New York Post IRAQ'S THUG BARES EVIL POISON PLOT By URI DAN February 2, 2003 JERUSALEM.
WHILE President Bush is being urged to provide proof of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, Israel has its own proof that Iraq is ready to use deadly poison in terrorist attacks. "I was told to be ready to spread poison in the major Israeli water pipelines, the River Jordan or the Lake of Galilee," said Mohammed Farouq Abu Roub, a former junior officer in Palestinian intelligence. "I got these instructions in Iraq, where I was given thousands of dollars to carry out mega-attacks." Abu Roub, 29, was quoted by Israel's largest newspaper, Yediot Aronoth, speaking from his prison after being arrested in a botched effort to dispatch a homicide bomber to Israel. Details of the Shin Bet's lengthy investigation of Abu Roub had already been passed on to the United States, sources told The Post. Abu Roub began looking toward Baghdad for a kindred spirit after he became disappointed with Yasser Arafat in February 2001, shortly after the Palestinian terror offensive began. "I made a strong commitment to Saddam, just as he made a commitment to the Palestinian people. Our destinies are interlinked," Abi Roub said. Abu Roub left his wife and three young daughters in their West Bank village of Kabatiya and traveled with two other would-be terrorists to Baghdad by way of Amman, Jordan. There they were contacted by Abu Abbas, the head of the Palestine Liberation Front - and best known as the commander of the 1985 seajacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro and for the murder of New Yorker Leon Klinghoffer. Abu Roub and the two other recruits were taken to a secret military base called "al-Quds," a 90-minute drive from Baghdad, where they were trained in sabotage under concealed identities. "There was no problem getting weapons, ammunition, poisonous powders," he said. "Everything was in big quantities. There were no limits." When Abu Roub had finished training, Abu Abbas told him to prepare for the attack on the Israeli water supply - as well as on kindergartens or school buses that would traumatize Israeli parents. "I want a mega-attack with a lot of casualties that will paralyze the life of Israel," Abu Roub quoted him as saying. Luckily for the Israelis, their Shin Bet secret service caught up with Abu Roub before he was able to carry out any of the schemes.
