BEIRUT, Lebanon: Police defused Thursday a small bomb at the American University of Beirut, in what appeared to be the latest of a series of attempts to cause explosions in Lebanon. An explosives expert defused a bomb of 200 grams of TNT that was found in a bag near an elevator in the Issam Fares Hall, a building off the main campus, said a Lebanese security official who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The bomb was wired to a detonator and ready to explode, the official added. It was taken to a police barracks for investigation. Police are also looking into how the bomb got into the university, whose entrances are guarded by policemen and the university's own security guards.
Excerpted
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/03/22/africa/ME-GEN-Lebanon-Explosives.php
Stolen Radioactive Gauge Recovered
Mar 22, 2007
PHILADELPHIA Police recovered a radioactive gauge after an extensive search that shut down roads and suspended SEPTA trolley service in the Nicetown section of the city Thursday. Hazmat crews were called to the Nicetown section of the city after the discovery of a box that housed a radioactive tool which was stolen from a South Philadelphia worksite earlier in the week.
Chopper 3 was over the scene at Germantown and Hunting Park Avenues where authorities discovered the bright yellow box just before 10 a.m. Investigators opened the protective container only to find the device was still missing. After an intensive search of the area, authorities reportedly found the potentially hazardous tool in a nearby scrap metal business. Officials said it appeared the device had been placed in a crusher by employees. Several individuals at the business were taken in for questioning.
"The box was clearly marked, why someone would open it and take the contents out and put it in a crusher is mind-boggling," Chief Insp. Joseph O'Connor said. Police said a small amount of radiation was released but they said it was not enough to cause any bodily harm. "We got here in time to ensure the contamination, it is a minimal contamination but it is exposure to it; whether through inhalation or through ingestion and it's an exposure thing … right now, we have it all contained within that building," Insp. O'Connor said. SEPTA trolley service was temporarily disrupted in the area as crews worked to clear the scene.
The Department of Homeland Security was called after the gauge was stolen from a construction truck at the Audenreid High School Project on the 3300 block of Tasker Street Monday afternoon. Officials said the tool, used to measure soil density, contained small amounts of radioactive material. When the gauge is in its yellow plastic case, it does not pose any threat or harm. Police said any attempt to tamper with the device or handle the source would subject the person doing so to potentially dangerous radioactive exposure. "Should you come in contact with that, you would be exposed to radiation … so half a block away is really not an issue but if you're handling it, it would be a problem," Insp. Robert Tucker said. No injuries have been reported. The incident remains under investigation.
http://cbs3.com/topstories/local_story_080221948.html
THANKS for that update Oorang.
I'm glad it was recovered.
I've tried my best to find out what happened to the man who could spark a war with Iran, but he seems to have disappeared like a diamond in an inkwell. And it makes me nervous.
General Ali Reza Asgari, a former intelligence officer in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and deputy defense minister until 2005, was last seen in public around December 7 in Istanbul. Iran says Israel and the United States kidnapped him, presumably to coerce him into telling lies about Iran. The Washington Post has reported he is in U.S. custody, spilling his guts, and more recently the New York Times reported that the German defense minister, when asked about Asgari's whereabouts, said "I cannot say anything on this issue." But both the U.S. and Israel deny having him, let alone kidnapping him.
Normally, vanished intelligence officers barely merit one short paragraph on page eight. Asgari is different, though. As the IRGC commander in Lebanon in the late '80s and early '90s, he knows dirty secrets, secrets that could be used to justify going to war with Iran. Asgari was in the IRGC's chain of command when it was kidnapping and assassinating Westerners in Lebanon in the '80s. Asgari knows a lot about other IRGC-ordered, Lebanon-based terrorist attacks, including the October 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut and the 1996 bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia.
As IRGC commander in Lebanon, Asgari was also one of Hizballah's stepfathers. In the late '80s and early '90s, he was Hizballah Secretary General's Hasan Nasrallah's primary Iranian contact, and certainly in a position now to provide evidence of Nasrallah's involvement in terrorism. Asgari was the primary Iranian contact for one of the world's most lethal and capable terrorists, 'Imad Fa'iz Mughniyah. Mughniyah is indicted in the U.S. for the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 and the murder of a Navy diver.
The bad news for Hizballah and Iran doesn't end there. Asgari would be able to tell us about Hizballah's secret military commanders, its overseas networks, and possibly its cells in the U.S. A friend close to Hizballah's leadership tells me Hizballah has gone to battle quarters, concluding Asgari's "kidnapping" is a prelude for its next round with Israel.
The more important question is what Asgari's possible defection would mean for this Administration's plans for Iran. Nothing is certain when it comes to Iran, but here's what I think we should look for: If Asgari resurfaces in the next couple months with a detailed, convincing bill of indictment against Iran and Hizballah (unlike Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's supposed confession), we should expect a confrontation. For instance, in the late '80s Hizballah, under IRGC orders, sent plastic explosives to secret cells around the world. Only one shipment was intercepted. The others are presumably still in place. If Asgari helps us dig one up, the Administration has a propaganda weapon it never had going into the Iraq war.
On the other hand, if Asgari remains in his inkwell, the Bush Administration may have decided to leave Iran alone.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1601814,00.html