ABSTRACT
On February 5, 2008, U.S. Director of National Intelligence J. Michael McConnell declared that “al-Qa‘ida and other terrorist groups are attempting to acquire chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons and materials (CBRN),” and that “alQa‘ida will continue to try to acquire and employ these weapons and materials.”1 Just a few days earlier, news reports emerged that Abu Khabab al-Masri-a chemical engineer and high-ranking Egyptian member of al-Qa‘ida who had reportedly been killed in a 2006 U.S. airstrike-was now thought to be alive and well and in charge of resurrecting al-Qa‘ida’s program to develop or obtain weapons of mass destruction.2 Described by several intelligence officials as a top explosives experts, Khabab is suspected of having had a role in a plot to attack New York in 2003 with a device called al-mubtakkar (or the “invention”) to disperse hydrogen cyanide gas in subway cars, potentially killing dozens of people-a strike that, according to former CIA Director George Tenet’s 2007 autobiography, Ayman al-Zawahiri canceled, saying, “We have something better in mind.”3
