Uranium And Cyanide Found In Drums At Bin Laden Base

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 12-24-2001 | Barbie Dutter/Ben Fenton

[David]

A well planned nuclear attack on domestic North America might very well be enough to destroy America.

Certainly true, but you left out how the uranium found cannot be used in a nuclear bomb. I'll worry about the destruction of North America just as soon as I know that those with willingness to do it have the capability to do it.

What makes us think Ossama does not have the capability? The Paks and North Koreans clearly have the capability--the Pak scientists who are ducking us in Burma have clearly consulted with Ossama about how to use it; the North Koreans need foreign exchange and Ossama has lots.

As to the Ollie North issue about hitting the adversary with your best punch first (if he could have nuked us, he would have done that first), the answer is that this war, from his point of view, is a work in process. His initial goal is to hit us hard enough to prove he can inflict damage and thereby attract support from the militant Islamic community. However there will be adverse organizational side effects from a nuclear attack that will be counterproductive to his effort to organize a widespread attack on Western Civilization and thus he will hold that weapon until either he is at risk to defeat if he does not use it or alternatively until he feels he can use it without impairing his international Islamic support.

[Catspaw]

Okay, I'm one that said if he had it he would have used it already. Apparently I was wrong. So, now the question is, why didn't he use it?

Remember that delusional video? He thought his Taliban and al Qaeda forces would beat us into the ground. He just didn't have time to make a dirty bomb in Afghanistan.

[David]

" TO All, I think it would be a mistake to think that finding this cache of deadly materials is evidence that we have neutralized or contained the threat of OBL's AlQaida. Someone commented a couple of days ago that the real threat is not from the AlQaida in Afghanistan or even the rest of the middle east, it is from the ones already in this country and those in other friendly countries. So much deadly material and devices could have been smuggled into this country, and so many "sleeper" terrorists could already be here that it is dangerous to assume that any threat is contained. The INS, and the State Dept, do not seem to be doing their jobs in having a sensable regard for the nations safety. I am refering to both immigration policy and keeping track of prior immigrants. Also there is NO emphasis being put on deporting illegal immigrants. Their "political correctness" can get significant numbers of the rest of us killed."

That is in part what I was trying to convey.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

It depends on the purity. The uranium isotopes themselves probably can't be traced, but traces of the soil that they were mined from could possibly be used. It depends on how highly enriched the uranium is. Another thing to look for is any materials that could be used to deduce manufacturing/purification processes. That could point to a specific country. I'm betting that the material was either purchased from the Russian mafia or Iraq, possibly both. That's more likely than a Chinese connection, but I wouldn't totally rule it out, either.

[blam]

"Remember that delusional video? He thought his Taliban and al Qaeda forces would beat us into the ground. He just didn't have time to make a dirty bomb in Afghanistan."

I was thinking that our response was unexpected and overwhelming in the immediate term. If he is still alive and we do not eventually get him. He'll not make that mistake again. (Now, about his successor....?)

[Anamensis]

. A well planned nuclear attack on domestic North America might very well be enough to destroy America.

I doubt it, but if it happens, I hope OUR "dying act" is to nuke Mecca.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

What would the cyanide be used for?

[Catspaw]

I was thinking that our response was unexpected and overwhelming in the immediate term. If he is still alive and we do not eventually get him. He'll not make that mistake again. (Now, about his successor....?)

You bet he won't make this mistake again--but also notice that I said, "in Afghanistan." Finding this stuff in Afghanistan doesn't mean that's the only stash. It could be at any al Qaeda cell worldwide.

[bagman]

I suspect that the cyanide was used for processing the uranium. If the uranium is in the form of some chemical compound, then the cyanide might be used to extract it. I am speculating here, as I have not studied chemistry for many, many years (and I still think that this atomic theory of Dalton's is bunk - I'm sticking to the basic four elements!)

