the perfect weapon for terrorists'.
Posted on 07/13/2004 7:11:31 PM PDT by wagglebee
A new book written by a former FBI consultant claims that al-Qaida not only has obtained nuclear devices, but likely has them in the U.S. and will detonate them in the near future.
These chilling allegations appear in "Osama's Revenge: The Next 9/11: What the Media and the Government Haven't Told You," by Paul L. Williams (Prometheus Books).
Williams claims that al-Qaida has been planning a spectacular nuclear attack using six or seven suitcase nuclear bombs that would be detonated simulantaneously against U.S. cities.
"They want the most bang for the buck, and that is nuclear," Williams told NewsMax.
"I expect such an attack would come between now and the end of 2005," the author said.
In addition to writing several books on terrorism, Williams, an investigative journalist, has worked as an FBI consultant.
Williams' contention is not far from what U.S. intelligence believes, a source close to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has told NewsMax. The source said Ridge claimed that U.S. intelligence believes terrorists already have smuggled into the U.S. actual atomic devices as opposed to so-called “dirty nukes” that simply are conventional bombs that help spread radiation.
The Bush administration has warned for years that terrorists pose a nuclear threat to America.
Williams' book presents a review on the increasing spread of nuclear weapons technology, which the author says can be traced to India's nuclear tests in the early 1970s. It accelerated when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
Shortly after the Indian nuclear tests, Pakistan made an all-out effort to join the nuclear club, the author says. Islamabad received "help" from sympathetic nations, namely China and North Korea.
Williams traces the rampant spread of nuclear bomb development to a leading Pakistani scientist, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan.
Khan, described as an "Islamic extremist," has also been depicted by former CIA chief George Tenet as "the father of Pakistan's nuclear program."
It is believed the Pakistani gained his expertise while working in the Netherlands, where he allegedly stole technology used in uranium reprocessing, a key procedure for building an atomic bomb.
Pakistan successfully detonated two nuclear weapons inside a northern mountain range in the late 1990s.
Khan, arrested by Pakistani police in February, under White House pressure, admitted selling nuclear technology to numerous foreign countries including North Korea and Libya.
Williams reports that Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was investigating Khan at the time he was kidnapped and later killed (2003).
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, fearing a backlash from radical Muslims, granted Khan a pardon but restricted his travels.
According to Williams, another beneficiary of Khan's "contacts" was al-Qaida. The author reports that the U.S. got its first "hard" evidence of a connection when it invaded the Afghan capital of Kabul in 2001.
A former al-Qaida safe house was found to be loaded with documents detailing dealings with the Pakistani scientist.
The finding was so serious, says Williams, that Tenet traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan to follow up on the discovery.
Tenet: 'They Are Coming'
Perhaps it was such intelligence that led Tenet to say in October 2002: “The threat environment we face is as bad as it was before September 11. It is serious. They have reconstituted. They are coming after us."
Almost from the moment 9/11 happened, the U.S. has been on heightened state of alert and worry over the possible use of nuclear weapons. On the day of the attack, President Bush left Florida and began criss-crossing the country in Air Force One in maneuvers consistent with a president preparing for a nuclear attack.
Shortly after Sept. 11, Taliban leader Mullah Omar claimed to BBC that the main intent of al-Qaida was the “bigger cause,” which he described as the “destruction of America.”
Asked pointed if this meant the use of nuclear weapons againt the U.S., he responded: “This is not a matter of weapons. We are hopeful for God's help. The real matter is the extinction of America. And, God willing, it will fall to the ground.”
Omar cryptically suggested a nuclear plan was already under way at the time of Sept. 11. “The plan is going ahead and, God willing, it is being implemented. But it is a huge task, which is beyond the will and comprehension of human beings. If God's help is with us, this will happen within a short period of time; keep in mind this prediction.”
The Russian Connection
The author points out that the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 only made matters worse:
"The Chechen Mafia reportedly sold twenty nuclear suitcases in Grozny to representatives of Osama bin Laden and the Mujahadeen [in 1996]. For their weapons, bin Laden paid $30 million in cash and two tons of heroin."
Al-Qaida's leader, says Williams, is a major drug producer and runner in Afghanistan.
"It is the drug money, not the bin Laden family fortune, that is the financial engine for al-Qaida," he points out.
Today, Williams says, more than 40 Russian "nuclear suitcases" cannot be accounted for.
The suitcases are miniaturized tactical nuclear bombs (in some cases weighing less than 40 pounds) that were originally planned by the Cold-War-era Kremlin to be detonated inside the U.S. in the event of war.
These bombs were estimated to have an explosive power of between 1-10 kilotons, says Williams.
Most could cause damage equal to or greater than the crude device Washington dropped on Hiroshima during World War II.
The author says some of these weapons still remain stateside in a "sleeper" status controlled by Russian military officials who believe a war with the U.S. "is still possible."
Others, as many as 10, might be under al-Qaida's control, says Williams.
What kind of damage could such a weapon do? The CIA estimates the Russian nuclear suitcases to have an explosive yield approaching 10 kilotons.
Williams, referring to estimates by Theodore Taylor, a prominent American physicist who miniaturized the atomic bomb and visited the site of the World Trade Center in 1993, says a suitcase bomb could "emit intense thermal radiation, creating a fireball with a diameter that would expand to 460 feet. The core of the fireball would reach a maximum temperature of 10 million degrees Celsius ... ." The author says the heat that collapsed the Twin Towers never exceeded 5,000 degrees Celsius.
