Posted on 11/18/2001 1:38:32 PM PST by codebreaker
A leading Muslim cleric Shaykh Hisham Kabbani, founder of the Islamic Supreme Council of America (ISCA), insists bin Ladens network has bought more than 20 nuclear warheads carried in suitcases.
In 1999 Kabbani first warned the U.S. State Department of bin Laden's impending terrorism.
He told the U.S. Government bin Laden was training suicide bombers in Afghanistan ready to move to any part of the world.
Kabbani said the nuclear weapons, sometimes referred to as "suitcase bombs", were sold by the Russian mafia.
Actually, Berkeley would be best, but I'll take L.A. in a pinch ; )
Yes, it is supposed to be very heavy and generally not moved by less than two people, but capable of being moved by one. I imaging a Swartznegger type could handle 175 lbs quite easily.
FWIW, and this in no way contributes to my belief or disbelief of this 20 suitcase claim, I can deadlift 295 lbs in three sets of 10, seperated by a 1 minute rest period between sets. Now, that's dead lifting, not a lot of walking, you see. However, I have walked around with the weights/bar when they were loaded to around 200lb without too much of a problem, and 175 would be do-able for a quite a distance before I would absolutely, positively have to put it down.
Don't know how much this has contributed, but it is possible for a fit/strong person to carry around this weight for considerable distance.
Now, on to the subject at hand. We'll soon know if any of this is true or not in the next 30 days. Their "government" doesn't have that much time left on this earth, and OBL even less time. If they plan on carrying this out, it would have to be fast.
Yeah right! They are gonna nuke the East Coast man. Everyone knows that. Too spread out out hear in Cali for a suitcase nuke to do much damage.
I pray they don't have them though I am pretty sure that they do.
Actually, Berkeley would be best, but I'll take L.A. in a pinch ; )
Hahah.. Very funny. NOT. If you hope that any city gets nuke you are very sick individuals. I think this threat should be taken very seriously.
ha... I was thinking the same thing.
The electronics can be changed out by someone who knows what they are doing. There are plenty of guys from the middle east who came over here for graduate study in electrical engineering. The real issue is whether or not they have also gotten hold of a supply of fresh tritium to recharge the devices. Without a recharge within the past 3 or 4 years the devices would just fizzle.
The fallout radiation from these low yield devices would not be great enough to spread into the rest of the United States should they be detonated on the West Coast. Should one be detonated in downtown Los Angeles for example I doubt we would receive a lethal dose of radiation in the Inland Empire although we are directly east and only about 38 miles away.
No.. let's face it, depending on the number of these devices that they have. NY and Washington D.C. will be the first to go. All you have to do is look at their previous target selections. The symbolism. The population density. Folks. In case you have never been here the population of Southern California is spread out over hundreds of miles. We don't build up, we build out. So there isn't really any place in the Los Angeles area you could hit that would have the same effect as a detonation in NY or another densely populated East Coast city. (LAX would be the most likely target. As OBL has attempted to target LAX before)
I would assume, if Bin Laden is in posession of this many devices, that he would detonate a few and when the dust settled attempt to negotiate with us for the removal of US troops from Saudi Arabia and Aghanistan and for the dissolution of Isreal.
FWIW, and this in no way contributes to my belief or disbelief of this 20 suitcase claim, I can deadlift 295 lbs in three sets of 10, seperated by a 1 minute rest period between sets. Now, that's dead lifting, not a lot of walking, you see. However, I have walked around with the weights/bar when they were loaded to around 200lb without too much of a problem, and 175 would be do-able for a quite a distance before I would absolutely, positively have to put it down.
175 lbs would be upper end for these devices, 75 lbs lower end. Actually, I suspect that "suitcase bomb" is probably a bit of a misnomer for these. I am thinking that something about the size of a trunk is considerably more credible -- it is indisputably possible to construct a working fission device within a space of those dimensions. Something the size of a trunk and weighing between 75-175 lbs is unlikely to be carried by the handle by one person down the street. Two people could maneuver it into even a relatively small car, however, and from there it could be taken almost anywhere. As for getting it into the country, in addition to car it could be transported by boat, flotation devices could be attached and divers could swim it on to shore, it could be carried in an airplane and parachuted to a remote drop site, etc.
I'm sure that suitcase nukes are not "light the fuse and run" devices. It's quite possible that any that have been divirted are missing key components -- what's more fun to a mafia than betraying its customers?
I don't believe any sane government would build a nuke that could easily be used by a rogue technician to blackmail the government. there would be safeguards on the triggering device. Perhaps the "fuel" would be held separately.
and glass over that whole region.
get a grip.
If these are tritium devices the mafioso are laughing their a__es off. Nothing is harder to make or come by.
Why haven't they already been used? I can think of at least four reasons why they would be waiting to use them -- all four may be coming up within the next 10 days!
1. They are waiting for the announcement that OBL has been killed. This could happen at any minute. His death will be the signal to unleash the ultimate wave of vengeance.
2. They are waiting for the day before Thanksgiving (11/21). This is always the peak day for air travel in the US. Terminals are at their most crowded. A guy hauling what looks like an ordinary trunk on a luggage cart into the terminal and toward the airline ticketing desks would arouse zero suspicion. Once inside, BOOM! They wouldn't need to worry about going through the x-ray machines, the point isn't to blow up a plane but to blow up the terminal. In addition to killing lots of people, taking out a few carefully selected terminals could paralyze air traffic in the US for a long time. If they take out Reagan National, Dulles, and Baltimore/Washington, they stand a good chance of taking out significant numbers of important government personnel as well.
3. They are waiting for the day after Thanksgiving (11/23). This is always the peak day for retail sales. The malls are packed, and would be attractive targets of opportunity. It would not be necessary to haul in the device, just drive right up to the busiest entrance and set it off. The blast radius will still take out the entire mall building, plus much of the surrounding area. In some locations they can probably also target in a manner that would enable them to take out some nearby major highway overpasses as well. Need I also mention the impact that such a disaster would also have on the US economy?
4. They are waiting for 11/29, the anniversary of the UN resolution partitioning Palestine and providing the legal basis for the creation of an independent Israel. OBL has already issued a statement referring to this, condemning the UN, and warning all Arabs to "get out of the UN." If the police block off the streets so that they can't drive up to the UN building, they could just get in a boat and float down the East River until they are alongside the UN building to detonate. Or they could fly a small plane at low altitude and detonate near the UN complex. The blast radius might even be sufficient to take out the UN complex if they were on the opposite bank of the river directly across from the UN.
Is this true, or is this a kind of military version of an uban myth?
I mean, a satellite something like a hundred miles up is pretty far away to be detecting radioactivity, isn't it? Even if it were possible, wouldn't it constantly be reporting data on people coming away from radiation treatment and such? (In fact, wouldn't that be a simple way to mask such a device -- just place it near a hospital complex?)
Mark W.
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.