Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has for more than a year tried to procure materials such as castor beans to produce the highly dangerous poison ricin, American counterterrorism officials have told New York Times.

The powdery substance is so deadly that a dose as small as a few grains of salt can kill an adult if it is inhaled or reaches the bloodstream.

Intelligence gathered has concluded that AQAP operatives are trying to procure castor beans, which are used for ricin production, and processing agents and bring them to the tribal province of Shabwa in southern Yemen, an area where Yemeni forces have reportedly been battling AQAP.

The intelligence points to AQAP secretly trying to produce the white powdery ricin, which it is planning to pack around explosives to detonate in contained spaces such as shopping malls, an airport or a subway station.

According to the New York Times, President Barak Obama and top national security aides were briefed on the threat last year and have received periodic updates since then.

A senior Defense Ministry official in Sanaa told GlobalPost the security crisis in Yemen stemming from its political paralysis is helping AQAP expand and experiment with new tactics.

The summer issue of Inspire promises fascinating reading for budding terrorists, brimming with information of victories on the battlefield and stories about martyrs.

Its cover story, ‘Sadness, Contentment, and Aspiration,’ focuses on Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s (AQAP) ongoing battles in Yemen.

“They obliterated the apostate army,” the article says about its soldiers, “took millions of dollars from them, and were able to obtain enormous heaps of ghanimah [booty].” The magazine’s sixth issue also claims AQAP has seized “everything from tanks, hummers, anti-aircraft weaponry, armored vehicles, and all sorts of heavy and light weapons.”

Less grandiosely, Inspire also deals with the killing by US Special Forces of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, lamenting the “loss of a great leader” and congratulating him for achieving martyrdom. Inspire pledges that his death will have little effect on the future of the organization.

“The news,” writes American citizen, Samir Khan, believed to be the editor of Inspire, “brought us a mixed sentiment of sadness, contentment and aspiration.”

Khan, 24, from North Carolina, was on an FBI watch list when he travelled to Yemen three years ago.

Yemen's embassy in Washington has been busy trumpeting the expanded military operation it says is taking place against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in south Yemen’s Abyan province.

For the US, which views AQAP as one of the most dangerous Al Qaeda branches after a lucky escape on Christmas Day 2009 when an AQAP-trained bomber failed to detonate his explosives aboard a flight over Detroit, the news that Yemen is cracking down on terrorists might seem welcome.

The Yemeni embassy said AQAP was “taking advantage of the fluid situation in the country” and that AQAP had been offered protection by a few tribal leaders and that “this protection and cooperation has facilitated the recruitment and operations in some districts within that province."

However, the embassy noted, “tribesmen loyal to the state have recently demonstrated their unyielding cooperation with the on-going military campaign to put a halt to AQAP's expansion into their territories.”

"If President Saleh leaves power al-Qaeda will surely take over in five Yemeni provinces,” Abdu Ganadi, a government spokesperson told Global Post. “The opposition should not talk about power transfer and should focus more on fighting terror before it's too late. They are becoming stronger every day.”