Posted on 12/21/2001 5:53:44 AM PST by nikola
I was surprised that there wasn't a plane disaster prior to Christmas the way #587 preceded Thanksgiving.
12/24 may be a target date, too.
Mark W.
Very sharp observation!
China has the neutron bomb.
China closely supports Iraq and AlQaeda. Bin Laden gave two US cruise missiles to China after 1998.
Red mercury used in making miniaturized neutron bombs (baseball sized)was found in Iraq by UN weapons inspectors.
It is very possible that China has helped Iraq develop a neutron bomb and that Iraq could give a suitcase neutron bomb to AlQaeda and Bin Laden to bring into the US. China for that matter could also directly give a suitcase sized neutron bomb to AlQaeda and Bin LAden.
Sam Cohen the father of the neutron bomb has written that red mercury can be used to make baseball sized neutron bombs for suitcase weapons. That is his science and not his speculation. Cohen also reported that red mercury had been found in Iraq by UN weapons inspectors
For example US and Pakistani intelligent officials arranged to stop the bombing for two hours per night five nights in a row last week or so. The purpose was to allow Pakistani intelligence officials, families, and others to escape before a northern city fell to the Americans.AlQuaeda got the news and had their own evacuation during those silent [from US bombing] hours] and some 2-3,000 of OBL supporters escaped from the country under our very noses. Also it is likely that Al Quaeda probably assaulted the Indian parliament building so that tensions would arise and Pakistan would move troops away from the Afganistan borders to increase the odds of the 2-400 Al Quaeda decoy troops to survive if they were not killed by the intensive US bombing.
Propaganda that characterizes enemies as stupid, immoral, and careless is possibly useful to keep sheople asleep and committed to the popular effort. However, it should not be confused with a realistic assessment of enemy capability, intentions, and potential actions.
I agree completely. However, any charecterization of Al Qaeda that does not portray them as bumbling idiots is likely to be met with disdain on FR.
I will admit the Soviets helped create modern-day Afghanistan. However, the United States armed Osama Bin Laden HIMSELF during the 1980's, and if you deny that, YOU'RE THE ONE in denial, lavaroise, not me. As we type, US Marines are detonating OODLES of US munitions provided to the, then "opposition forces". Of course, it was all noble at the time, but the irony is that today, those very weapons are being used against us, many times by the Al-Queda themselves.
To me, this fact is as unsettling as the (dead-end story) of terrorists (potentially) having Soviet-era suitcase nukes.
I'm just tired of that tired story being aired over and over again. Thats all. In case you want to know, I'm a US citizen and hellbent on destroying these terrorist scum. May we all succeed together, my friend!
The trafficking of fissle material from the newly independant states of the former Soviet Union is well documented. With so much nuclear material being smuggled out of the former Soviet Union it is reasonable to assume that an entire device or devices may have been smuggled out as well.
I'll take a shot at refuting PART of it.
The Swiss have found a few caches with ordinary materials (radios, explosives). They were buried with a booby trap and pretty much ignored. This led to some fun issues (the Russians couldn't find some of them after a few years, plus the booby traps became VERY unstable).
But nukes need constant maintenance--and every trip to the cache risks exposing it to discovery. And if the authorites find a cache and disable the booby traps, then the USSR suddenly has a huge problem: it's pretty obvious that it's a Russian nuke. Can you say "foreign policy fiasco?"
If the Russians merely leave the bomb lying there, then they risk someone finding it and activating the anti-tampering device...and we now have a radiological disaster.
Rule One of nuclear weapons is: "Never take ANY chances with nuclear weapons security." Leaving them lying around unattended in your opponent's territory is a fairly gross violation of Rule One.
Also, imagine Elmer Lee and Clem finding one of these nuclear weapons caches, and somehow getting past the booby trap.
"Hey, Elmer Lee, I don't think we should be messin' with this. That writin' looks like that thar Sir-Rill-Ick the Russkies use. Maybe we oughta call the Sheriff."
"Clem, hold mah beer and watch this!"
First off: has Sam Cohen built a working neutron bomb using "Red Mercury?" (As in, the alleged "red mercury antimonide" compound?) Betcha the answer is "no." The problem is that until someone demonstrates a working "red mercury" bomb, it's speculation. Apparently, a LOT of countries have been scammed by the Russian Mafiya peddling this BS tale.
