[lugsoul]

It is just the kind of hysteria you spew that makes a "dirty bomb" an effective weapon of terror. By far the most far reaching consequence of such a device is the fear it will cause. The actual death toll would be slightly more than a conventional explosive of the same size.

Of course, with the well-known scientific acumen of Jose Padilla, who knows what kind of superbomb he could create.

[NonValueAdded]

The actual death toll would be slightly more than a conventional explosive of the same size.

For the prompt kill effects, that is true. However, what the dirty bomb takes out is the stock market, the economy, probably brings about Patriot Act III, yada, yada, yada. In short, it's terror effect makes it just as good as a full nuke. And the terror effect won't depend on a few posts on FR.

Personally, I don't want either style going off in the US but sooner or later we'll lose our cherry on that too.

[Destructor]

"It is just the kind of hysteria you spew that makes a "dirty bomb" an effective weapon of terror. By far the most far reaching consequence of such a device is the fear it will cause. The actual death toll would be slightly more than a conventional explosive of the same size. Of course, with the well-known scientific acumen of Jose Padilla, who knows what kind of superbomb he could create."

The depths of your stupidity continue to amaze me! With the support of an organization like Al Qaeda (that enjoys the support of hostile foreign governments), even an organ donor like Padilla could conceivably get his hands on a weapon (that was made by someone that had the technical knowledge) and detonate it.