International - Globescan

Zawahiri nixed gas plot?

New York: Terror network Al-Qaeda had planned to attack the New York City subway system by releasing poisonous gas similar to the one used in Nazi death camps shortly before the U.S.-led strikes in Iraq, a media report said. Quoting federal and local counter-terrorism officials, it said, the plot was, however, called off at the last minute by Al-Qaeda's second top boss Ayman al-Zawahiri for reasons that remain unclear, a news magazine said. Details of the purported cyanide plot, it said are given in author Ron Suskind book "The One Per cent Doctrine," to be published on June 20. Newsweek magazine quoted a source familiar with the book's contents as saying that American authorities first learned about the cyanide plot from an informant inside Al-Qaeda known as `Ali.' In the spring of 2003, officials learned, apparently via Ali, that the Al-Qaeda team was 45 days away from launching an attack on the New York subway system. — PTI

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