My group is the (Al-Adeaq). Our group originates from a small branch within Al-Qaeda. We were formed around 1996 when Bin Laden formed ties with the Taliban in Afghanistan. We are looking to regain the attention and status Al-Qaeda once had. We will continue on with the mission that our fallen leader Bin Laden has started. Since 9/11 the US made sure to weaken the umbrella of fear Al-Qaeda had over the United States. The United States was relentless in the pursuit of our leaders, destroying our training camps, disrupting our finances, and gaining access to our communication networks. This inevitably led to us not being able to function. We continue to oppose the United States because of the assassination of our leader. The United States believe Al-Qaeda to be weak due to their inability to launch another major attack against them, but they will soon see what we are capable of. We will continue the Jihad against the United States that our emir (Prince) Osama has started in the name of Al-Qaeda. Our motives are as follows:
Produce fear because the people may have forgotten how vulnerable they can be
Embarrass the government because they can not protect the people
Disrupt the economy
Regain recognition as a top threat to the United States
Avenge Osama
At first we planned for the attack to not happen immediately so we can properly prepare and make the connections necessary to produce the weapon necessary to pull off the attack. The WMD we previously planned to use was Anthrax. We planned on gaining all necessary funds by sending the children of the members of the group off to colleges in the US and the UK. They would have then applied for student loans since the US and UK give out student loans so easily and then proceed to send the money back to our main treasurer who would keep the money in different safe places until the time was needed. But we do not want to imitate the 2001 US Anthrax attack. Instead we will now use Ricin. Ricin is much easier to develop. How we will develop the ricin is by reading the sacred training manual left for us. In Lesson 16 of the Al Qaeda Training Manual, “Assassinations Using Poisons and Cold Steel” provides adequate instructions on how to extract the poison ricin from castor beans. We may also have found a person to help extract and turn it into a powder form for us. The cooperation with a Vermont resident by the name of Betty Miller would be extremely beneficial to our endeavors. We will tell her that we will be the ones testing out her Ricin for her. Since she has a history of mental illness it should be no trouble to persuade her to continue making an abundance of the powder ricin for us.
Our main group of Al Qaeda has shown an interest in ricin. Ricin (Ricinus communis) kills the cells in a persons body by blocking receptors of cells which prevents them from making necessary proteins. Ricin is a biological weapon that can be used as a powder, mist or can be dissolved in water and is resistant to chlorination. Though ricin is not an ideal waterborne it is a stable substance that usually does not break down easily except the possibility of heat. The main advantage of ricin is the accessibility and the simplicity it is to produce. The incubation period for ricin is between 18-24 hours but can differ if used as a weapon. Symptoms of ricin depends on the way it was received (inhaled, swallowed, etc).
Through inhalation (a significant amount) the symptoms are: difficulty breathing, fever, cough, nausea, and tightness in the chest. Fluid may begin building in the lungs which will make breathing even more difficult and the skin might turn blue (from lack of oxygen). Low blood pressure and respiratory failure may occur which will inevitable lead to death.
Through ingestion (a significant amount) the symptoms are: vomiting and diarrhea that may become bloody which will lead to extreme dehydration, followed by low blood pressure. Hallucination, seizures, and blood in the urine are also possible. Within several days untreated, the persons liver, spleen, and kidneys might stop working which would lead to death.
Through skin (non compromised) and eye contact ricin in powdered or mist will cause pain of the skin and eyes.
Through injection (of a lethal amount): causes the muscles and lymph nodes near the injection site to fail. Eventually, the liver, kidneys and spleen stop working and there is bleeding from the stomach and intestines resulting in death from multiple organ failure.
Our attack will take place on Black Friday. According to multiple sources, Black Friday is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year due to the fact that it kicks off the holiday season. The information we gathered states that this period is crucial to the economy because around 30% of retail sales come between this day and Christmas. In 2016 we got report of an estimated 100 million people who were out shopping. In 2015 it was around 74 million. By 2018 we hope for that number to keep rising so we can truly make an impact. Attacking on one one of the busiest business days of the year would truly set a tone for future Black Friday following. People will be afraid to shop due to the impact of our attack which will inevitably disrupt the United States economy because they receive so much money on this day specifically. Since the decontamination of the Hart Building from the anthrax attack in 2001 cost around $23M we hope for the same set back but on a larger scale. The overall target of this attack is the United States economy but the direct target will be the people of the US who are out shopping during Black Friday. This attack will place in New York and Las Vegas. The stores we will be hitting are Walmart, Nike’s Manhattan flagship store, and popular teen stores such as Forever 21, Hollister and Victoria’s Secret. The reason for this is that Walmart in Las Vegas is expected to have a heavy flow of traffic and will be requesting extra staff. Also the people of Las Vegas have not recovered from the shooting so it is best to piggy back off that fear to create more fear and so that the people know they are vulnerable at all times. Since Manhattan is a popular shopping destination it seems fitting to execute an attack there. Nike is a brand well known and its placement makes it an ideal location to carry out this attack. The rabid natures of Black Friday shoppers makes carrying out this attack simple. In the chaos of everyone trying to grab items we will disperse the ricin with humidifiers. We will place the humidifiers randomly around the select stores and set them to deploy 15 minutes after they are placed. The reason for this is that no one would suspect that you can create a huge amount of casualties during the commotion. People will be too distracted with trying to beat out their peers for a specific item that they wont suspect a deadly bacteria amongst them. The members will then leave the store and report back to the leader.
Ricin is more effective than any explosive or more lethal WMD in this scenario because of the uncontrollable factors of it. There is no set amount of dosage intake for each person in the store. The closer the person is to the humidifier when it goes off the more of the ricin they will inhale and the further away they are the less they will inhale. The people who intake the most ricin dosage will most likely die a few days later. The people who didn’t receive a huge dosage will still become infected and will spread the news of this. Once news breaks out of this hopefully the US will be smart enough to figure out where this ricin outbreak came together which is on Friday November 24th, 2017. They will piece together what all those who died and those who were infected had in common which was the fact that they were all at the stores we selected. In the age of social media news will spread like wildfire of what happened. We will then leak anonymous information of who was behind this. We will put the blame on Betty Miller but the United States should begin piecing together that an old lady alone was not capable of carrying out an attack like this across the United States simultaneously. We will then step up in a broadcast to claim responsibility for the Black Friday Ricin Attack. Many may die or even live on, both are beneficial. If a lot of people die it will act as a deterrent for many to stop shopping. When people become infected and survive they will tell their loved ones and friends about this and this will spread like wildfire. The short term effects of this attack would be:
People quitting their jobs due to fear of a possible attack happening to them next.
Big retail businesses will suffer loss in income.
Security Changes
Long term effects would be:
People stop shopping in stores on Black Friday which accounts for a huge amount of income
Fear and anxiety that this can happen anytime
All this will lead to a disruption in the economy and the media will rave about this bringing more attention to our group. We will once again be recognized as a threat to the United States.