Al qaeda had WMD in 2003 but Saddam didn't?

Time magazine has a an exclusive Book Excerpt: How an Al-Qaeda Cell Planned a Poison-gas Attack on the N.Y. Subway.

According to the article Al qaeda terrorists came within 45 days of releasing hydrogen-cyanide gas, a WMD, in the NY Subway system in 2003. Al qaeda created a device that could mix sodium cyanide and hydrogen together producing the toxic gas. The reason the device wasn't used was because Al qaeda's 2nd in command, Ayman Zawahiri canceled the attack in January 2003.

During this same time period, Iraq was being inspected for WMD prior to the war in March of 2003. It's been over 3 years now and no weapons have been found.

BUT, here is what we now know about Iraq in 2002-2003. An October 2002 translated Iraqi memo details a request for 500 Kilograms of SODIUM CYANIDE (NaCN). And those mobile labs that Colin Powell warned against in his address to the UN did manufacture Hydrogen.

Al qaeda, under attack and on the run since the fall of 2001 could put together a WMD in 2003, but Iraq, with billions skimmed from the oil for food program and national resources COULD NOT?