Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat - Thread 5

CNN ^ | March 12, 2004

[thecabal]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- This week's deadly train bombings in Spain will not lead to a rise in the U.S. color-coded terror threat alert system, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman said Friday.

"Based on the current intelligence, we have no specific indicators that terrorist groups are considering such an attack in the U.S. in the near term," said department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.

[Imperialist]

embilden= embolden

[mfccinsd]

And the site seems to be Koran and Science...which I think you figured out already...surely we have someone who knows Turkish around here who could confirm it?

[knak]

Thanks, I was looking for dutch till I figures out it was turkish. Thanks for the link.

[knak]

New York Stages Largest Test of Emergency Response

[knak]

I still think it's just something unrelated to the subject of this thread. Just something weird I found.

[Letitring]

While we are talking weird. Yesterday I saw a very strange looking insect. It's head resembled a bumblebee while it's body looked like a horsefly. Icky looking thing, for sure. I live in the South. Wonder if anyone else has seen these things?

[Revel]

http://www.bellona.no/en/international/russia/nuke-weapons/nonproliferation/28067.html


Nuclear lighthouses to be replaced

OSLO - The USA will give Russia aid to replace its nuclear lighthouses — many located along the coast of the Kola Peninsula and other places in the Arctic. But the Russian authorities cannot say precisely where all of them are located. Nuclear-powered lighthouses can lead to environmental contamination and represent a serious proliferation threat if diverted to terrorists.


Lighthouses powered by a strong radiation (RTG) are located in remote areas along the Russian Arctic coast.
Photo: Thomas Nilsen
Thomas Nilsen, 2003-02-02 14:46

Exactly ten years ago Bellona reported the whereabouts of 132 nuclear-powered lighthouses situated along the north coast in Russia. The closest one was just a few dozen meters from the Norwegian border. Since 1993 Bellona has warned of the possible radioactive leaks into the environment and the threat of theft of the radioactive strontium-90 in the unguarded and distantly situated lighthouses.

The lighthouses are located in the area without available electricity sources. They are powered by so-called radio thermoelectric generators, or RTGs, in which the strong strontium source of energy produces heat to power a generator. The generator finally produces electricity to power the lamp in the lighthouse.

Strontium-90 is a waste product generated in a nuclear reactor. The USSR had access to this product thanks to the large reprocessing facilities in Siberia. Similar power sources were used in distant radars, weather stations and satellites since the mid-1960s.

According to the dismissed environmental committee, Russia possessed 500 operative RTG.

Leaks and theft
Strontium-90 has half-live decay period of 30 years, so the lighthouses can operate without any inspection for many years. Bellona considers the lighthouses to be a threat to the environment's safety. It can take many years before any theft or radioactive leak is noticed, as the lighthouses are not inspected.

Such lighthouses are situated along the coast of the Kola Peninsula, around the White Sea and on Novaya Zemlya. An unknown number of lighthouses are located in Baltic Sea, along the northern sea route in Siberia and around Kamchatka in the Russian Far East.

In the beginning of the 1990s two strontium power sources were found on the coast of the Kola Peninsula not far away from the Norwegian border. The radioactive sources were taken out of the lighthouses. The people who were responsible for shipping the sources did not communicate with those responsible for moving the sources and they remained on the ground until they were accidentally discovered.

In summer 2001 two people received radioactive doses after the attempt to dismantle the lighthouse near Kandalaksha in Murmansk region. They tried to extract the lead from the lighthouse in order to sell it later as scrap metal. They were not aware of the fact that there was a strong radiation source inside the lighthouse.

Lack of information
Last summer the Russian Nuclear Regulatory specialists inspected the lighthouses in Siberia. Inspection revealed terrible facts: most of them were described as in very bad condition. The radiation levels near the lighthouses exceeded the permitted level, which indicates the possibility of radioactive leakage.

But the scariest thing was that the inspectors have not found all the lighthouses they were looking for. There is a slim chance they were stolen and a big chance that the Russian authorities simply lack the full overview of the lighthouses' locations.

At the same time representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, were desperately looking for RTG in the mountains north in the former Russian republic of Georgia. The IAEA was afraid the Chechen rebels would use the radioactive source to build a radiological dispersal device, or RDD, such as a "dirty bomb". The Chechen rebels use the area near the Georgian—Russian border for training and hiding.

The American authorities believe terrorists connected with al-Quaida where previously hiding in Georgia.

When used with conventional explosives strontium-90 would cause more serious long-term damage than any ordinary bomb. The blast region would be contaminated with radiation and the population's health will be affected for many years.

The CIA has stated that they found manuals describing the manufacture of RDDs in the al-Quaida caves in Afghanistan.

