Court document references al Qaeda-linked chemical weapons program in Somalia

Court document references al Qaeda-linked chemical weapons program in Somalia
September 19, 2013

A new document filed in a still-developing terrorism case in New York seems to confirm the long-held fear that al Qaeda is working to develop chemical weapons.On Wednesday, CBS News obtained a document filed by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York indicating that three men charged with being members of the al-Shabab terrorist group in Somalia had “substantial knowledge regarding an al-Shabaab research and development department that was developing chemical weapons.”

CBS News senior correspondent John Miller told “CBS This Morning” the lead defendant in the case, Mahdi Hashi, and two   others were arrested in August, 2012, by African authorities while allegedly on their way to Yemen. They are charged with participating in a weapons and training program with al-Shabab over a four-year period beginning in 2008.

Hashi, who left his home in the U.K. to join the Somali group, had been part of an elite suicide bomber unit with al-Shabab.

Below: “CBS Evening News” report on threat posed by AQAP
The new document says the defendants’ planned to join al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, the terror network’s branch in Yemen which has orchestrated numerous recent, high-profile a