Paul Williams details 'American Hiroshima'

Paul L. Williams is a former consultant to the FBI on organized crime and terrorism. Since then, he has become an award-winning investigative journalist and written several books. In his new book, "The Al Qaeda Connection," he claims Osama bin Laden has obtained nuclear weapons and smuggled them into the U.S. through Mexico for use in a plot known as "American Hiroshima."

Ryan Mauro: Much has been written about the "American Hiroshima" report. How did you first learn about the plot?

Paul Williams: I have a unique background. I hold a Ph.D. in philosophy from Drew University and I am a seasoned and award-winning journalist. I came upon the story of bin Laden's acquisition of tactical nuclear weapons while working as the editor/publisher of The Metro and a consultant on organized crime for the FBI. Several members of the Chechen Mafia, who had emigrated to Little Odessa, muscled into the operations of the Bufalino Crime Family in Northeast Pennsylvania by selling choice No. Four heroin, guns of every description, and stolen high-end cars from New York and New Jersey .

I learned that they came to the U.S. after Makhmud and his associates sold tactical nukes and nuclear materials to Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. I began to search for evidence of this sale and came upon stories in The Jerusalem Report and The London Times and Arab stories in Muslim magazines, Al-Watan al-Arabi and al-Majallah This led me to other sources and reports of further sales of nukes from the former Soviet Union to al-Qaida not only by the Chechens but also the Russian Mafia and black-marker arms-dealers, including Semion Mogilevic from the Ukraine . Such information can be obtained by any journalist with a telephone, a computer, and a library card.

I further learned that the sales to al-Qaida have been verified by a host of intelligence officials and weapons inspectors, including Hans Blix, former director general of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency. The sales were even verified by bin Laden and al-Zawahiri in their pronouncements that they have obtained a small arsenal of nuclear weapons from black-market sources. My research took me farther into dealings between bin Laden and Dr. A. Q. Khan and the fact that over 20 nuclear scientists and technicians from Khan's research laboratories in Pakistan worked with al-Qaida on a regular basis to maintain and modify the weapons that had been purchased and to develop other weapons from the highly enriched uranium and plutonium that bin Laden hade purchased from Uzbekistan and other countries.

Dr. Mahmood and Dr. Majeed, two of the leading officials at the Khan facility, confessed to CIA and ISI interrogators that they participated in al-Qaida's nuclear projects. The fact that the Chechens possessed the nukes should be no surprise to any reporter or investigator. In 1995, the Chechens under Com. Shamail Basayev planted a radiological bomb in Izmailovsky Park near Moscow . The bomb was made of cesium-137, and, if detonated, would have killed thousands of Russians. This incident represented the first case of a nuke to be deployed as a weapon of terror. Later that same year, Dzokhar Dudayev, the leader of the Chechen Mafia, offered to sell his collection of nuclear weapons to the United States in exchange for U. S. recognition of Chechnya 's independence. The Clinton Administration declined and so the weapons were sold to al-Qaida.

More importantly, there is empirical proof that al-Qaida possesses nukes. In 2000, British agents posed as recruits from a London mosque to infiltrate al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan . In Herat , they saw nuclear weapons being manufactured. Similarly, an al-Qaeda operative was arrested at the checkpoint at Ramallah with a weapon strapped to his back. At first, Israeli intelligence thought that the weapon was a radiological bomb but later confirmed, as reported by Richard Sales of UPI and other reputable journalists, that it was a tactical nuke. There are more examples, including the canister of uranium 238 that U.S. military officials discovered in a lead canister in Kandahar at the outset of Operation Enduring Freedom.

RM: How come other terrorism experts, Steven Emerson for example, haven't warned us about the plot? In other words, why does it seem so out of the mainstream?

PW: Few military and intelligence officials question bin Laden's ability to launch his plan for the American Hiroshima. Gen. Eugene Habiger, former Executive Chief of Strategic Weapons at the Pentagon, said that an event of nuclear mega-terrorism on U. S. soil is "not a matter of if, but when." During the 2004 presidential debates, President Bush and Sen. Kerry said that nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists represent the greatest danger facing the American people, while Vice President Cheney, on the campaign trail, warned that a nuclear attack by al-Qaida appears imminent. Before leaving office, Attorney General John Ashcroft and Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge both voiced that belief that al-Qaida's plan to nuke cities throughout the country soon might come to fruition.