[lexington minuteman 1775]

ok.....we already know this guy does not mind sacrificing a few of his agents to kill 1,000's we can only hope that there was not more material like this so that he can make a dirty bomb. Pscyhologically I can't see where there would be a lotta difference because that radioactive cloud would cause mass panic and if detonated in a major urban area the loss of life could be huge.We all better start praying big time.

[ccmay]

Okay, I'm one that said if he had it he would have used it already. Apparently I was wrong. So, now the question is, why didn't he use it?

Dirty bombs are constrained by the difficulty of getting the stuff where you want to detonate it without killing yourself first or having it disappear due to decay. As a rule, the more lethal the isotope, the shorter its half-life. Even if you get access to reactor waste, it will decay away in days or weeks. Hard to transport it from Afghanistan (or more likely a Russian reactor) to here, especially when there are radiation detectors at the international airports.

If you use longer-lived medical or industrial waste like cesium-137 or cobalt-60, and have enough to build a significant dirty bomb (kilogram quantities) it is still dangerous to someone carrying it around in a suitcase unshielded. Shielding lethal quantities of these materials requires hundreds of pounds of lead.

The most likely scenario in my opinion would be a freighter with lead shielding in the holds, containing a few hundred pounds of cesium or cobalt and a large conventional bomb. Before 9/11 it would have been rather simple to sail it into NY harbor and detonate it, but I bet that is not the case any longer.

-ccm

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

I was thinking too that the cyanide could be used to process the uranium. I know that cyanide is used in certain metal plating processes, so it's not an outlandish idea that cyanide could be used in some sort of process with uranium.

[Norb2569]

Just like I was saying to someone at the mall today!

[Diddle E. Squat]

Ah, but what about in a container, couldn't a 40' container hold enough shielding to overcome the detectors? If so, those puppies are in and out every port, all over the road, impossible to totally defend against. Cell in Mexico could make 3, send them towards 3 different border crossings, maybe 2 get caught in random searches, If we are extremely lucky. Here's hoping that I'm wrong about the shielding.

[sheik yerbouty]

Throw America's PC taliban out of all of our schools and institutions.

[Lucky]

Only one more day before Christmas, is anyone else worried about what might happen that day?

[rboatman]

I only know what I do.

Every time I encounter PC, no matter from who or in what circumstances, I ridicule it and tell the person making the statement essentially that they are a dangerous fool.

In a recent discussion at work, a manager was extoling on a a theme that "sure the terrorist attacks on this country were bad but we must "understand that those people have a point of view that we have ignored and in their point of view those attacks were justified." I jumped right in and told her that "I don't give a rats a** what their point of view is, nothing justifies that kind of action." I also told her that it was viewpoints like hers that creates the impression with terrorists that we will tolerate violent acts like this. Everyone else in the room agreed with me and she she quickly learned that that PC expressions will quickly get you verbally pounded into the ground.

I believe we must hammer it down wherever and whenever it rears its ugly head. I plan to never let a PC remark go unridiculed and unlabeled as "political correctness like that that allowed 9-11 to happen".

It has been my experience that people who are (or have been) proponents of PC, have no courage of their convictions once they see that those attitudes make them unpopular. Political Correctness succeeds only as long as it is popular within the "in-groups". By making it both unpopular and a locus of ridicule, we can, at the grass roots level, destroy it to the extent that only a few die-hard liberals will hang on to it.

[blam]

"By making it both unpopular and a locus of ridicule, we can, at the grass roots level, destroy it to the extent that only a few die-hard liberals will hang on to it."

You can count me in.

[Nita Nupress]

I'm looking for information on the man who supposedly died in jail from radiation poisoning after being picked up by the FBI. Anyone have any links? A name? A few keywords to get me started on this story to determine its legitimacy?

I have to leave now but will come back before going to bed. Don't go to any trouble; I can do the search. I just need a name or some keywords to save time and thought someone here may have a link sitting around already. Thanks in advance!

[is_is]

he will....we he thinks the time is right....i have never understood why immediately after 9/11 he did not do follow up attacks....that would have stop our economy in its tracks....not that we would not have recovered but it would have damaged the american pyhci (sp) badly.