Posted on 12/07/2006 10:56:48 AM PST by BigFinn
Even the theme song from The Love Boat?
Love, exciting and new
Come Aboard. We're expecting you.
Love, life's sweetest reward.
Let it flow, it floats back to you.
Love Boat soon will be making another run
The Love Boat promises something for everyone
Set a course for adventure,
Your mind on a new romance.
Love won't hurt anymore
It's an open smile on a friendly shore.
Yes LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE! It's LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE! (hey-ah!)
Love Boat soon will be making another run
The Love Boat promises something for everyone
Set a course for adventure,
Your mind on a new romance.
Love won't hurt anymore
It's an open smile on a friendly shore.
It's LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE! It's LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE! It's LOOOOOOOOOOOVE!
It's the Love Boat-ah! It's the Love Boat-ah!
"I agree with you. And is it just me or have other people noticed it? -- that since the election, there seems to be a resurgence of black helicopter chatter on Free Republic and other conservative outlets and forums."
No kidding.
Ping
If they had 60, they'd at least have to detonate one as a demonstration of their power. At least that's what they would do if the Sand Spider was in charge. Of course, Crimson Jihad had real weapons (I consider the warheads in True Lies more real than suitcase nukes). There is a difference there.
Of course, if he broke a packet of Polonium and got enough on him so that he ingested 100x the lethal dose....then that table and that room in the sushi bar should have been lethally hot as well, instead of just measurably hot.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,1956792,00.html
Explainer: Polonium 210
Ian Sample
Saturday November 25, 2006
Because polonium emits only alpha particles, it can be safely carried in glass vials and will not set off radiation detectors at airports. Once ingested, it is hard to detect, because all the radiation remains in the body. A lethal dose could be as little as a few milligrams, which could be administered as a powder or dissolved in liquid.
and:
Chris Lloyd, a radiation protection adviser at the Environment Agency said it was highly unlikely the polonium came from the UK.
"I suspect it was secreted in from the east," he said. "It is not available in these areas in a form conducive to easy poisoning. It is electroplated on to a substrate in relatively low activities that would not cause a quick fatality even if ingested." A person poisoned with polonium might not show symptoms for weeks.
Health Protection Agency officials are using computer simulations to work out how much polonium may have been in Mr Litvinenko's body. If they can collect any, they may be able to detect impurities that would link the substance like a fingerprint to its source.
Professor Dudley Goodhead at the Medical Research Council radiation and genome stability unit, said: "There are very small amounts of polonium 210 in the natural environment from decay of uranium in the earth and in fact everyone has a small amount of polonium 210 in their body. But to poison someone, much larger amounts are required and this would have to be man-made, perhaps from a particle accelerator or a nuclear reactor."
Crank alert - the author is certifiable.
There is no confirmation of any purchase of suitcase nukes.
Thus, this article is discredited.
However, it is an interesting speculation that he poisoned himself working on radiological bombs.
And, yes, the fact of conversion to Islam means he was a lunatic capable of anything.
And what happened to that guy goes beyond mere poisoning - he was obliterated. Somebody wanted to send a message.
I agree, if Al Quaeda had these types of weapons, they'd use them immediately. Really, who knows why this guy was poisoned and by whom. More info re Polonium 210:
Polonium 210, the radioactive substance discovered in Alexander Litvinenko's body, occurs at very low levels naturally, but is manufactured for use by industrial plants to prevent the build up of static electricity.
It is an effective and convenient poison. It emits pure alpha particles, which outside the body can be stopped by a sheet of tissue paper. But if ingested, it causes widespread damage as it passes into organs. The radiation releases energy that creates reactive particles called free radicals. These in turn form toxic compounds that are deadly to surrounding cells.
Because polonium emits only alpha particles, it can be safely carried in glass vials and will not set off radiation detectors at airports. Once ingested, it is hard to detect, because all the radiation remains in the body. A lethal dose could be as little as a few milligrams, which could be administered as a powder or dissolved in liquid.
Good points. I've always thought that if the islamonutballs have suitcase nukes those things probably take quite a bit of maintenance to keep in working order and that almost makes them hard to imagine as a viable weapon for the terroristas.
I hope.
Yep, the maintenance makes them ineffective, unless, of course, the terrorists receive some sort of "assistance".
That's from his book, which is also a great read.
His title is interesting because things like this - fearmongering hyperbole of the worst kind - detracts from the actual threat. When fraudulent garbage like this is exposed people might think "hey, what else isn't true?"
There is a very real threat, but it sure as hell isn't from suitcase nukes.
I don't think I would own any guns if I had to clean them every six weeks despite never shooting them.
Polonium has two extremely important characteristics in this case:
1) It has legitimate uses, and
2) It is extremely rare.
There are lots of high-energy alpha emitters that are extremely toxic. They don't have much use as terror weapons.
So, to answer your question on "how much of that stuff is still out there undetected" I can pretty safely say not much.
Classic KGB FUD, IMHO. "We probably murdered the guy but we might not have. You figure it out." Spectacularly convenient accidents do happen, of course, but it isn't the way to bet.
A) Believe he was poisoned, or
B) Believe he is working with a vast shadow conspiracy of Islamic terrorists and was accidentally poisoned during his routine maintenance of "suitcase nukes."
Well, we know this much: he was poisoned.
We also know that (a) it was enough of a very expensive poison to kill him a gazillion times over; (b) he left large amounts of radioactive byproducts all over the damn place in a fashion apparently inconsistent with having actually ingested the poison, thus leaving the how of the poisoning an open question; (c) he had converted to Islam (funeral rites were held at a London mosque, minus his body, which was too damn radioactive), raising still further questions; (d) he was a close personal buddy of an exiled Chechen leader who has been tied to nuclear smuggling by non-Russian sources; and (e) his patron was a Russian robber baron with very close ties to Chechen rebels, Ukranian weapons smugglers, and other sterling citizens.
It's a pity Robert Ludlum is dead; he could have written a 900-page masterpiece with about one plot twist per page from this...
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