From the private sector, Warren Buffet, who establishes odds against cataclysmic events for major insurance companies, concluded that an imminent nuclear nightmare within the United States is "virtually a certainty." From the academic community, Dr. Graham Allison, director of Harvard University 's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, said: "Is nuclear mega-terrorism inevitable? Harvard professors are known for being subtle or ambiguous, but I'll try to the clear. 'Is the worst yet to come?' My answer: Bet on it. Yes." Finally, from the mainstream media, Bill Keller, editor of The New York Times, concluded that the only reason for thinking a nuclear attack won't happen is because "it hasn't happened yet," adding that such reasoning represents "terrible logic." And so, Ryan, the message has been delivered but few are listening.

Emerson's importance as an analyst pales in comparison to that of Michael Scheuer, of the CIA and author of "Imperial Hubris," who was in charge on "the Alec file," the CIA's file on bin Laden. On Nov. 14, 2004 , Scheuer appeared on "60 Minutes" to alert the American people that a nuclear attack by al-Qaida "is pretty close to being inevitable."

RM: In your upcoming book, "The Al-Qaeda Connection," you write that former Russian KGB and Spetsnaz operatives maintain bin Laden's nuclear arsenal. When were they hired and how do we know they are capable of such a monumental task?

PW: Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri began recruiting former Spetsnaz technicians circa 1997. By 1999, a host of such technicians (along with nuclear scientists from China ) were working at al-Qaida laboratories in Afghanistan and Pakistan . By 2000, al-Qaida also secured the help of scientists and technicians from the A. Q. Khan Research Facility in Pakistan , including the assistance of Khan himself.

On Sept. 11, 2001 , when the attack was taking place in America , bin Laden and company were meeting with Dr. Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, former Chairman of Pakistan's Atomic Energy Commission, and Dr. Chaudry Abdul Majid, chief technician for the A. Q. Khan Facility, to discuss the maintenance and deployment of al-Qaida's nuclear arsenal. When the CIA confiscated records from Ummah Tameer E-Nau ("Islamic Reconstruction"), Dr. Mahmood's bogus charity in Kabul , they discovered evidence from Mahmood's computer that at least one al-Qaida nuke had been forward deployed to the U.S. from Karachi in a cargo container. After interrogating Mahood and Majid, CIA officials discovered that more than a score of scientists and technicians from the A. Q. Khan Facility worked on a daily basis to develop, upgrade, and maintain the al-Qaida nuclear arsenal. Almost all of these scientists have escaped from Pakistan to avoid arrest.

U.S. officials have been denied permission to interrogate Dr. Khan, even though we know that he provided nuclear technology and designs for atomic bombs not only to Libya , Iran and North Korea, but also Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Sudan, Nigeria, Brazil, Egypt, Malaysia, Indonesia, Algeria, Abu Dhabi and Myanmar. In Myanmar , for example, Dr. Sulieman Asad and Dr. Mohammad Ali Mukhtar are building a 10-megawatt nuclear reactor while still providing help and expertise to the al-Qaida network. It's a hellava situation and the press is not reporting it.

RM: Do you have any information on what the U.S. and its friends are doing to try to stop the plot?

PW: On Oct. 11, 2001 , George Tenet, former CIA director, met with President Bush to inform him that at least two tactical nukes have reached al-Qaida operatives in the U.S. This news was substantiated by Pakistan 's ISI, the CIA and the FBI.

In accordance with this discovery, the Bush administration deployed hundreds of new and sophisticated Gamma Ray Neutron Flux Detector sensors to U.S. borders, overseas facilities and "choke points" around Washington, D.C. The administration further assigned Delta Force, the elite special operations detachment unit of the U.S. Army, the task of killing or disabling any or all suspects. Such measures have proved to be ineffective. Richard L. Wagner, senior staff member at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, testified before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on the Prevention of Nuclear and Biological Attack that the currently installed radiation detection systems are highly limited in their capabilities and, in general, insufficient to the task. To add to the problem of insecurity, the borders remain almost completely porous and less than 10 percent of the freight that arrives at major ports (including New York/New Jersey) is inspected.

