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.
"It could make a great comedy movie plot, maybe with Leslie Nielsen and Danny DeVito.
"
It would! I'd pitch it to someone, but I'm not in that industry.
Dmitri: Look at this, Abdullah! It's just a sample. We have many pounds of this Red Mercury. Sniff it. See how it burns the nose. You can make many bombs.
Abdullah: Truly it is nasty, Bismillah. This Red Mercury will truly eliminate the infidels. And it is radioactive, of course?
Dmitri: Without question. Here is a geiger counter (holds up crappy Soviet era transistor radio). Hear the crackling sound. Very radioactive.
Abdullah: I must have this Red Mercury. How much?
Dmitri: Twenty thousand U.S. Dollars per pound. You must pay in U.S. dollars or gold.
Abdullah (0oening suitcase): I have One million U.S. dollars here. I will take 50 pounds today. Can you supply this?
Dmitri: Excellent! Excellent! This small drum contains 50 pounds. You may take it with you.
Abdullah: Death to the infidels! Allahu Akhbar!
LATER
Dmitri: You shoulda seen that dumb Arab. Another Vodka!
LOL!! Well, you oughta reconsider! You've got the chops!
Right -- then turn a DeLorean into a time machine.
Marty McFly: "Doc, you don't just walk into a store and buy plutonium... did you rip that off?"
Dr. Emmett Brown: "Shhhhhh. Of course. From a group of Libyan nationalists. They wanted me to build them a bomb, so I took their plutonium and in turn, gave them a shiny bomb-casing filled with used pinball machine parts."
That was exactly my thought.
Until they start packing it into their pipe bombs...
Stupid me! I always thought "red mercury" was just plain old cinnabar.
hallo mineral man! red your posting on red Mercury, I have that stuff about 5Kgs of it. u interested?
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