I'm with you, and if that makes me a tinfoiler, I say bring it on.
I know that sounds sarcastic, but I'm serious. We found a fission device and stole it away, calling 'no joy' on the terror by giving no credit to anyone.
Posted on 09/26/2002 3:43:08 PM PDT by FoxPro
I haven’t heard this stated anywhere, but after reading several editorials, and the statement by Condoleezza Rice, something to the effect “We don’t want to witness a smoking gun where the smoke is a mushroom cloud”, it dawned on me what Western powers are really terrified of, losing power.
The Assumptions:
1. Saddam Hussein possesses a few small nuclear devices.
2. He has the ability to secretly transport these devices to the United States.
What he wont do:
He wouldn’t actually detonate these devices in a large metropolitan area. This would be suicide on his part. If he did, there would be massive retaliation, and probably the destruction of Iraq and most of its people. This serves no purpose. Its called MAD, mutually assured destruction. It is what has provided relative world peace for the last 50 years.
The Scenario:
Agents of Hussein would take one of these devices and detonate it in some remote location in the US, such as a desert in Nevada or an eastern location in Montana. Theoretically this could be done without killing anyone, with a timing device or some other methodology.
After this, Hussein would appear in the media and credibly claim that he has hidden several of these devices in secret locations in New York, Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles. He would also state that any attack on his country would lead to massive destruction of these cities, immediately.
At this point Hussein has become a major nuclear player, without having the ability to deliver nuclear weapons the more expensive and conventional way.
Then the bargaining and blackmail begins. Hussein has assured his survival, and enhanced his global power, with little expense or effort.
This, I believe, is what the Western powers are really concerned about.
I'm with you, and if that makes me a tinfoiler, I say bring it on.
I know that sounds sarcastic, but I'm serious. We found a fission device and stole it away, calling 'no joy' on the terror by giving no credit to anyone.
One order from on high, and we will all meet with our friendly local National Guardsmen or other representatives of the public sector. Say goodbye to your provisional right to privacy, and they won't even care if it is normal business hours. They will probably also tag and note any other illicit activities observed along the way. BTW, there won't be any free movement on the public highways for a while.
Fission-fusion devices (H-bombs) require tritium refreshment, that is true. Fission devices (A-bombs--think Fatman and Little Boy) do not employ a second stage, where the tritium is used. They would be very shelf-stable, as long as the batteries were maintained.
An alternative would be to float a nuke concealed in a merchant ship offshore from N.Y. or L.A.
I think the more likely scenario would be Saddam takes Kuwait in a conventional attack and then informs the U.S. that if we try to eject him again he will detonate a nuke. Then all the Dims and Euroweenies would try to stop us from calling his bluff, saying Kuwait (or whatever he took) isn't worth nuclear war.
The problem is similar to what we faced in the Cold War. By the 70's the Soviets had overwhelming numerical superiority in Central Europe. What if the Soviets launched a purely conventional attack and because of numbers broke through? Would we actually implement our first strike policy to save Frankfurt? The pressure not to go nuclear would have been enormous. So, Reagan rebuilt our conventional capability so he wouldn't have to face that dilemma.
Lessee. These are all "blue" areas. Let me think on this one.
Horse apples!
He would simply blackmail the free world by threatening Israel with it. He would detonate it if attacked. He would be dead either way.
Lol. Chew on this tinfoil:
A very short time before this happened, there was an intrusion at a destruction facility for nerve gas. The intruder was observed by the guards, down to a detailed description of his clothing. They were closing in on him.. had him surrounded.. and then, POOF! There was no intruder. It was all just an illusion.
Of course, that facility was/is stocked with such handy items as sarin-filled landmines and all kinda other goodies.
Then that ship, which supposedly was nailed with a neutron detector, not a standard detector - and had a nuclear response team tied up for days. It was radioactive tiles. How odd :)
Meanwhile, we have had West Nile behaving in ways West Nile never did before, and getting more lethal as it goes, seemingly. Only two explanations for that: a virus that mutates rapidly, or different strains being tested out, which makes sense because the different viral behaviours are being observed in different places and seemingly unconnected. The newest is that the virus now seems capable of not only spreading by mosquito, but is also inhabiting certain flies. Add to that at least a couple of other strange diseases popping up where they shouldn't be, and I wouldn't be particularly surprised if a year down the road, this stuff has killed quite a few thousand.
Then there's all the train accidents. Is it normal with a train mishap every day, almost, and in strange circumstances such as the train carrying hazmat?
And last but not least, there's wildfires everywhere you look, with a lot of them being set fires. Last place that happened was Indonesia, also with a large Islamic population.
The thing we need to be concerned about is biological weapons, a danger not in any way confined to Saddam.
HYDROGEN BOMBS (i.e. thermonuclear fusion bombs) have to be maintained, as the tritium component has a relatively short half-life (12 years, as I recall). Not so for fission weapons (which is what Saddam-the-Insane is likely to have). The nuclear isotopes that "go boom" (either uranium (U-235) or plutonium (Pu-239)) have half-lives in the thousands of years range. I suspect that if there is a component that needs replacement on fission weapons, it will be the chemical explosive that triggers the fission reaction.
I think Saddam is perfectly capable of using bio, but in a different scenario. He would probably deliver them through a blind intermediary, like Al Qaeda, to stir up panic in the West and weaken our resolve.
He would gladly see Bagdad and ten Arab capitals get nuked in return for the destruction of the state of Israel.
Take a look at the humongous statues of Saddam all over Iraq: he knows he won't live forever, but is motivated by having his name and legend go on forever.
Cornered, he will act like Hitler in his bunker and try to destroy everything in his reach.
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