PW: The nuclear weapons were not contained solely in Afghanistan. Al-Qaida laboratories were established in the Balkans, Sudan, Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and even places like Myanmar. A number of these weapons have been forward deployed to Mexico and the U.S.

My educated guess would be that arsenals have been established in several of the following countries: Pakistan, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, Algeria, Indonesia, Malaysia, Abu Dubai, Iran, Syria and Lebanon . The last three in light of the al-Qaida truce and bonding with Hezbollah. Myanmar looms large since very sinister events are taking place there. These events, including the construction of large reactors, have been made possible by fugitive scientists and technicians from the Khan Research Facility .But don't lose sight of the fact that nukes have been forward deployed to al-Qaida cells in Canada, Mexico and the U.S.

RM: Why haven't the weapons been used already? One can't help but think that the best time to use the weapons would have been during the invasions of Afghanistan or Iraq .

PW: The worst time for al-Qaida to use its nuclear weapons would have been during the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq when the U.S. remained on high alert. A defining characteristic of bin Laden is patience. His favorite Islamic verse is as follows: "I will be patient until Patience is outworn by patience." He started plotting the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania when he was in the Sudan in 1993; the attack of the USS Cole was more than two years in the making and eight years passed between the first attack on the World Trade Center and the second. The planned American Hiroshima is enormous in scope. It requires not only development and (in some cases) rebuilding of the weapons along with codification for detonation but also forward deployment, site preparation and precise strategic coordination with scattered cells.

Bin Laden will not allow the attack to take place unless there is certainty of success. His entire resources (including the gains from the poppy fields) have been spent on this operation. After scrutinizing the situation and analyzing the data, Bill Keller, editor of The New York Times , said that the "best reason" for thinking that the nuclear attack by al-Qaida will NOT happen is because "it hasn't happened yet," adding this conclusion represents "terrible logic." I agree with him.

PW: Bin Laden can't sit on these weapons for years. They require constant maintenance. At any given time, a tactical nuke exudes a temperature in excess of 100 degrees Fahrenheit. This means that they are prone to oxidation and rust. Moreover, the triggers that emit large quantities of neutrons at high speeds decay rapidly and have short half-lives – most would become useless without maintenance in less than four months. The nuclear cores also are subject to decay and over the course of several years would fall below the critical mass threshold. Though the shells that encase the cores are the most durable parts of the weapons, they, too, are subject to contamination. The tritium used to compensate for the required amount of conventional explosives to compress the fissile core within the compact devices is less of an issue since it has a half-life of 12.3 years. Taking all things into consideration, the attack should occur within the very near future. The bombs which bin Laden began building in 1992 are for the American Hiroshima.

RM: Given the heat and radiation given off by the nuke, couldn't it be detected?

PW: Richard L. Wagner, senior staff member at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and one of the founders of the Department of Energy's Nuclear Emergency Search Team, recently told Congress that major breakthroughs in the ability of the U.S. government to locate rogue nukes may be five years away. Wagner, a Ph.D. whose specialty is radiation detection, testified that better technology and more radiation detention devices are needed to stop the nuclear terrorist threat. "Currently installed radiation detection systems, or systems which could be procured in quantity in the next year or two, are quite limited in their capabilities and, in general, are insufficient for the task," he testified. "Substantial research and development is needed to improve detection capabilities."

A nuclear gun bomb that could be fired from a 155 millimeter recoilless rifle could be packed in the small container, stuffed into the truck of a car or van and transported into any major metropolitan city within the U.S. without detection.

That's the fact of the matter. Other weapons could be transported by private plane to any major airport. Less than 25 percent of the freight on private planes is inspected let alone subjected to radiation detection. To complicate matters, the ports of entry (such as the airports) are now controlled by the Albanian Mafia. The Albanians have taken over the operations of the Italian-American crime families and have become, according to the FBI, the leading criminal organization in the U.S. The Albanians, as you know, are Muslims with ties to radical Islam and, through the KLO, al-Qaida.

RM: I have trouble believing that teams required to maintain a nuclear weapon wouldn't be detected here in the U.S.

