Security

Chem Weapons Scare, Osama Clue in WikiLeaks' War Docs

Most of the reports catalog counterinsurgency’s basics — weapons caches found, gun battles fought, village elders chatted up. But buried in the tens of thousands of U.S. military logs dropped Sunday night by WikiLeaks are incidents that are anything but routine: a suspected chemical-weapon attack by the Taliban; rumors of Al Qaeda poisoning the U.S. […]

Most of the reports catalog counterinsurgency's basics -- weapons caches found, gun battles fought, village elders chatted up. But buried in the tens of thousands of U.S. military logs dropped Sunday night by WikiLeaks are incidents that are anything but routine: a suspected chemical-weapon attack by the Taliban; rumors of Al Qaeda poisoning the U.S. military food supply; a tip about Osama Bin Laden's status.

WikiLeaks' massive trove of field reports from Afghanistan documents many things. One is that the fog of war can lead troops down some awfully strange paths. Especially when RUMINT (mil-speak for "rumor intelligence") becomes the guide.

Shortly after 10:30 a.m. on Valentine's Day, 2009, a special operations unit was on a mine-clearing patrol when they were ambushed. Insurgents detonated a bomb, fired at the troops, and then fled. For five hours, the spec ops forces pursed. Finally, they called in air support. A pair of French Mirage fighter jets dropped a pair of guided bombs. The troops "engaged and destroyed" two insurgent spotters.

The commandos found a second improvised explosive, destroyed it, and continued north. They discovered a third bomb. And when they set it off, "a yellow cloud was emitted and personnel began feeling nauseous. FF [friendly forces] collected dust samples and returned to base. Currently conducting SSE [sensitive site exploitation] of clothing and equipment while awaiting decon [decontamination] teams to confirm or deny chemical attack. A total of 7x US MIL, 1x Interpreter and 1x K-9 dog reporting symptoms," read the report from the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force. "Will inform if chemical attack is confirmed."

Six hours later came a second report. "CJSOTF unit has returned to base for treatment and analysis. Initial Medical assessment is that none of the personnel are currently experiencing symptoms.... CJSOTF surgeon assessed no need to MEDEVAC [medical evacuate] any personnel. The individuals have been placed on 24 hour stand down. SSE Team from KAF [Kandahar Air Field] will fly to FB Cobra on 15FEB09 to conduct testing for any residual chemicals or materials on personnel and equipment. The results of this testing will confirm or deny this event as a CBRN [chemical biological radiological nuclear] attack."

There are no indications in the WikiLeaks database that this was confirmed as a chemical attack; I suspect it wasn't. But this isn't the first time we've seen accounts fearing that al-Qaida or the Taliban experimented with chemical weapons.

In May, Strategy Page claimed that "poison gas has been added to the Taliban arsenal" after a suspected poisoning incident at a Kabul school for girls. That led to some online speculation that the Taliban were planning chemical attacks on U.S. troops.

Gas-powered Taliban are something of a recurring fear: the Times of India quoted a Pakistani police chief in the Northwest Frontier Province testifying to a new extremist facility with deadly gas and even toxic biological agents. If such a thing ever manifested itself, however, it would hark back to a longtime al-Qaida pursuit.

An operative known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, killed in 2008 drone attack, was responsible for al-Qaida's attempts at harnessing poison gas and lethal plagues, as with the famous videotape of al-Qaida gassing three dogs. A former senior U.S. intelligence official, Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, compiled a timeline of al-Qaida's pursuit of WMDs last month for Foreign Policy.

In June 2007, U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan passed along a tip that Al Qaeda and the Taliban planned to poison coalition forces. The scheme, according to the report in the WikiLeaks database, is to "commandeer the food supply trucks of coalition forces. The trucks carry supplies to include water and dry goods. The plan is to inject the bottles or the packages of food with unidentified chemicals, or recreate the same type of packages with contaminated versions of the same product." The source "supplied no further information," the report added.

In July 2008, another report notes, Afghan National Police colonel Ghani Khan was leaving his office in Ghazni province. He and his security detail noticed a woman and a teenage boy loitering after dark by the governor's compound. When the officers approached her, she "began to react abnormally and scream 'Allah Akhbar.'"

As she was being restrained, papers from her purse fell on the ground some of which containing the word bomb. The woman was taken in for questioning at the ANP HQ in Ghazni City. A search of her personal items revealed a purse containing numerous documents on how to build explosives, chemical weapon use, targeting US military assets, excerpts from the Anarchists Arsenal and a 1GB thumb drive with additional related material. The woman also had unknown chemical materials sealed in containers in her purse. A great deal of the evidence is in English. According to documents found on the thumb drive the woman may be western educated (12 years in the US), an MIT graduate with a bachelors in Biology and a masters/PHD in Neuroscience. The woman is currently being held by ANP in Ghazni City and has not been questioned by US forces as of yet. The evidence has been collected and cataloged by 1-506 S2. The Governor of Ghazni has personally questioned at which point the suspect admitted to being there with the intent to kill him and Americans. The Governor intends to hold a press conference in the morning. President Karzi has been notified by the Ghazni Governor.

This account is followed by an update. "While being questioned, the female got a hold of a weapon, pointed the weapon at the investigators. [An] investigator shot the female in self protection. Female will be medevaced [and] escorted by 4 x Red Currahee scouts and 2 x FBI agents."

The woman in question appears to be Aafia Siddiqui, who was, for a time, one of the FBI's most wanted terrorist fugitives. But, as Wikipedia notes, "the charges against her stemmed solely from the shooting, and Siddiqui has not to date been charged with or prosecuted for any terrorism-related offenses."

13 months before, according to one of the WikiLeaks logs, Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security got a tip about the man at the very top of the most wanted list: Osama Bin Laden himself. The informant said that Bin Laden "had been transported to Peshawar hospital in Pakistan for treatment, where he has died."

"NDS stressed that this was a single source report and had not been verified," the log added. No other document in the WikiLeaks trove appears to corroborate this. So it looks like just another piece of RUMINT in a war full of it.

We'll have additional reports on the Wikileaks document dump, as will our sister blog, Threat Level. In the meantime, tell us what you find in the WikiLeaks trove, either by leaving a note in the comments, or by dropping us a line. Either way, include the document number so we can keep track of it all.

Photo: Noah Shachtman

See Also: