Posted on 05/17/2004 10:17:42 AM PDT by QQQQQ
KIEV, Ukraine - Ukrainian security officers have arrested two Middle Eastern men whom they said possessed a substance that has been touted by sellers as an ingredient in nuclear weapons and dismissed by others as a hoax.
Security agents in the southern city of Odessa seized 24 pounds of a substance they said was radioactive and identified as "red mercury," a State Security Service spokesman said Monday on condition of anonymity. He said they arrested two men from a Middle Eastern country,
"Foreign citizens were looking for an opportunity to purchase a quantity of radioactive material in Ukraine and to sell it in the Middle East," said the spokesman, who would not say what country the men were from or where the material came from. He said the arrests were made several weeks ago.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, black marketeers have been peddling substances they call red mercury, apparently passing it off to buyers as a highly radioactive compound that purportedly was developed in Soviet nuclear facilities and could be used in powerful weapons.
Samples that have turned up in Europe have proved to be bogus, however, and many scientists and law enforcement officials say the substance does not exist or is far less potentially dangerous than it has been made out to be.
Still, the Ukrainian statement appeared likely to add to concerns that terrorists have been seeking to acquire radioactive substances in the former Soviet Union.
Western governments and the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, have repeatedly warned that several former Soviet republics including Ukraine have become a marketplace for radioactive materials.
This month, Ukrainian authorities arrested several people they said were involved in an attempt to purchase cesium-137, a highly radioactive material seen as a likely ingredient in a "dirty bomb." Earlier this year, they arrested a man trying to take one pound of uranium into neighboring Hungary.
Then the last paragraph talks about terrorists attempting to purchase cesium-137, and in another incident someone was trying to smuggle one pound of uranium out.
Clearly the terrorists are still very actively working on getting hold of nuclear material.
But just remember, we mustn't "humiliate or abuse them" in the process of interrogating them, to find out from them,where they hid the nukes, with which to blow up Manhattand or Washington. (sarasm, naturally, but this is serious. Our lives may well depend on getting some terrorists to talk and it's highly doubtful they will talk, just because we ask them gently.)
"red mercury" pong
Unfortunately, further investigation revealed that it was in fact an orange Chevelle.
Perhaps it's just cinnabar, a red ore of mercury, otherwise known as 'dragon's blood'. ;^)
"Perhaps it's just cinnabar, a red ore of mercury, otherwise known as 'dragon's blood'. ;^)"
Most likely. And it's not radioactive, either. Red mercury is an old name for cinnabar, anyhow.
It's not a harmless material, though. Heat it and it releases mercury vapors. Not nice stuff, but hardly usable as a weapon.
" they said was radioactive "
The article said, that whatever it was, it was radioactive.
I don't think we, including the media and Congress, should be telling our interrogators what methods to use. Whatever works is fine with me. But to tie their hands, because of excessive concern for a bunch of terrorists with potentially vital information may result in a catastrophy for us.
Look at all the smuggling of nuclear material that is going on. For each one that gets caught, how many get through?
I'm very allergic to mercury. I can't even be around the fumes, or I break out all over in a "weeping eczema" something like poison ivy, that lasts for weeks. If I scratch it I spread it. VERY not fun...
Did they also seize the transparent aluminum?
"The article said, that whatever it was, it was radioactive.
"
Actually, it didn't really say that at all. It said that security people from Odessa said it was radioactive.
Even if it was, it would be a simple matter to grind up a bit of an ore of uranium, such as uraninite or any of dozens of minerals found in that region, mix it with cinnabar and sell it as something it is not.
My bet is that this is a scam. Some enterprising people in that region are selling cinnabar, maybe laced with enough ground uranium ore to register on a geiger counter, to gullible people who think they're buying some dangerous stuff.
It sounds like a great scam to me. Get money from these terrorist types, but sell 'em something that won't hurt anyone.
Anyhow, that's my bet.
"I'm very allergic to mercury. "
Sounds nasty. Fortunately, it's pretty easy to avoid mercury exposure, I'd think.
I do.
Whatever works is fine with me.
Not me.
The $800 million Russian-built nuclear power plant at Bushehr, is scheduled to open in 2005 along the Persian Gulf in southwestern Iran. Russian officials say they will continue to build the reactor despite fears that Iran could divert expertise into a nuclear weapons program. Although the plant will eventually produce spent fuel rods that contain plutonium, experts say the substances that will be produced in the Bushehr rector are not ideal for making nuclear weapons. Furthermore, Bushehr will be subject to IAEA inspections. Russian officials have said they will require all spent fuel rods from Bushehr to be returned to Russia.
-- by Esther Pan and Sharon Otterman, staff writers, cfr.org
Certainly, it would be in the interests of multiple overtly and covertly anti Western countries and groups for the West to believe the Red Mercury exists. Consider the impact on correlations of forces.
Twenty-four pounds of mercury, dispersed in a bomb, would be pretty dirty.
Unlike burying it in Yucca Mountain, this scheme turns the nuclear waste into a profit center.
As you might have suspected, I'm of the same mind as you on this matter.
It could make a great comedy movie plot, maybe with Leslie Nielsen and Danny DeVito.
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