PW: There isn't just one team but, at least, seven. They are working within mosques and Islamic centers. In the U.S., a federal judge will not provide any FBI or law enforcement agent with a warrant to search a mosque of an Islam center for any reason since such places are listed as "houses of worship."

PW: At least seven teams, according to information obtained from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other al-Qaida operatives, in at least seven metropolitan areas. These areas have been identified as New York, Miami, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C. The attack will occur simultaneously at the seven sites.

RM: How do you know you can trust what Khalid Sheikh Mohammad said? In the past, he's given us bogus information, some of which led to orange alerts. Some say he and other al-Qaida operatives are waging a disinformation campaign meant to dull our senses.

PW: No, you can't trust Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, but you can trust the information that was obtained from his laptop when he was arrested on March 1, 2003 .

RM: Will Bin Laden use them on the American homeland or also forces overseas and countries that have joined the war on terrorism?

PW: They are not for use in the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Iraq or Afghanistan . The declaration of war was issued against the United States and al-Qaida insists that over 4 million Americans must die for the sake of parity. They are intent upon realizing this objective and the doomsday clock by all reckoning is very near midnight .

Ryan Mauro is the author of the upcoming book "Death to America: The Unreported Battle of Iraq" and owner of WorldThreats.com.

Thanks, they're close enough to drive over and snag some, no waiting on UPS.

Good thing to keep in mind, though, is that people ought to get doctor's advice before they get into a situation where they'd have to take this stuff. It's not a throwaway decision. Drug interactions and effects on people with blood-pressure or thyroid problems make iodine something one should research first before just taking it like aspirin. "In case of mushroom cloud, take two per day for one month." No, not hardly.

people ought to get doctor's advice before they get into a situation where they'd have to take this stuff.

I live just down wind from San Francisco. Neither I nor my doctor control whether Bin Laden blows up a nuke in the San Francisco Bay harbor.

Sometimes one has to make life and death decisions without adequate information or counsel.

"just a component from a medical machine of some kind- cancer therapy perhaps"

I think that this stuff is form a power pack for a remote communication beacon or something like that. I remember reading that the Soviets had a bunch of these spread all over Siberia -- just sitting out in the open for anyone to break into and steal.

Past threads on this subject pretty much discount Williams as a wack job. But, what he says is consistent with what know credible sources are saying. The idea that AQ already has seven bombs in the county he claims is from interrogation that capture AQ chief. How Williams got that information is vague. No one else has that leak, if it is true.

On the other hand, the element of surprise is a basic tactic of war. Our country could be destroyed with smuggled nukes.

Neither I nor my doctor control whether Bin Laden blows up a nuke in the San Francisco Bay harbor. Sometimes one has to make life and death decisions without adequate information or counsel.

But you would be foolish not to get medical advice now when you can have it for the asking, and determine in advance whether you'd be better off simply moving out of the way, or making plans to bug out in a big hurry, in case of the unpleasant eventuality.

You're just as dead, if you die of myocardial infarct triggered by hyperkalemia and edema or of thyroid cancer; but the former will kill you a lot sooner and faster, if you are vulnerable -- if you are taking lisinopril plus a potassium-sparing diuretic, say, and then you drop 240 mg/d of potassium iodide on your system. Oops.

Don't let the preventive medicine kill you deader than hell by accident, IOW.

Seek advice while you can, and change your plan in order to abide by it.

I did seek advice on what to do in the event of a nuclear attack upwind from me. Though I didn't ask a physician. I spent a day or two searching the web and learning what I could there.

Unless I get lucky and have an almost iron clad chance to beat the traffic jams on the freeway over the pass leading east from the valley I'm in, I will gather water, and shelter in place, to minimize my exposure to the radioactive dust (fallout). I've already got food, cash, radios, flashlights, batteries, trash bags, and primitive radiation detectors. Duct tape on cracks around doors and windows, then stay as far from exterior walls and roofs as my residence permits. Take it easy for a few days, until "the dust clears."

The potassium iodide is a no-brainer. It's a simple remedy for a specific condition. I don't need a doctors advice on that one.

I do not consider the average doctor a useful source of knowledge for guiding such decisions as those above.

