Avoiding Attacking Suspected Terrorist Mastermind
By Jim Miklaszewski
NBC News
Tuesday 03 March 2004
Abu Musab Zarqawi blamed for more than 700 killings in Iraq
With Tuesday's attacks, Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant with ties to al-Qaida, is now
blamed for more than 700 terrorist killings in Iraq.
But NBC News has learned that long before the war the Bush administration had several chances to
wipe out his terrorist operation and perhaps kill Zarqawi himself — but never pulled the trigger.
In June 2002, U.S. officials say intelligence had revealed that Zarqawi and members of al-Qaida had
set up a weapons lab at Kirma, in northern Iraq, producing deadly ricin and cyanide.
The Pentagon quickly drafted plans to attack the camp with cruise missiles and airstrikes and sent
it to the White House, where, according to U.S. government sources, the plan was debated to death in
the National Security Council.
"Here we had targets, we had opportunities, we had a country willing to support casualties, or risk
casualties after 9/11 and we still didn't do it," said Michael O'Hanlon, military analyst with the
Brookings Institution.
Four months later, intelligence showed Zarqawi was planning to use ricin in terrorist attacks in
Europe.
The Pentagon drew up a second strike plan, and the White House again killed it. By then the
administration had set its course for war with Iraq.
"People were more obsessed with developing the coalition to overthrow Saddam than to execute the
president's policy of preemption against terrorists," according to terrorism expert and former National
Security Council member Roger Cressey.
In January 2003, the threat turned real. Police in London arrested six terror suspects and
discovered a ricin lab connected to the camp in Iraq.
The Pentagon drew up still another attack plan, and for the third time, the National Security Council
killed it.
Military officials insist their case for attacking Zarqawi's operation was airtight, but the
administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against
Saddam.
The United States did attack the camp at Kirma at the beginning of the war, but it was too late —
Zarqawi and many of his followers were gone. "Here's a case where they waited, they waited too long
and now we're suffering as a result inside Iraq," Cressey added.
And despite the Bush administration's tough talk about hitting the terrorists before they strike,
Zarqawi's killing streak continues today.
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