Al Qaidas nummer to og sjefsideolog, Ayman al Zawahiri, har skrevet en bok, Exoneration, der han argumenterer for at Al Qaida må skaffe seg atomvåpen og bruke dem mot USA. Han nevner konkret 10 millioner drepte og har allerede forhåndsgodkjenningen klar: han finner dekning for det i islam og politisk er det bare gjengjeldelse for hva muslimene har måttet tåle.

En av verdens fremste eksperter på atomvåpen i terroristers hender, Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, har skrevet en lengre artikkel om temaet som er gjengitt i Foreign Policy i forkortet versjon.

Mowatt-Larsen har arbeidet for tre administrasjoner med atomvåpen og terror. Han er bare blitt mer og mer bekymret med årene. I august 2001 møtte Osama bin Laden og hans menn representanter for Pakistans atomprogram inne i Afghanistan. Tema var hvordan Al Qaida kunne skaffe seg atomvåpen.

Mowatt-Larssen sier motivasjonen ikke er blitt mindre.

What has changed recently is that the goal is no longer theoretical, but operational — a change spurred by Zawahiri’s intervention. Rather than follow bin Laden in issuing a religious edict, Zawahiri chose to release a book in 2008 titled Exoneration. In it, he resurrects a fatwa issued by senior Saudi cleric Nasir al-Fahd in May 2003 — notoriously, the only such treatise that ever endorsed the use of WMD. Zawahiri adopts Fahd’s ideas wholesale. He uses the same ideas, thoughts, examples, and scholarly citations to reach the same conclusion: The use of nuclear weapons would be justified as an act of equal retaliation, «repaying like for like.»

Zawahiri raises key Quranic themes to sweep away all potential objections to the use of WMD. He offers answers to questions about the legality of killing women, children, and the elderly; the justice of environmental destruction; the morality of harming noncombatants; the tactical prudence of attacking at night; and analyses of deterrence. Zawahiri adopts Fahd’s examples verbatim: The Prophet Mohammed’s attack on the village of al-Taif using a catapult, for instance, permits the use of weapons of «general destruction» incapable of distinguishing between innocent civilians and combatants.

The take-away from Zawahiri’s book is that the use of weapons of mass destruction should be judged on intent rather than on results; if the intent to use WMD is judged to be consistent with the Quran, then the results are justifiable, even if they clearly violate specific prohibitions under Islam. The same reasoning is applied in a detailed explanation of such matters as loyalty to the state, contracts, obligations, and treaties; the permissibility of espionage; and deception and trickery. For example, on the topic of Muslims killed in combat unintentionally in the fight against infidels: «When Muslims fight nonbelievers, any Muslim who is killed is a martyr.»

Det er ingen grunn til ikke å tro at Al Qaida arbeider for å realisere planene. Man sørger for religiøs ryggdekning og forbereder de radikale kretsene på at bruk av atomvåpen er nødvendig. Det i seg selv flytter grensesteiner.

Hva et gjennomført angrep med masseødeleggelsesvåpen vil føre til, kan man bare gjette om. Selv i begrenset omfang vil det få store sikkerhetsmessige konsekvenser for muslimene i Vesten.

First, America is a special object of Zawahiri’s attention when discussing a nuclear attack. Zawahiri explicitly ties U.S. crimes to the alleged need to use WMD, quoting Fahd: «There is no doubt that the greatest enemy of Islam and Muslims at this time is the Americans.»

Zawahiri further explains that he considers the United States to be a «single juridical entity» under Islam. It’s a verdict with chilling implications: Zawahiri means to say that all Americans are valid targets, regardless of whether they are men, women, or children. This is not a mere aside; it is a careful choice of words that reflects a seriousness of purpose.

Det er samme syn som islamistene har på israelere: alle er soldater, vil bli det eller har vært det. Derfor er alle israelere legitime mål.

Spørsmålet om det er lov å la uskyldige muslimer bli drept, er viktig. Zawahiri viser til at Muhammed ved en anledning lot en by beskyte med katapult. De rammer som kjent helt tilfeldig. Zawahiri overfører dette på atomvåpen!! At det er forskjell på å ramme en eller flere og tusener eller hundretusener affiserer ham ikke. Her er det snakk om prinsipper!

Nuclear weapons, Zawahiri wants to argue, are no more morally significant than the catapult often cited in the Quran and hadiths. Here Zawahiri quotes Fahd once again: «If a bomb were dropped on them, destroying 10 million of them and burning as much of their land as they have burned of Muslim land, that would be permissible without any need to mention any other proof.»

Needless to say, Zawahiri’s approach goes against all Western theories of just war. Zawahiri’s dismissal of moral qualms in jihad echoes the words of his mentor, Islamist philosopher Sayyid Qutb: «The Islamic jihad has no relationship to modern warfare, either in its causes or in the way it is conducted.»

Mowatt-Larsen sier det er all mulig grunn til å ta disse advarslene og overlegningene alvorlig. Han tror Al Qaida arbeider på å realisere planene om WMD. Og hvis de får tak i dem kommer de ikke til å nøle med å bruke WMD, mener han.

Al Qaeda’s Nuclear Ambitions

Rolf Mowatt-Larssen is a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. He served over three decades in the U.S. Army, CIA, and Energy Department. An extended version of this article was published by the Belfer Center and can be found here.