Posted on 12/04/2001 5:11:56 PM PST by codebreaker
One factor in the third general terror alert raised in the United States since the September 11 relates according to US media, to intelligence information indicating the the former Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden has gained possession of a so-called dirty or radiological bomb. The target date referred to in electronic intercepts is Mid-December. It has also been suggested that such weapons may have smuggled into the United States.
On Oct. 12 DEBKA-Net-Weekley reported from its intelligence sources that Bin Laden had almost certainly procured a supply of uranium -235 six months before the September 11 suicide attacks. The uranium was believed to have reached him in a multimillion deal with a Ukranian-born mobster called Semion Mogilevich.
DEBKA-Net- Weekley came back to the subject more recently on November 30, in another exclusive report:RADIATION POISIONING BETRAYS MULE
In the first week of October, Pakastani arrested on immigration charges in the course of the FBI investigation into the September 11 suicide attacks, complained of bleeding gums and pain, symptoms of gingivitis. He was treated with antibiotics, but was found dead in his cell in Hudson Couty jail in Kearny, New Jersey, three weeks later.
The cause of death was not released, any more than the dead man's identity.
DEBKA-Net Weekley's medical experts note that the bleeding gums the anonymous Pakistani was treated for are a symptom of radiation poisioning, suggesting he might have been a 'mule' transporting nuclear materials or devices into America. (A subsequent investigation revealed that he had contracted gingivitis in a result of radiation-induced lukemia)
This explanaion would imply that more than one such carrier is employed by al Qaeda to smuggle nuclear materials or devices into the United States, Western Europe and the Middile East, their mission being to plant their deadly burders in pre-arranged secret locations, ready for activation.
This is way too arcane for the Show. Thought you might be interested, however.
Separating U 328 from U 235 is tricky business. They are chemically identical, so it is done mechanically. Flourine, which is nasty stuff and bonds with almost anything, is reacted with U to create UFl6, which is a gas. It is then difused through a membrane with the lighter molecules, U 235-based, passing through more quickly. U-238 starts out at about 1% of all U.
After the difusion, more of the U-238 is left behind the membrance. Enough time in difusion and the flourine is cooked off the U, leaving "enriched uranium" which is much higher in proportion of U-238. I don't recall the minimum percentage required for "weapons grade" uranium, but that is what is needed to make a fission or "atomic" bomb.
A working atomic bomb is used as the trigger for a thermonuclear bomb, which is a fusion weapon, combining hydrogren atoms into helium. The explosion looks like a "sun" because for a nanosecond it is a "sun" reaction.
That's a long explanation for your short question. Uranium right out of the ground is about 1% U-238. Rven refined to pure uranium, it is relatively worthless for a "dirty" bomb, which is a conventional bomb with a jacket of uranium. The terrorists would need enriched uranium. You can't get that without flourine, difusion equipment, and a high level of technical skill.
I don't believe that anyone connected to terrorists has a sufficient amount of the U-238 as yet, though Saddam is probably closer than anyone else. I feel fairly certain that no one has gotten such a "dirty" bomb into the US at this point. Keep in mind that a Geiger counter -- cheap and simple -- can spot low concentrations of uranium in the soil, with very low emissions, (U-238 decays naturally; U-235 is a stable isotope.) I'm sure the government has sniffers 10,000 times more accurate than the old Geiger counters, that could spot an old, radium-dialed watch at a distance of say 200 feet.
Because of the sniffers, and because we are watching our ports and airports, I think the threat, which is very remote, is most likely a ship-based smuggling of the weapon into Mexico, then using a truck to drive it to a city in the Southwest. Probably couldn't make it to NY or Chicago without being sniffed and stopped. LA would be the top target, followed in no particular order by Phoenix, Houston, Dallas/Ft. Worth.
Right now, this threat is low. But every year that Iraq, North Korea, and others are allowed to continue their nuclear research work, the threat grows. That's why I'm fairly certain that the last item on President Bush's Terrorists-I-Want-for-Christmas list is North Korea, though the lamestreem media doesn't have a clue on this as yet.
As I said, just use high school physics, high school geography and a little logic. That's how it adds up.
Congressman Billybob
Thanks for the correction. I'm a bit embarrassed by the mistake. I was the second-ranked physics student in all of Mryland, Virginia, Delaware and D.C. in 1960. Other than a few touchups in college, I've been away from the subject for 39 years. We all get rusty.
Billybob
It's also a symptom of bad bacteria that causes heart attacks. I look up the symptoms on medical websites right after the guy died.
I'm not a doctor, but I play one on FReepers.
No problem, if you don't work with it every day it's easy to forget. For all you would-be bombmakers: Actinide series, odd number of neutrons and a half-integral spin (Manhattan Project asked all US newspapers to voluntarily edit out even the word "actinide"- would they cooperate today?)
You mentioned sniffers...remember way back, someone sold a Co-60 machine to a Mexican scrap dealer who melted it and a bunch of other stuff into rebar and cafe table legs? We found out about it when a truckload of pretty warm rebar went over a geiger system buried in the roadway near Los Alamos. It created quite a scramble. Since then I've wondered where else the sensors may be. Certainly near Oak Ridge and as the poster above mentioned, near the White House.
You are correct about uranium hexafluoride gas being the stuff used in the diffusion plants, too,
Yes it was the anniversary of the battle of Vienna, where the Islamic turks were defeated in their attempt to conquer Western Europe in the early 1500's/
As for radiaiton, tonight there was an expert on either Fox or MSNBC who said that they are searching cities with radiation detectors looking for hot spots. Quite scary.
And as for making a bomb, the discussion on TV tonite is about putting radioactive uranium in a regular bomb, and then blowing it up: making the nearby area so full of radiation you can't live there (sort of like the radiation near chernobyl).
You could also use medical waste, they said....don't know about that, since it's outside my field....
LOL! But I still must disagree with you to this extent- WEEKLY WORLD NEWS has (on rare occasions) gotten something RIGHT!, whereas DEBKA (2 Israeli teenagers with a severe excess of time on their hands, and access to their Dad's computer) have NEVER managed to get ANYTHING right!
This says nothing about the truth or falsity of the "Osama has U-235" argument- but the fact that DEBKA reported it is certainly a big strike against it's being true!
Remember it! Oh, yes indeed. I was living in El Paso then, and I recall that at least a couple of kids in Juarez were killed by this Cobalt-60: they were PLAYING with it, because it "glowed in the dark" and was "sparkly".
As I recall, though, quite a few of the cast iron table legs in which this stuff wound up were actually shipped into the Midwest, and were installed in at least one new fast-food restaurant.
So the radiation-monitoring system at the border was not all THAT good. Hope it is better now!
Now it's possible that the authorities are lying or mistaken about the cause of death, but that's different from claiming that no cause of death was released. And a name was released, also contrary to Debka's claim.
In addition, what subsequent investigation attributes Butt's bleeding gums to radiation-induced leukemia? Is there any actual evidence that this is true? (Yes, I know that bleeding gums are a symptom of radiation poisoning, but they're also a common symptom of ordinary ailments. You need more than that symptom to claim that this is a case of radiation poisoning.)
If anyone has a link that really documents radiation poisoning or leukemia in this person, please let me know.
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