Your mother henning admonishments to seek professional advice on simple decisions or on matters not in their normal areas of focus is dangerously close to abdicating your personal responsibility to manage your own affairs as best you can.

hyperkalemia

Huh? hyperkalemia? hyperkalemia? hyperkalemia ?!? From a potassium iodide pill taken to reduce thyroid cancer risks when exposed to nuclear fallout ??

You've got to be kidding.

The amount of potassium in a normal healthy adult diet is some number between 500 and 3500 mg per day. The amount of potassium in the recommended adult dose of the potassium iodide pills is 130 mg per day. I don't need to consult with a physician to be comfortable that 130 mg of potassium is harmless.

Re hyperkalemia, a.k.a. hyperpotassia, people who are taking certain ACE inhibitors are at risk of a slow hyperkalemic buildup, particularly if they're also taking a potassium-sparing diuretic as part of an antihypertensive regimen.

If the patient started taking potassium iodide or iodate supplements in addition, a buildup of potassium might begin (or might be accelerated), leading to hyperkalemic consequences later. It wouldn't happen overnight, but would build up to a serious level over a period of time -- how long would depend on the patient.

One self-medicating marathon runner accidentally killed himself by dosing with potassium before his races. This happened about 15 years ago in a local marathon. With dehydration, the potassium level became too high, and he collapsed and died during a race.

Consider Houston being hit with one tonight. Detonated in the ship channel region (lots of industry and refineries).

I've looked at that, and while I won't post what I thought about likely targeting in a public forum, your scenario is unlikely, based on what Osama Bin Laden has done in the past.

Osama likes to kill people, and he likes to kill brains -- knowledge workers, because he thinks they're soft and have lots of influence and will squeal nicely when burned. He's after moving governments, like the Spanish government.

He wants America to back off, he wants all the Jews dead, and he wants the shrines.

That doesn't point to industrial targets in the United States. Infrastructure strikes can be repaired and overcome. He wants his strikes to be decision-makers, like Tet and Madrid, or heart-breakers.

This time, he'll want to break the People in order to get to the brains. And the people to get to, in order to do that, are management and knowledge workers and investors. And of course, he may well make an additional effort to make sure he kills a lot of American Jews, since they've been instrumental in supporting Israel.

Lastly, in order to do lasting damage to a petrochemical complex as large as Houston's, a weapon many times larger than anything that might come off one of A.Q. Khan's drafting tables would be required. Only four governments on the planet have that kind of capability besides ours.

Yeah yeah - sure - some people with special medications, conditions or diets may have extra sensitivity to the potassium in these pills. Sure, get it too far wrong and you can kill yourself.

But your low grade scare tactics and insistence that one should seek medical advice encourages abdicating our personal responsibility for our lives, health and affairs, which is a far more dangerous state of affairs.

I for damn sure don't need you to tell me when I should consult a medical doctor. That's my job to figure out, so long as I am not endangering others or manifestly incompetent.

If my death is destined to be caused by a gross nutrition mistake, I would far rather it be my mistake, than the mistake of some hired professional in whose hands I had abdicated all responsibility for such matters.

Yeah yeah - sure - some people with special medications, conditions or diets may have extra sensitivity to the potassium in these pills. Sure, get it too far wrong and you can kill yourself.

That was my point.

But your low grade scare tactics and insistence that one should seek medical advice encourages abdicating our personal responsibility for our lives, health and affairs

Seeking competent medical advice on a subject as abstruse as pharmacology is exercising personal responsibility.

I for damn sure don't need you to tell me when I should consult a medical doctor.

Hey, big boy, don't let me get in your way. Have another dose of whatever that is. Whatever.

.....I would far rather it be my mistake, than the mistake of some hired professional in whose hands I had abdicated all responsibility for such matters.

LOL! -- Good luck with that bypass! I mean, if guys can do appendectomies on themselves with teaspoons, then by all means, have at it, tough guy! I'll be waiting in the recovery room, smoking a cigarette and playing solitaire.

Something like that happens, I go to the store. Rice, canned soup, fiber cereal, clorine bleach and vitamins.

Go to the store NOW. You ever seen what happens when the weatherman mentions "heavy snow"? Can you imagine what will happen when the forecast mentions "fallout"? The store is the LAST place I'll want to be.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.