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Al-Qaida terror training book found in Iraq
The manual was reportedly used by Ansar al-Islam, a local
armed party in the Kurdish territory.
The 2-inch-thick manual on killing, discovered in an
abandoned bomb laboratory here early this month, offers
instruction in al Qaeda's array of lethal demolition
skills.
This copy, though, was found in the Kurdish enclave in
northern Iraq. It was recovered by Kurdish security
officials in a training center operated by Ansar al-Islam,
a local armed party.
Interviews with prisoners and translations of internal
documents and computer disks show that Ansar possessed
manuals from al Qaeda in printed and digital form, ran two
training bases with curriculums strikingly similar to those
taught in Afghan camps, and managed its affairs much as al
Qaeda did.
The group also had poison recipes much like those found
in al Qaeda buildings in Afghanistan after the Taliban
fell.
Moreover, al Qaeda seeded Ansar with experienced fighters
who helped organize the group's training, administration
and ambitions, U.S. and Kurdish officials say.
U.S. and Kurdish officials say the group received
support from al Qaeda and coordinated activities through
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian identified by the United
States as a lieutenant of Osama bin Laden. They also said
the group ran a factory that made the poison ricin and a
topical cyanide poison and maintained ties with Hussein.
U.S. officials say an intelligence team has collected
cyanide-based compounds from a former Ansar base and is
awaiting test results to see if the group managed to
concoct a larger selection of poisons.
Textbooks and bomb or poison recipes in Ansar custody were
identical to those contained in al Qaeda's records from
Afghanistan, including the bomb manual for the Jihad
Encyclopedia and computer files on Western intelligence
collection and ways to evade it. Other documents were
strikingly similar in tone or content to al Qaeda papers
found in Afghanistan, like military training materials.
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