Scientist Doubts Abbas Group Has Chemicals

A scientist has cast doubt on a Palestinian Arab terrorist group’s claims that it has manufactured chemical and biological weapons to kill Israelis en masse.In a leaflet distributed on the Gaza Strip, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said it has successfully developed at least 20 chemical and biological weapons after a three-year effort.The group, affiliated with Palestinian Arab leader Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah Party, said it would not hesitate to use the weapons if Israeli soldiers breach the Gaza border fence. “We will surprise you with our new weapons the moment the first soldier sets foot in the Gaza Strip,” the leaflet said.The director of the Biosecurity Project at the Federation of American Scientists, Michael Stebbins, said yesterday that he was skeptical about Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades’ weapons claims.“It is impossible to manufacture that many chemical and biological weapons in three years without an army of scientists and laboratories,” he said. “They would need a very sophisticated program with very skilled workers.” It would have been “easily identifiable” if the Brigades were manufacturing weapons, he said.However, Mr. Stebbins said the group might have managed to develop some weapons of mass destruction since certain toxins can be “made by almost everyone.” He noted that ricin, a poison considered twice as deadly as cobra venom, can be made using kitchen supplies.Mr. Stebbins said the group could have had “some failed academic scientists working” for it. He added, “It is possible, though not probable, that Aqsa may have managed to acquire certain chemicals.”Despite Mr. Stebbins’s doubts, an Israeli government official said Israel is taking Al Aqsa’s claims seriously.“This is a dangerous development in the region and Israel must take the right measures,” the consul for public affairs at the Israeli Consulate General, David Saranga, told The New York Sun.The “most important factor” is that the group belongs to the Fatah Party, he said. “Mr. Abbas should take the responsibility of abolishing this terrorist threat from his party.”

Scientist Doubts Abbas Group Has Chemicals

Scientist Doubts Abbas Group Has Chemicals

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