The American delegation on their boat expedition north in northern Norway last year.
Photo: Thomas Nilsen

Solar batteries in the darkness
It is quite possible to change the radioactive energy source with other sources for a small price. There are lighthouses along the Norwegian northern coast that are powered with solar batteries. Even during the dark winters they function well due to a good battery capacity.

The authorities of Finnmark county in co-operation with the Russian Northern Fleet changed the energy source in the five lighthouses near the Norwegian border with a solar panel source.

Bellona’s influence
Last August Bellona together with other representatives and experts of the US Congress examined solar-powered lighthouse in Norway near the Russian border. Bellona raised concerns before over the need to change nuclear-powered lighthouses in Russia.

After the American delegation visited Norway, the Nuclear and Radiological Terrorism Threat Reduction Act was introduced on October 16 2002 by Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) and original cosponsors Lugar, Pete Domenici (R-NM), Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), Judd Gregg (R-NH) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

In mid-January this year another American delegation visited northern Norway where they inspected the solar-powered lighthouse on Reinoya Island outside Kirkenes.

The fear of nuclear terror still haunts the USA, especially after September 11 2001. Since then Americans have expressed a strong wish to assist Russia in securing its nuclear materials. Senator Richard Lugar informed Bellona in his message that he supported the initiative to allocate a part of $400m—designated for securing weapons of mass destruction in Russia—to change the power source on the nuclear-powered lighthouses.


US Senator Richard Lugar.
Photo: Thomas Nilsen
-- These RTGs are considered to be very dangerous because they hold nuclear material that might be used in a radiological weapon, or "dirty bomb". The Russian government does not have an accurate account of where all the generators are located. "We must find these units, secure them and remove the dangerous materials", Lugar (R-IN) said.

Since the break-up of the Soviet Union Senator Lugar has been a key figure in the US regarding dismantling the nuclear weapons and nuclear-powered submarines. At present he is a leader of the Foreign Relations Committee in the Senate.

The funding will be distributed to the MPC&A programmes to prevent nuclear smuggling and the harvesting of orphaned radiation sources for use in "dirty bombs" by terrorists. Approximately $19.7m will be spent to secure radioactive batteries and other radiation sources that could be used in RDDs.

In addition to the American assistance to change the energy sources in the lighthouses Norway will provide funding for the most important step: to help Russia to establish a system for the safe transport and reception of the old radioactive sources. Such a facility should be built at the Mayak plant at the South Urals.

[knak]

LOL, I don't know letitring, sounds icky for sure.

Army placed on alert in Soviet Georgia

Bomb threat in France

[Revel]

Of particular interest in that article:


At the same time representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, were desperately looking for RTG in the mountains north in the former Russian republic of Georgia. The IAEA was afraid the Chechen rebels would use the radioactive source to build a radiological dispersal device, or RDD, such as a "dirty bomb". The Chechen rebels use the area near the Georgian—Russian border for training and hiding.

The American authorities believe terrorists connected with al-Quaida where previously hiding in Georgia.

When used with conventional explosives strontium-90 would cause more serious long-term damage than any ordinary bomb. The blast region would be contaminated with radiation and the population's health will be affected for many years.

The CIA has stated that they found manuals describing the manufacture of RDDs in the al-Quaida caves in Afghanistan.

[Letitring]

Ooooooooooooh Lord. It's a miracle we've survived as long as we have!

[Teri0811]

"While we are talking weird. Yesterday I saw a very strange looking insect. It's head resembled a bumblebee while it's body looked like a horsefly. Icky looking thing, for sure. I live in the South. Wonder if anyone else has seen these things?"

I drove from Philly to NM last Aug. Sounds like the one that got stuck in my windshield wiper when I was driving through Louisianna. Icky is right, that thing stayed there from Louisiann to NM back to Philly until somebody else took it out. I wasn't touchin that thing, dead or alive. Needless to say, I avoided driving through Lousianna on the way back home.

[Revel]

Two strontium powered lighthouses vandalised on the Kola Peninsula

MURMANSK - Two Strontium containing Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators, or RTGs, used to power navigation beacons and lighthouses were found literally ripped to pieces by unknown vandals during regular checks by the Russian Navy's Northern Fleet in the area of the Kola Peninsula last week.

Abandoned RTGs: Shown here are the strontium cores from two RTGS on the Kola Peninsula. Finnmark region government

Igor Kudrik, Rashid Alimov, Charles Digges, 2003-11-17 18:38 The damage was so severe that Murmansk Regional officials designated the incident as a "radioactive accident."

