Daily News (New York) February 10, 2003
Feds Find Poison Plot vs. Gulf Troops
By James Gordon Meek
Daily News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Even the chow line can be deadly in Afghanistan.
Military intelligence operatives have uncovered a plot to poison U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan, according to Department of Defense documents.
Arrests in Britain and Kuwait helped unravel a scheme by Al Qaeda and Iraqi-tied agents to contaminate water and food at Afghani and Kuwaiti bases. British raids netted at least 11 Al Qaeda suspects last month who had traces of the deadly toxin ricin. The U.S. has tied the arrests to an incident involving two Afghan terrorist leaders who brought an "unspecified poison into Afghanistan," according to a Jan. 29 Defense Department intelligence analysis obtained by the Daily News.
"The poisons were provided to Afghan nationals working as cooks for U.S. and coalition forces," the report said.
At the same time, the Kuwaitis busted one of their own, who was working with the Iraqi intelligence service and collecting information about companies feeding U.S. troops in Kuwait. vMohammed Hamad al-Juwayed, 40, a sergeant in the Kuwaiti National Guards, also was passing along information about troop movements and attack planning, Kuwaiti officials alleged.
The U.S. military has more than 90,000 troops deployed in the Persian Gulf region, a number expected to double soon.
No instances of tainted food have been reported. A defense expert said the American public probably is more vulnerable to attack than U.S. troops are.
"Think about two or three people walking around Manhattan sprinkling this stuff into lunch buffets," said John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org. "How would people panic if they were afraid to eat?"
The Kuwaiti spy's activities may bolster other reports "suggesting poisoning food is an option being developed" by Iraqi operatives, according to the Defense Department analysis.
Separately, the CIA also has linked the accused Al Qaeda operatives currently in detention in Britain to 36 terror suspects nabbed in Spain on Jan. 24.
The arrests "point toward nearly ready Al Qaeda-sponsored [chemical and biological weapons] attacks," the CIA warned last week.
"Similar materials were found outside Paris, indicating these groups are linked," the CIA advisory said.
Copyright © 2003, Daily News, L.P.
