A Scary Prank About Al Qaeda and W.M.D.

By Mike Nizza

The headlines, splashed across The Drudge Report, ABC News and other major news sites last night, were scary indeed:

AL QAEDA TAPE TO CALL FOR USE OF WMD

According to the reports, the tape urged jihadists to use “biological, chemical and nuclear weapons to attack the West,” and a quote from an official source followed, adding further credibility:

“There have been several reports that al Qaeda will release a new message calling for the use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against civilians,” FBI spokesman Richard Kolko told ABC News in an e-mail.

If confirmed, this would represent an overt threat, and an unusually intense one. However, the headline turned less dire upon closer inspection. A few hours after the story broke, Evan Kohlmann, a terrorism expert who closely tracks Al Qaeda, posted a blog item dismissing the threat as a prank:

The intel community appears to have (once again) fallen victim to poorly researched open source news reporting … While it is perhaps true that the video offered subtle encouragement for nuclear attacks on the United States, it featured no original content and could have been clumsily strung together with little more than two VCRs. The video was meandering, boring, and difficult to follow–and it certainly was not the product of Al-Qaida.

Who would spend time and energy manufacturing such a video if not Al Qaeda’s media apparatus? According to Wired magazine’s Danger Room, ABC News updated its story to include an answer from Ben I. Venzke, chief executive of IntelCenter, a Washington company focused on security issues:

“Supporter videos are made by fans or supporters who may not have ever had any contact with a real terrorist,” Venzke said. “These videos almost always are comprised of old video footage that is edited together to make a new video.”

He said the material in these types of videos does not qualify as an official message from al Qaeda or any other group.

“Considering them so would be the equivalent of considering a 10-year-old’s homemade fan video of his favorite sports team to be an official team message,” Venzke said.

In the end, the overblown news resulted in a bit of comfort now. “At this point there isn’t evidence they’ve obtained” W.M.D.’s, an anonymous intelligence official told Reuters. “But it’s clearly their intent and it’s something we need to be aware of and concerned about