It is assumed by local authorities that the vandals were scavenging for valuable metals, including stainless steel, lead and aluminium, all of which could easily be dumped on the scrap metal market in Murmansk. But the vandals also took with them the depleted uranium casing, which is used to protect the RTG's strontium-90 cores.

The strontium-90 cores-which have a half life of 26.5 years- were left at the sites of the navigation devices. They are highly radioactive-emitting some 1000 roentgens per hour-and local police officials and officials from the Murmansk Regional Federal Security Service, or FSB, said in interviews with Bellona Web that the suspects could well be dead or seriously ill. They have therefore expanded their search for the suspects to include not only the areas from where the RTG's were stolen, but to Murmansk area hospitals as well. They are also combing local metal scrap yards, a Murmansk FSB official said in a telephone interview.

The day after the incident was revealed, Deputy Minister of Atomic Energy Sergei Antipov told Bellona Web in an interview in Murmansk that Russia's Ministry of Atomic Energy, or Minatom, is actively looking into substitutes for the strontium-90 batteries. One option, he said, was other nuclear sources. But he also said Moscow was considering solar power arrays for the navigation devices that were developed by Norway,

He noted however that Norwegian solar array designs were not sufficient for Russia's purposes and that Russia would have to design its own.

That the generators, known as RTGs, could so easily be reached and torn down literally to their radioactive cores is disturbing news for both the environmental and nuclear security communities.

Both groups have warned Russian officials about potential disasters that could occur should terrorists get their hands on any of Russia's aged 1000 RTGs-many of which have not been checked in years, and many of whose locations, by admission of Russian Ministry of Defence, are unknown. In Northwest Russia alone, there are some 150 of these strontium generators. All 1000 of these generators have exceeded their engineering life span, in some cases, by as much as a decade, according to a source in the Defence Ministry who spoke with Bellona Web on the condition of anonymity.

In the wake of the discovery, the Murmansk Region Administration today issued a statement indicating that on November 12th, the Hydrographic Department of the Northern Fleet-while conducting a regular inspection of the lighthouses-discovered a completely dismantled Beta-M type No. 255 RTG, which was used to power the navigation lighthouse No. 414.1 in Olenya bay in the Kola harbour.

The statement indicated that the RTG had been completely dismantled, down to the depleted uranium protection vessel. One radioisotope heat source was found near shore in water 1.5 to 3 meters deep.

The next day, according to the Murmansk Administration statement release Monday, yet another Beta-M type No. 256 type RTG, which powered lighthouse No. 437 on Yuzhny Goryachinksy island in the Kola harbour was found in precisely the same condition-all of it's valuable metals had likewise been stripped, including the depleted uranium, and a radioisotope heat source was found on shore on the northern part of the island.

No overview or control of RTGs The destroyed RTGs are the responsibility of the Russian Ministry of Defence, which carried out periodic checks on the units-that are still locatable-once or twice a year. Many RTGs in the Arctic north of Siberia and the coast of the rough Russian Far East have, according to sources at Minatom, literally been lost, or "orphaned."

According to Murmansk Regional Administration radiological officials interviewed by Bellona Web, this is the second such incident in the region. The previous case occurred in 2002 near Kandalaksha. In that case, three RTGs were vandalized. Local radiological officials believe the thieves mostly look for non-ferrous metals, which RTGs contain in large quantities in their layers.

Further afield, a similar incident occured in the Leningrad Region in March of 2003 when a Beta-M RTG was vandalised. The Navy carried out a control inspection of this RTG in June of 2002-almost a whole year before the accident was discovered. And in 2002, three hunters in the former Soviet republic of Georgia were severely irradiated after stumbling across an RTG that had been in the woods for years. Huddling around the strontium battery as a heat source, all three received high radiation doses and spent months in the hospital battling radiation sickness.

It is Bellona's position that the Russian Federation must provide stricter controls over its RTGs and carry out an immediate inventory on all currently operating RTGs. In addition to the health risks these radiation sources-found in isolated areas with little to no warning about their presence-pose, RTGs represent an obvious non-proliferation threat. Their strontium components can easily be fashioned by terrorists into a so-called "dirty bomb," which is a conventional bomb stuffed full of radioactive materials. Fear of such radiological dispersal devices has grown the world over after the attacks of September 11th 2001.

Bellona's working paper on RTGs Bellona's newly released working paper on RTGs uncovers the environmental and non-proliferation dangers associated with the use of these devices. The working paper's evidence shows that the problem of Russia's RTGs has slipped out from under control of the authorities responsible for them. The working paper is thus far available only in Russian, but an English translation will be published here within days. Jump to working paper »

RTGs There are approximately 1000 RTGs in Russia. Most of them are used as a power source for lighthouses. RTGs are operated by the Defence Ministry, the Ministry of Transport and Russian Hydro-Meteorological Service. The Ministry of transport runs more than 380 RTGs, whereas the Ministry of Defence operates 535, including more than 100 located on the Kola Peninsula. Most of the RTGs, which fall under the auspices of the Defence Ministry, are located along the Arctic coast, or the so-called Northern Sea Route.

