Facing the prospect of a U.S.-led war with Iraq, FBI officials are working to help local law enforcement look beyond the end of the Muslim holiday that prompted the most recent terror warning and improve preparations for possible chemical, biological or radiological attacks, officials said. In detailed advisories over the past week, the FBI and Homeland Security provided information to local law enforcement about the type of biological and chemical weapons that U.S. and foreign intelligence indicates al-Qaida already has obtained and tested. Some of the advisories reported that U.S. authorities obtained last year evidence from al-Qaida showing members of the terrorist network had tested mustard gas and Sarin and VX nerve agents, according to law enforcement officials who saw the advisories. “Information indicates the group has experimented with procedures for making blister (mustard) and nerve (sarin and VX) chemical agents,” one unclassified advisory sent out at midweek said. Some of the advisories cautioned that chemical and biological attacks could be staged at multiple locations and synchronized to cause the greatest possible panic, officials said. Other law enforcement intelligence highlighted evidence gathered from recent arrests overseas of terrorists who were dabbling with a lethal poison known as ricin, derived from the castor bean plant, officials said. Full Story
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