Tapes reveal al Qaeda chemical tests

A huge collection of videotapes captured in Afghanistan shows that al Qaeda is more advanced in the development and testing of chemical weapons than Western experts first thought, US scientists say.

The tapes, intended only for viewing by al Qaeda leaders, were part of a collection of 250 unearthed by American satellite television station CNN.

They represent the largest known number of videotapes ever made by the terror group of its activities.

One of them shows the agonisingly painful death of three dogs exposed to a chemical agent.

The library of tapes includes how-to guides on shooting surface-to-air missiles, as well as the first meeting of Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders with foreign journalists in May, 1996.

CNN's Nic Robertson said he drove for 17 hours from Kabul to see the tapes, which had been taken from their original location. He managed to bring 60 of them out of the country.

Magnus Ranstorp, of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, said the tapes suggested that Western intelligence agents might now be underestimating al Qaeda.

He said: "These tapes can be replicated-which means you don't need Afghanistan any more to teach people how to make bombs and chemical agents."

In one tape, a sleeping white labrador dog is subjected to a nerve gas test. A man wearing Afghan clothing drops something on the concrete floor. A white mist fills the room. The dog falls when it tries to stand up. Whimpering and moaning, it seems to vomit, then issues a piercing wail before lying still.

David Kay, senior vice-president of the Science Applications International Corporation, said the tape shows al Qaeda had succeeded in obtaining "crude" weapons of mass destruction.

Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian who is helping the US with its prosecutions of people accused of planning the bombing of Los Angeles airport, has testified he was engaged in experiments where dogs were injected with a mixture of cyanide and sulphuric acid.