A source close to Al Qaeda says they have smuggled nukes in across the Mexican border and will use them if the US attacks Iran...is not a bombshell announcment?
Oh, this source is close to al-Qaeda? What's his name? Which cell does he occupy at Gitmo?
As I said in my original post, my question was a serious one. I could not find ANYTHING on the web that covered the "blockbuster" announcement that was supposed to be made at the end of the first day. (For that matter, there was almost no press coverage of the event at all, so that may explain why the "bombshell announcement" was ignored too.)
I gather from your post that "Nukes were smuggled in from Mexico" was the announcement. We've heard this kind of thing before, so the next question is: Was there any substantiation?
Changing topics to the on-going debate on this thread about suitcase nukes: HipShot is right. He's a retired MIRV technician, so he has more hands-on experience than I do. However, one of my jobs in the Air Force was running the team that set the manpower standards for Air Force ICBM missile maintenance for all Air Force ICBMs. I could not fix one myself, but I know a bit about how it's done. I also know the physics behind making a bomb (or at least I did when I was younger...).
As an additional aside, I listened to the "debate" between Miniter and Williams. Perhaps he just oversimplified, but Miniter seemed to have some of his basic facts wrong. First, he seemed to be unaware that neutron emissions cannot be detected with a geiger counter (neutrons have no electrical charge). That makes detecting nukes much more difficult than he implied. Second, there is no way you need something as large as "three footlockers" to make a nuke. Anyone who would assert this is either completely unaware of the facts, or is assuming that the audience is unable to tell truth from fiction. Finally, you definitely do NOT need tritium to make a nuke. As long as you have plenty of fissionable material, the design of the bomb itself can be relatively simple (especially if you are not concerned about "fail safe" issues).
On the other side of the debate, I don't have any way of knowing if Paul Williams is right, or just hawking books. But the CONCEPT that small nukes could be smuggled in to our country, and successfully set off, is certainly in the realm of the possible.