Al-Qaeda on the brink of a nuclear bomb?
Documents released by Wikileaks disclose that al-Qaeda is on the verge of manufacturing a nuclear weapon. At a Nato meeting in January 2009, security chiefs briefed member states that al-Qaida was plotting a program of "dirty radioactive IEDs", makeshift nuclear roadside bombs that could be used against British troops in Afghanistan.Read the whole thing.
As well as causing a large explosion, a "dirty bomb" attack would contaminate the area for many years.
The briefings also state that al-Qaida documents found in Afghanistan in 2007 revealed that "greater advances" had been made in bioterrorism than was previously realized. An Indian national security adviser told American security personnel in June 2008 that terrorists had made a "manifest attempt to get fissile material" and "have the technical competence to manufacture an explosive device beyond a mere dirty bomb".
Alerts about the smuggling of nuclear material, sent to Washington from foreign U.S. embassies, document how criminal and terrorist gangs were trafficking large amounts of highly radioactive material across Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
The alerts explain how customs guards at remote border crossings used radiation alarms to identify and seize cargoes of uranium and plutonium.
Freight trains were found to be carrying weapons-grade nuclear material across the Kazakhstan-Russia border, highly enriched uranium was transported across Uganda by bus, and a "small time hustler" in Lisbon offered to sell radioactive plates stolen from Chernobyl.
In one incident in September 2009, two employees at the Rossing Uranium Mine in Namibia smuggled almost half a ton of uranium concentrate powder - yellowcake - out of the compound in plastic bags.
"Acute safety and security concerns" were even raised in 2008 about the uranium and plutonium laboratory of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the nuclear safety watchdog.
Tomihiro Taniguchi, the deputy director general of the IAEA, has privately warned America that the world faces the threat of a "nuclear 9/11" if stores of uranium and plutonium were not secured against terrorists.
What could go wrong?
Labels: al-Qaeda, weapons of mass destruction, Wikileaks
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:38 AM
2 Comments:
As you know, there is a profound difference between a dirty bomb and even a crude fissile device. One of the delicious ironies here is all of the published(and unpublished work)from idea(Einstein) to intellectual godfather, adult in the room, guiding light(Oppenheimer) to the boy genius who Oppy recruited(the late, great Richard Feynman were all Jews!
My brother in law is a mathematics/physicist who is a genius, but because of Soviet anti-semitism, he was forced to learn his trade in Estonia. He was forced into an anti-semitic institute(but even the anti-semites were apparently closeted Jews).
It's a crazy, crazy world. It's like having an anti-semite study the greatest works of Mel Brooks, or the Talmud, or having a forthy nut-jobbed, militant Muslim suddenly study the field of quantum mechanics by W. Heisenberg?
Hitler of course forced all of the top scientists out(mostly Jews but non-Jews as well), leaving him with one brilliant scientist who knew the Germans would no longer have the brainpower to master the bomb.
You have to have a theoretical foundation but also a mechanical foundation. I've read all the crap about how easy it is to build, but this is not true.
I suppose they could steal it or buy one. But that's harder too with the Russians on board with an old Lugar senate rule. The Russians, of course, act in their own interests as they have more to fear from an Islamist suitcase nuke than anybody and the other factor I forgot to mention was the highly technical maintenance issue. They have a quick exp. date unless you know thoroughly understand the minds of untold physics people, assuming you can read!
A dirty nuke, on the other hand, can be assembled with minimal know how. There was a great British movie a few years back called the Dirty Bomb. It's doable, requires low-tech skills and thought processes, can have the components stolen ect...
I don't think it could be assembled in Pakistan or in Kabul for a multitude of reasons(how many medical isotopes are there? Answer not much), but a group of fanatics in the US or Europe would have the access to the needed equipment.
I think the odds of stopping a dirty bomb are as good as Israel stopping a rocket attack or the British thwarting a terror attack. The odds are obviously hit or miss with intel. If the cell is small and off the map it would be hard to track. The odds of a rogue group of arabs within Israel doing this is nil. Ditto for Egypt.
I would expect the odds of a dirty nuclear attack in the US or Europe are high.
From what I've read, the Iranians had problems as well mastering the technology even before stuxnet. Don't forget, they're the most cultured, educated group of Muslims and this program was actually developed in the mid 1970's before the Shah fell. Still with all their money and brainpower, they had trouble for years.
Al-Qaeda could pull off a dirty bomb, but not in the middle east. It would have to be assembled in a westernized country... US or more likely Europe.
I dunno, even rudimentary nuclear technology might be a stretch for these homicidal medievalists (yeah yeah yeah they get engineering degrees, Arafat had an engineering degree--how many Yassir Arafat's does it take to change a lightbulb? two--one to blame the Jews, one to seek appear before the UN warning lightbulbs that in one hand he carries the lamp of peace and in the other hand he carries a hammer to smash the lightbulbs to pieces).
Are you sure that isn't a nuclear bong?
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