NEFA Foundation: AQIM Denies Alleged Germ Warfare Experiment Gone Wrong
By Evan Kohlmann
The NEFA Foundation has obtained and translated a new communique from Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) denying recent reports that a group of Al-Qaida fighters perished in Algeria after mistakenly contracting fatal doses of the plague during a biological warfare experiment gone wrong. According to the statement, “on January 6, 2009, several journalists wrote reports, based upon information they had received from their bosses in the Algerian intelligence bureaus, about dozens of mujahideen who died from contracting the plague. According to their claims, this disease was spread throughout the ranks of Al-Qaida organization and that it will soon cause the collapse of this organization! …We wanted to announce that there was no truth to these rumors… We don't know anything about this so-called plague, because it never happened-other than perhaps in the minds and hearts of those collaborators who falsely carry the title of 'journalists.' We announce to our Islamic nation that the purpose of falsified reports such as these is to frighten young men away from joining the jihad and to become weapons on the battlefields… The real plague that threatens our nation's existence is this apostate group of treacherous rulers who have allied themselves with the Jews and the Christians in order to destroy Gaza, to sell out Palestine, and to trample over our beliefs, honor, and sacred possessions.”
An English translation of the statement can be viewed on the NEFA Foundation website.
