amir of Mujahideen in Yemen. Since then, there has been a growing unity between al-Qaeda's Saudi and Yemeni affiliates and the mainstream al-Qaeda group in the Pakistan/Afghanistan border region. Led by an Amir, a deputy Amir, and a military and Shura council, the Saudi and Yemeni affiliates have joined together as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

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We think its terror propaganda, although we have tracked al Qaeda seeking nuclear materials.G

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AL QAEDA AND THE PLAGUE:

It is not impossible for AQIM to have experienced an outbreak of plague or another infectious disease in their rural camps (where conditions are similar to those experienced by the victims of the 2003 plague outbreak near Oran), but the very fact that no legitimate case has been reported suggests that this reported outbreak is unlikely. AQIM, like any militant group, does not exist in complete isolation - there are contacts with local farmers to obtain food, messengers to communicate with other AQIM sections, etc. Despite this, the epidemic does not seem to have spread (if indeed it ever existed). What can certainly be discounted is the possibility of AQIM conducting experiments in weaponizing the plague or other infectious diseases in their remote mountain hideouts.

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Watch for these symptoms, if you have contact with al Qaeda or the Taliban.

Or even visit where they have sat or slept. ( fleas )

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