Had such a bomb been used in 9/11, Williams claims, "The World Trade Center towers, all of Wall Street and the financial district, along with the lower tip of Manhattan up to Gramercy Park and much of midtown, including the theater district, would lay in ruins."
Of those who might survive the blast, 50 percent of the survivors could expect to die at the rate of "250,000 people on any given day," Williams reports.
And how could al-Qaida manage to transport such weapons into the U.S.?
Williams points out that the borders with Mexico and Canada are still dangerously porous and not equipped to detect the smuggling of nuclear materials.
U.S. seaports are even more vulnerable, he argues.
Though New York City would seem to be the No. 1 target of another attack by al-Qaida, Williams points out other U.S. cities have been mentioned in intercepted intelligence chatter.
Among those discussed: Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, Miami, Washington and Rappahannock County, Va.
Why a small rural county in Virginia? Williams says it houses the underground command center the White House would use in time of war.
He hastens to add that time "may not be on our side."
"It was eight years between the World Trade Center attacks. Islam preaches patience. They will attack when they want," Williams concluded.
More chilling was the response from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog.
One official, speaking on background told NewsMax: "We have no comment. It is not within our responsibility to track atomic bombs."
Well might be that "they" want to set up a "nuclear pecking order"...have too many nukes in too many countries...once the first goes off others will too...and the pecking order will spread like a cancer...
Yup. Very bad timing. But no time would be a good time. And it is more than just an economic block, it's part of a global zones and regions agenda, with plans to eliminate the Sovereignty of nations. Not only bad timing, but a bad reason.
No arguement about him being an idiot. Anyone who believes the story about the virgins awaiting him in heaven for blowing people up, well...isn't all there. Must be something to do with the heat over there...seems like all their brains are baked.
Not neccesarily a "dry run", but a mission to show off the achievement of the shoe bomb itself (which like you stated, would not have been found out about for a long time, if at all, if they were detonated), get people scared to travel again...etc. Their mission is terror. They don't have to kill people to successfully engage their targets.
They know we won't execute them for their crimes, so they plan a little harder, and end up with more sympathisers among the angry minority population in US prisons, when their comrade gets busted and jailed.
I'm just sayin...another possibility. It makes more sense if you think about it.
Agreed, but as Joe Blow citizens, we probably won't be able to stop it. Change is ongoing and constant, that's a given, but in this country, in some areas, we seem to be accelerating the rate of that change without thinking it through. I fear, that like a hastily built house, it will inevitably lead to our collapse.
Exactly. The only way to counter this is with the threat of 10,000 times as much damage beginning with Mecca.
Not that either one actually exists
I don't know about "suitcase" nukes, but man portable nukes most certainly exist. They are (or were) called Atomic Demolition Munitions. The medium ones are a mite heavy for a single person, but still small enough to fit in a trunk of a compact car, let alone even a small SUV.
Well, a lot of folks don't maintain their houses and a strong wind blows the roof off and the walls collapse.
Should that be the case here, it will be an opportunity to build a stronger, impregnable house. Do we have the will to do that? We'll find out if it happens. If we don't re-build, we'll deserve the 'tent city' they plan for us.
Now then some questions come to mind, such as. What kind of maintenance is required to keep these things operational? What is the half-life of the materials used in these devices?(The older the material the less reliable the devices operation is) How are the circuits and detonators affected by the constant radiation bombaredment they are exposed to because of the low level of shielding these devices have in order to make them portable?
Sure, but hardly something detectable from orbit, or even from an aircraft, unless it was awfully low. Satellites are used to detect explosions, not individual devices, (of course they also take pictures and listen to radio chatter)
Use small nukes, airbursts mostly. Nuclear winter will not be a problem. NW scenarios require ground bursts to throw up lots of dust, and/or long lasting fires to put up lots of smoke. Stay away from the oil (or use enhanced radiation devices in those areas) and there isn't that much to burn in much of the Islamic world, especially the more troublesome parts from Gibraltar to the Indian subcontinent. Stone or concrete buildings and mud huts don't burn much, and they have no forests, nor even major grass or croplands, near the targets of interest.
Where's that "NOT THIS $#!^% AGAIN" graphic?
Especially since a "suitcase nuke" won't work if it doesn't get some rather sophisticated maintenance (replace the tritium, check the high-precision mechanical alignments, test/recalibrate the timing electronics) fairly often (on the order of a few months -- for one thing, tritium has a 12-year half-life, and its He3 decay product is a strong neutron absorber and tends to diffuse into everything).
the perfect weapon for terrorists'.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Russian Mafia has sold these jokers a few boxes of old pinball parts.
***Do you mean politically or otherwise? I would agree on the politically divided, but I'd go with a 75-25 split on the WOT. Most seem to want payback. Another attack will only escalalte that desire and the extremists and liberals just don't realize it yet.***
Politically yes, but more and more people are backing off the war. Less seem to realize that fighting the terrorists in Baghdad is muhc better than fighting them in Brooklyn.
***The live muslims as well as those dead muslim children have a few of their own extremists to thank for their demise.***
Absolutely.
Only if Dr. Emmitt Brown was working for the Russkies...
So how many million men women children do you figure we'd have to kill?
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