Jihad Training Details Heighten Attack Fears

A convicted terrorist’s detailed account of his months in training at a jihad camp in Afghanistan is deepening concerns in law enforcement about the threat of chemical or biological attacks in the wake of this month’s hijackings, officials said Thursday.

According to a confidential assessment report circulating this week within the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement communities, Osama bin Laden associate Ahmed Ressam has laid out for FBI agents in recent months--both before and after the Sept. 11 attacks--a slew of previously undisclosed details about the tools and techniques that he learned in “tactics classes” in Afghanistan. Among the techniques, he said, were:

* Mixing a litany of crude but often lethal chemical compounds that can be applied to doorknobs, through ventilation systems or by other means;

* Targeting unidentified airports that the terrorists considered “soft” because they may be more vulnerable to terrorist penetration;

* Hiding a second explosive device “within close proximity” to an initial explosion so that the second bomb would “get the detectives” when they responded to the incident;

* Waiting three or four months after a terrorist attack before striking again to allow the public frenzy--and vigilance--to die down.

Ressam’s account may help explain the Bush administration’s aggressive response this week to scares over crop dusters, hazardous material haulers and other possible conduits for chemical and biological weapons. Because of unconfirmed concerns over terrorist links, the administration grounded crop dusters for two days and arrested at least 18 drivers nationwide for allegedly paying a Pennsylvania examiner to get bogus hazardous-material licenses.

Over the last several years, CIA Director George J. Tenet and other intelligence experts have warned repeatedly that terrorist groups and rogue nations have the will and the capability to launch dangerous, if crude, biological and terrorist attacks on the United States.

Ressam, testifying three months ago in the trial of an accomplice in a thwarted plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport around New Year’s Day 2000, gave glimpses into the training he received at two jihad camps in Afghanistan in 1998.

But apart from that testimony, in ongoing and confidential debriefings conducted by U.S. intelligence agents in Seattle since last spring, the imprisoned Ressam has provided much more detail about the guerrilla training, giving authorities a rare behind-the-scenes look at how the terrorist camps operate, officials say.

In the course of the debriefings, the FBI has compiled more than a dozen formal interview summaries that document the convicted terrorist’s knowledge of the Bin Laden training camps and other planned terrorist activities around the world, according to a federal law enforcement official whose account was confirmed by several others.

The FBI summaries paint a picture of dedicated jihad warriors who spend weeks or months receiving training on how to use chemical weapons and commit other acts of terrorism, the official said. “He knew a lot,” another source who has read the FBI reports said of Ressam. “If you’re not scared after reading [the debriefings], then there is something wrong with you.”

Ressam, a 34-year-old Montreal shopkeeper and petty thief, left for the Afghanistan training camps in early 1998. He spent almost eight months there, first in a basic camp and then at a second location where he learned more advanced techniques such as making and using high-grade explosives.

He was caught in December 1999 at the Canadian border north of Seattle with 130 pounds of explosives in his rental car. His goal, he later revealed, was to bomb LAX as part of a plot to “punish America.” He was convicted of conspiracy to commit terrorism and sentenced in federal court earlier this year to a maximum of 140 years in prison, but he has agreed to cooperate with authorities in telling what he knew about the Afghan camps.

In his debriefings, Ressam told investigators that he did not recognize any of the 19 accused hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks, in part because many of them were believed to be Saudis and Ressam was “Al Maghreb,” or from North Africa, one law enforcement official said. The official added that even if terrorists from Saudi Arabia and North Africa--Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco--had attended the same Bin Laden camp in Afghanistan, they traditionally kept to themselves and stayed within their own clan.

But Ressam has added a wealth of new information about the fascination of Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terrorist network with chemical and biological weapons and “improvised explosives.” Authorities believe that information may help them better anticipate and perhaps head off another terrorist attack.

Training Often Included Hands-On Experiments

Ressam told debriefers, for instance, that Al Qaeda trainers instructed Bin Laden followers on how to mix deadly toxins and traditional poisons with oil-based liquids so they could be applied more easily to doorknobs and enter a person’s bloodstream, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the debriefings.

Ventilation systems were also to be used as a “delivery system” to pump poisons into public buildings, Ressam told investigators.

The terrorists were also taught to dilute chemical explosives with acetone and transport them more easily in liquid form until they could be remixed at or near the target, Ressam said. Some chemicals were readily available through hardware stores or pharmacies, he said.

The training sessions often involved hands-on experiments, Ressam said. He said he “used syringes to inject dogs with cyanide and would then observe their impending death within seconds,” according to a U.S. intelligence assessment circulated this week.

U.S. authorities, who are acutely interested in Ressam’s account in light of the Sept. 11 attacks, are currently trying to verify many of the details. Investigators want to ensure that he is not exaggerating his account to appear more cooperative and thus shorten his sentence.

‘These Guys Are Very Dedicated’

But many in the intelligence community are already convinced that Bin Laden has devoted increased resources to pursuing the development of chemical and biological weapons that, although unsophisticated, could do significant damage.

Bob Blitzer, the FBI’s former chief of domestic terrorism, said in an interview Thursday that authorities have been increasingly concerned about the threat of militants using chemical or biological agents ever since a Japanese cult unleashed nerve gas in a Tokyo subway in 1995, killing 12 people and injuring thousands.

When Blitzer left the FBI in late 1998, he said, Bin Laden and Al Qaeda did not appear to have the capability to use such weapons effectively.

“But it’s possible” that they do now, Blitzer said. “These guys are very dedicated. And if they thought they could deploy that kind of attack here against our country, count on it--they would do it. That’s how serious they are. These people aren’t stupid. They are very smart and well-educated and they are on a mission.”

Justice Department officials declined Thursday to discuss specific chemical or biological threats or targets, but FBI Director Robert Mueller said at a news conference that the nation remains “under a heightened state of alert” because of the Sept. 11 attacks.

One possible threat appeared to dissipate Thursday, however, as Mueller said that investigators do not now believe that anyone arrested on suspicion of having false hazardous-material licenses was “in any way” connected to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mueller also released photos of the 19 suspected hijackers, obtained through passports, driver’s licenses and other means. But he acknowledged that the FBI is not yet certain that all the names and photos it has put out are the correct ones, since some of the hijackers may have stolen identities overseas. Investigators are hoping that the worldwide airing of the photographs will lead to new tips and help confirm the identities of the terrorists.

Deal Apparently Near on Anti-Terror Proposal

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, key members of Congress appeared to be nearing agreement Thursday with Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft on anti-terrorism legislation proposed by the White House.

As part of a compromise with leaders of the House Judiciary Committee, Ashcroft has abandoned a controversial proposal that would have given the attorney general power to detain immigrants indefinitely by merely asserting that he had “reason to believe” they posed a terrorist threat, congressional sources said.

Under a new proposal, the attorney general would have to file charges against a detainee within seven days--and therefore allow the case to be reviewed by a judge--or release the person. The attorney general would also have to show he had “a reasonable belief” that the detainee posed a threat, a higher legal standard, Democratic sources said.

Members of the House Judiciary Committee said the agreement makes it more likely that the package will soon clear Congress, perhaps by the end of next week.

Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Mission Hills) said that there are still provisions needing to be reviewed, but that negotiators have been making swift progress. “I’m not sure there’s anything troubling left,” he said.