Bush: fear of bin Laden nukes

United States.com ^ | RICHARD SALE, UPI Terrorism Correspondent

[backhoe]

Tiny Nukes-- the backpack threat

[LoneGOPinCT]

Why do I even bother getting up in the morning? I long for the days when I didn't care or just didn't want to know.

[Lady GOP]

Seal borders and carefully inspect any incoming vehicles. God bless America

[Peach]

Love your name. I lived in CT for all my life until 4 years ago and sympathize with your "lone GOP status". Keep your chin up.

[Lady GOP]

Is there really any question what we need to do to these people..?

[WyldKard]

It's not the backpack nukes we have to worry about. The maintenance and upkeep on those "fractional crit" devices is frightfully high. If you can't swap out several pounds of tritium every few weeks (at $50,000 an ounce), then it's worthless. Best you could do is a radiological weapon...

Now, if he gets a hold of one of the Paki's nukes, and sails it in via a ship......that's a different story...

[livius]

"The report was presented to then President Bill Clinton and his National Security Advisor Sandy Berger. "

I guess that tells us all we need to know about why we have to worry about this matter today.

[Straight Vermonter]

I have a great deal of trouble believing that bin Ladin would have such a weapon and not use it. If he had one, it would be burning a hole in his pocket.

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

Thanks, Backhoe, for all your links. You are the man!

It seems to me, President Bush simply positions our fighters and/or subs with nuclear weapons tipped missiles/bombs to fly near Iraq and Afghanistan - near Pakistan - and we let both countries know that should any nuclear device go off in this country, Iraq and Pakistan will be attacked with nuclear weapons. We let India know the same because they may want to help destroy Pakistan before Pakistan can nuke India.

We should notify our allies - and our enemies - that we will not hesitate to do so and that we have methods in the works to do just that as necessary.

If necessary, we can so advise Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, North Korea of same. And we should be ready to send a massive assault on Cuba as well...not necessarily nuclear.

Such actions could trigger Communist China and Russia to let loose their nukes - but we should have in place the command structure and communication structure to notify these nations that we will not be in any way attempting to harm them unless they should join the efforts to attack our country.

Outside of paying millions to hit squads to slit the throats of every terrorist kingpin in the world - I don't know how else we can proceed.

Of course, prayer is the answer - but we are also dealing with very real danger to this nation and if nuclear devices are used against us.....these nations who have harbored terrorists MUST KNOW THEY WILL RECEIVE SAME!

[Hatteras]

After the Taliban dared the US to bring in 100,000 troops my immediate concern would be that bin Laden (or more likely a group of his martyrs) are laying in wait for a ground war where they can lure in as many US troops as possible before they shout to the "almighty Allah" and set one of these suitcase nukes off.

I'm hoping that what experts say is true and that is that even these small, tactical devices takes alot more effort to detonate and that you just don't "pull a pin" or "push a button". It's a tough "bluff" to call, I wouldn't take the chance when we can devastate from the air.

[American_Patriot_For_Democracy]

I am in full agreement with your sentiments. I just hope that we don't alienate our only ally over there, India, which is a democracy, English speaking, multi-ethnic and multi-religious, has a Constitution and a common law based legal system, and most importantly a huge, extremely skilled and technologically savvy military with beaucoup nukes. Plus India hates Pakistan, and China. It doesn't get any better than that. And they could soften the hearts of the Russians, who cradled and loved them when we ignored them for 30 years during the Cold War. Russia loves India historically, even watched their movies for fifty years, over Hollywood's choices. Plus Russia looks at India and thinks, "Now there is a market for our Siberian oil." Who else can we rely on over there if the going gets tough? Turkey? They are too far away to get there in time. China? Quite humorous, they are praying for our demise. Russia? That's going to be tough, since they were our mortal enemy not more than 10 years ago, and there is a bad blood there. Indonesia? They are an economic, military, and logistical nightmare. Iran? *sigh* You get the idea. We NEED India, badly.

[spanky_mcfarland]

Cannistraro denounces reports that bin Laden has obtained such weapons as "total crap." Right...and Iraq has no capacity to weaponize anthrax Then there's the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, etc... I have come to distrust absolute statements such as Cannistraro's.

[Mamzelle]

The Northern Alliance says, "Bring out your troops," and the Taliban says, "Bring out your troops."

It is prudent to be watchful and patient. Likely the Taliban would like to see a concentrated batallion of American soldiers for a reason.

If the Taliban are hiding in civilian Kabul homes, it's time to warn the civilians as best we can, and bomb the homes.

We keep hearing about the terrible Afghan winters...but we also heard about how wonderful the Northern Alliance was.

[Nov3]

If you can't swap out several pounds of tritium every few weeks (at $50,000 an ounce), then it's worthless.

I was under the impression the "backpack nukes" were fission devices, not fusion. Everything I have read said that. Do you have a link for anything different?

[WyldKard]

I was under the impression the "backpack nukes" were fission devices, not fusion.

You are essentially correct. However, because we're talking "fractional crit", you need a high neutron flux catalyst to actually get the fissible material to chain react. Otherwise, more often than not you get a dud. So we're talking fissionable materials with a tritium core. Thats how they address the size limitation.

You can denonate a backpack nuke without the tritium, but more often than not, you just get a radiological attack...

[Nov3]

So you are saying the tritium is the nuetron source?????

[Nov3]

neutron

[backhoe]

No arguement here!

[Lady GOP]

This is what Ashcroft was warning about They both looked very upset and the FBI guy Mueller was not hiding it.