Second, it seems that "Red Mercury" was the Soviet codename for Lithium Deuteride, which is used to provide the fusion fuel for thermonuclear weapons. Lithium Deuteride does NOT make neutron bombs baseball-sized. Sorry.
Here is some information attributed to Sam Cohen on the existence and use of Red Mercury :
According to Sam Cohen, a new type of non-nuclear explosive is potent enough to light off a nuclear fusion reaction between deuterium and tritium. In the usual H-bomb, a fission bomb is needed as a match to light off the fusion. With the new type of explosive, the fission bomb is unnecessary. As nuclear bombs go, the pure fusion bombs have an extremely low blast, equivalent to 1 ton of TNT: a "pop, not a bang." But they release a flood of neutrons, lethal within 1/3 mile, causing death "from immediately, till shortly after."
They could be made by several countries known to sponsor terrorism, and could be carried in a sandwich bag. The new type of non-nuclear explosives are called ballotechnic materials. Cohen says that unlike other explosives, they produce no bang, no cloud, keep the same shape while they detonate, "but Boy!, do they get hot!" Ballotechnics may have already led to very small fission bombs as well as pure fusion.
Cohen identifies the mysterious "red mercury" (of TV documentary fame) as a ballotechnic material. He offers this "recipe:" take mercury-antimony oxide, compress it, and bombard with neutrons. He says it is slightly radioactive, with a half-life of a couple of days. Cohen says the Russians have built and tested mini-nukes, and that Americans and Russians are cooperating on pure fusion. He says that a Russian bomb was brought to Los Alamos ("by Federal Express" from a Russian plane in Washington) and successfully tested. .....
The terrorist potential of mini neutron bombs is horrifying. One possibility mentioned by Cohen involved a US State Of The Union address.
(Source for the above information:http://www.quackgrass.com/roots/ddp95.html)
Here is even more information attributed to Sam Cohen about neutron bombs and red mercury:
Most frightening for Cohen is the relative ease by which neutron bombs can be created with a substance called red mercury. Red mercury is a compound containing mercury that has undergone massive irradiation. When exploded, it creates tremendous heat and pressure - the same type needed to trigger a fusion device such as a mini-neutron bomb. Before, an obstacle to creating a nuclear bomb was the need for plutonium, which when exploded could create a fusion reaction in hydrogen atoms. But red mercury has changed that. The cheap substance has been produced in Russia, Cohen said, and shipped on the black market throughout the world.
Cohen said that when U.N. inspectors went to Iraq to examine the Iraqis' nuclear weapons capabilities, the U.N. team found documents showing that they had purchased quantities of red mercury. The material means a neutron bomb can be built "the size of baseball" but able to kill everyone within several square blocks.
(Source for the above information is http://www.manuelsweb.com/sam_cohen.htm)
And here is what others have reported about red mercury and nuclear weapons:
(http://www.antenna.nl/wise/368/3616.html)
published by WISE News Communique on March 6, 1992
Red mercury may be bomb detonator
It has been confirmed from several sources that the substance red mercury can be used as a chemical high-explosive to detonate nuclear bombs.
(368.3616) WISE-Stockholm- There has been widespread speculation about the use of the material, especially since it has become part of the post-Soviet black market (see WISE News Communique 366.3594). .......
According to Jonathan Eyal, director of the royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies (which is connected to the British Department of Defence) in London, England, "Red mercury is definitely used in the production of nuclear weapons with Soviet technology. Red mercury is of great interest to third world countries that want to make nuclear bombs, because the technology is different and cheaper than that used in the west. There is information from government sources in Bulgaria and Georgia that a type of red mercury is used in the nuclear weapons production process. Red mercury is used as a detonator, an ignition material, to make the bomb itself explode. The fact is that a very large black market exists for red mercury and there are many buyers prepared to pay in the range of millions."
Further confirmation comes from the USA, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and the IAEA.
In early February the IAEA stated that "red mercury can be used as a detonator in nuclear weapons."
The Czech news agency CSTK announced last September that "red mercury is a strategic material used in the production of nuclear weapons." In Hungary, Professor Gyorgy Marx, head of the nuclear physics department at Budapest University, has pointed out that, "Red mercury 20/20 can cause the type of explosion needed to start a nuclear reaction in a plutonium loaded nuclear weapon."
