Summary

In early 2004, just after the February death of his beloved mother, Zarqawi set in motion a plan that, had it succeeded, would have dwarfed previous attacks. Covertly sending Azmi al-Jayousi, a Palestinian associate of Zarqawi’s since Afghanistan, into Jordan, Zarqawi’s plan involved a massive bomb in the heart of Amman that would have released a cloud of poison gas. Jayousi, an experienced maker of explosives since Afghanistan, had been at the notorious Ansar al-Islam camp in Iraq that had caught the attention of the Americans ahead of the invasion, testing poisons on dogs.

Having snuck inside the country, Jayousi went to work with associates acquiring the chemicals and vehicles they would need to carry out their plot, as well as intelligence on potential targets. Careful at first, Jayousi eventually dropped his guard, sending one of his men to fetch...