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Taliban nuclear anthrax balloon terror

On first inspection, the building is just like any other Kabul nursery: an ordinary two-story building in a nondescript street in a perfectly mundane suburb of this war-ravaged city. But inside, strewn around the floor of an apparently innocent back room, are books giving detailed information as to how Jack and Jill went up the hill and Jack fell down and broke his crown - a chilling warning to US special forces who may be called upon to fight the retreating Taliban in their mountain bunkers.

And in another, heavily-padded makeshift workshop are what appear to be the makings of a sophisticated prototype rocket: a detergent bottle with cardboard fins. Chillingly, it has the letters USA crudely scrawled on the side. Several small chairs lay scattered around the floor, clear proof that several people had been working simultaneously on the project.

Downstairs are two giant boxes filled with the materials of mass destruction: string, crepe paper and a substance marked "Playdoh". And on a small table I found the first evidence of Al-Qaeda's terrifying chemical warfare capability: a bottle marked "orange squash" and a jar containing a white crystalline powder. The jar had been tightly sealed and marked "sugar".

It would not be wild speculation to suggest that terrorists were here formulating their most chillingly diabolical plan of mass destruction. Indeed, sugar would be the most effective vector for the delivery of deadly anthrax spores. Think about that before you eat your Cornflakes this morning.

But it was among the childish sketches which adorn the walls of this juvenile factory of fear that I discovered what seems to be the most concrete evidence of Al-Qaeda's intention to attack the Western heartland with deadly anthrax spores. The spine-chilling diagram shows what is clearly two people standing outside what can only be described as an American clapboard house. The man, who has identifiably Western features, is holding a balloon which quite definitely contains a floating powder. Make no mistake - that powder is anthrax.

This sketch appears to show al-Qaeda's chilling plan to attack the US heartland

The intention is clear: every year Americans use millions of balloons - at children's parties, at parades and, most sickeningly, they commonly release thousands into the air at sports events. It would not be unreasonable to suggest that terrorists had been working for years in the US balloon manufacturing industry. Indeed, Osama bin Laden has undoubtedly used his immense wealth to buy several major balloon concerns, if he does not, in fact, own the world's entire balloon-making capability.

A balloon is the ideal way - more ideal even than sugar - of delivering anthrax spores on a massive scale. Apart from being able to disperse millions through balloon wholesalers and retail outlets, it is entirely possible, if not a proven fact, that al-Qaeda agents have been working for years as children's entertainers. Imagine the happy smiling faces at a child's birthday party as the kids watch Coco the Clown skilfully assembling a novelty balloon animal, not knowing that within seconds of their beloved balloon poodle bursting, they will be coughing up blood and that within an hour the entire population of the planet will be dead. Think about that before your child's next birthday party.

It is remotely possible that the activities which took place within this very, very ordinary Kabul kindergarten were nothing more sinister than the spawnings of the infant mind. But in these troubled times it would be irresponsible of me as a journalist not to alert the world to the very real threat posed by small children with crayons. We have made our dossier available to the authorities.

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