Since 1960, nine different models of RTGs have been developed. The Beta-M type RTG is most commonly use and there are around 700 of them in operation across the Russian Federation.

Beta-M type RTGs put out 230 Watts of power. The weight of a standard RTG is 560 kilograms altogether, and the weight of the radioactive portion is around 5 kilograms. This active portion contains 35,000 to 40,000 Ci of activity. The radioactivity of an RTG at the distance of 0.02 to 0.5 meters is 800 to 1000 roentgens per hour. These radioactive sources can reach temperatures of up to 500 degrees Celsius.

Igor Kudrik reported from Oslo, Rashid Alimov from St. Petersburg, and Charles Digges from Murmansk.
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/0311/msg00465.html

[MamaDearest]

anyone remember the qaeda jihad training manual? Or maybe have a link?

If you Google, you will find it under archived TerroristWatch.com.

[all4one]

You're welcome, I try to only send the things to you that are important. I think of you as the Matrix archivist. I don't know how you do it, but I'm thankful that you do it so well.

[knak]

thanks, Cindy had it on her page.

[TWhiteBear]

While the article was not hostile(from our point of view) it was different from those in the past in that it sourced and referred to Allah and Surahs. In my day, science(knowledge, technology) was not connected to religion. This stands out, to me, as a sea change in Turkish culture. In general, the Turks are Islamic as the Texans are Christian. They consider Arabs as trash, and the same for the Ivans, if they wanted to play contact sports. Being a democracy now, the Turks fuddeled the Iraq situation and this has resulted in a bigger Kurdish problem.
For those interested in what will happen in the case of(after) a real attack, this link will get you to a 152 page document from DHS. http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interweb/assetlibrary/NIMS-90-web.pdf
Those of us in the Teams will do the best we can but it will be ugly at best.

[WestCoastGal]

Stay safe, and continue to watch your surroundings when you travel. It's a shame that we all have to watch over our shoulders now.

We all pack everything when we travel, I know I do.

The biggest defeat for the good guys is the stupid decision made by the Spanish people today.

Mansoor now on Fox, the terrorists now have
demonstrated that terrorism can pay.

Pomerantz~~"You cannot do this, it's a real setback"

Rita "Troop strength, what happens now? " Pomerantz "Not a large number in Spain but the symbolism is big." Sends wrong message. We have to announce our continued resolve.

Mansoor "New breed, of terrorists are a consortium sponsored by Iran state sponsorship and Intelligence agencies in other countries."

I wonder if he means Pakistan?

[MamaDearest]

LOL LOL LOL I could for an instanter 'see' you,

I was painting my nails red, white and blue, in a personal salute to the French of course.

[MamaDearest]

Nope. Just Chill Pills...

That just may be a high enough dosage for JP. It may not be enough for any of us if more of our allies in the War on Terror get attacked by AQ.

[StillProud2BeFree]

Wasn't someone talking about airplane tires blowing out on landing? Take a look at this: "The jet from Riyadh suffered "fissures in the left and right wing flaps and tyres''. "

Saudi jet lands in closed runway
Posted on Sunday, March 14, 2004 @ 9:23 AM CST by sn26567


SN30952 writes "A Saudi Airlines Jumbo-747 jet with 126 passengers aboard this morning landed in the "runway area closed for maintenance'' at the Anna international terminal, damaging two lights. The jet from Riyadh suffered "fissures in the left and right wing flaps and tyres''.

The aircraft approaching from the Pallavaram-end (Runway 07 end), landed in the "unserviceable threshold area''. The premature landing in the closed 570-metre area of the main runway gave anxious moments to air traffic controllers and airport managers.

Immediately after touchdown, the pilot taxied the plane to the allotted parking bay.

The incident took place even after a Notice to Airmen was issued. Saudi Arabian Airlines flight suffered damage but passengers are safe.

As the aircraft, which was scheduled to fly back to Riyadh, could not be used for the return journey, a special flight, also from the Saudi Arabian Airlines, was on its way from Jakarta to Chennai.

After the arrival of the special flight, 202 Riyadh-bound passengers, waiting at the airport, will be flown there.

A team of technicians will arrive from Saudi Arabia tomorrow to inspect the damaged aircraft. It would take two or three days to rectify the damage.