And in Italy, Judge Romano Dolce in Milano presided over a case where two kilograms red mercury are reported to have been sold for US$800,000. He said, "Red mercury is not a bluff, but a business for weapons purposes. Red mercury is viewed as an important ingredient in production of nuclear weapons and buyers are prepared to pay millions of dollars for it."
The monthly Arms Control Reporter, published by the Institute of Defense and Disarmament Studies in Boston, USA, quotes (in its October 1991 issue) Czechoslovakian sources as stating that, "Red mercury is a substance used to detonate nuclear bombs." David Bowersox, a top official at the Lost Alamos National Laboratory in the US, a center for nuclear weapons research and production since 1945, has stated, "Red mercury can function as a detonator for nuclear weapons because of the strength of its explosion. It could also be used in a cleaning process for plutonium or uranium".
Source: Svenska Dagbladet (Sweden), 10 Feb. 1992.
Let me get this straight. The substance undergoes a massive temperature increase from CHEMICAL reactions only? And yet it doesn't change its density or volume, despite this temperature increase? And it produces no blast? Yeah, Sam, pull my other leg, willya?
Cohen identifies the mysterious "red mercury" (of TV documentary fame) as a ballotechnic material. He offers this "recipe:" take mercury-antimony oxide, compress it, and bombard with neutrons. He says it is slightly radioactive, with a half-life of a couple of days.
Huh? Would somebody mind explaining what the decay products of mercury and antimony are? Also, if its half-life is only a couple days, and you need (for example) 100 grams of the substance, and you stick 400 grams into a bomb casing, you have (assuming you pulled straight out of the neutron bombardment) four days to use the device. After that, there isn't enough of the stuff for it to work. Also, the (unidentified) decay products might "poison" any reaction (assuming that you can get any nuclear reaction from a chemical reaction). For example, 3He is a decay product of tritium, and helium-3 has an absolutely voracious appetite for neutrons--several US nuclear tests were "fizzles" due to helium contamination.
Cohen says the Russians have built and tested mini-nukes, and that Americans and Russians are cooperating on pure fusion. He says that a Russian bomb was brought to Los Alamos ("by Federal Express" from a Russian plane in Washington) and successfully tested. .....
Uh-huh. If they REALLY thought they were moving a nuke, it wouldn't have been sent via FedEx.
The terrorist potential of mini neutron bombs is horrifying. One possibility mentioned by Cohen involved a US State Of The Union address.'
Even worse: the moose that bit my sister could use it on cheese. Just as likely a threat.
Most frightening for Cohen is the relative ease by which neutron bombs can be created with a substance called red mercury. Red mercury is a compound containing mercury that has undergone massive irradiation. When exploded, it creates tremendous heat and pressure - the same type needed to trigger a fusion device such as a mini-neutron bomb. Before, an obstacle to creating a nuclear bomb was the need for plutonium, which when exploded could create a fusion reaction in hydrogen atoms. But red mercury has changed that. The cheap substance has been produced in Russia, Cohen said, and shipped on the black market throughout the world.
If it's THAT cheap, then why hasn't anybody set off a mini-neutron bomb in downtown Manhattan? Why did Osama bin Rotten have to have some dopey followers hijack some airplanes?
According to Jonathan Eyal, director of the royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies (which is connected to the British Department of Defence) in London, England, "Red mercury is definitely used in the production of nuclear weapons with Soviet technology.
Well, yes. That's because "Red Mercury" was the codename given to lithium deuteride, a critical component of thermonuclear weapons, by the Soviet government. It's critical in ANY thermonuclear weapon, unless you want to use liquid deuterium, and have a device roughly the size of a railroad tank car.
Red mercury is of great interest to third world countries that want to make nuclear bombs, because the technology is different and cheaper than that used in the west.
Actually, it's of interest because XUSSR stockpile security is downright pathetic. Much easier to get 6LiD from Ivan than from Uncle Sam...
And in Italy, Judge Romano Dolce in Milano presided over a case where two kilograms red mercury are reported to have been sold for US$800,000. He said, "Red mercury is not a bluff, but a business for weapons purposes. Red mercury is viewed as an important ingredient in production of nuclear weapons and buyers are prepared to pay millions of dollars for it."
May I please see the judge's credentials in nuclear physics? Perhaps he can explain those discrepancies I pointed out earlier.
I saw Rep. Weldon on Hardball tonight and the man knows how to make a point! He came on with and opened a nuke suitcase for graphic display. When Chris asked him about the Sales article in previous post, Weldon did not deny any of it.
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