Book Alleges Al Qaeda ’03 Plot to Gas Subway

Al Qaeda planned to unleash a lethal gas in New York City’s subway system in 2003 and came within 45 days of carrying out the attack when the group’s No. 2 called off the operation, according to a new book excerpted in this week’s Time magazine.

U.S. intelligence learned of the plot from a laptop computer belonging to a Bahraini jihadist captured in Saudi Arabia in early 2003, says author Ron Suskind in his book “The One Percent Doctrine.” The computer contained plans for a device that releases deadly hydrogen-cyanide gas using a remote trigger, the book says.