Posted on 03/03/2002 7:15:24 AM PST by TheRedSoxWinThePennant
OCTOBER BULLETIN SAID AL-QAEDA TERRORISTS THOUGHT TO HAVE 10 KILOTON NUCLEAR WEAPON TO BE SMUGGLED INTO NEW YORK CITY Sun Mar 03 2002 10:40:24 ET **TIME MAGAZINE**
New York -- In October, an intelligence alert went out to a small number of government agencies, including the Energy Department's top-secret Nuclear Emergency Search Team, based in Nevada. The report said that terrorists were thought to have obtained a 10-kiloton nuclear weapon from the Russian arsenal, and planned to smuggle it into New York City, a special TIME magazine investigation reveals.
Publishing sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT, the next cover story of TIME will headline: "Can We Stop the Next 9/11?"
The report hits newsstands Monday, March 4th.
MORE
The source: a mercurial agent code-named DRAGONFIRE, who intelligence officials believed was of "undetermined" reliability, TIME reports. But DRAGONFIRE'S claim tracked with a report from a Russian general who believed his forces were missing a 10-kiloton device.
That made the DRAGONFIRE report alarming. So did this: detonated in lower Manhattan, a 10-kiloton bomb would kill some 100,000 civilians and irradiate 700,000 more, flattening everything in a half-mile diameter.
Counterterrorist investigators went on their highest state of alert, TIME reports. "It was brutal," a U.S. official told TIME.
It was also highly classified and closely guarded.
MORE
Under the aegis of the White House’s Counterterrorism Security Group, part of the National Security Council, the suspected nuke was kept secret so as not to panic the people of New York. Senior FBI officials were not in the loop. Former mayor Rudolph Giuliani says he was never told about the threat. In the end, the investigators found nothing, and concluded that DRAGONFIRE'S information was false. But few of them slept better.
Counterterrorism experts and government officials interviewed by TIME say that for all the relative calm since Sept. 11, America’s luck will probably run out again, sooner or later. "It's going to be worse, and a lot of people are going to die," warns one U.S. counterterrorism official. "I don't think there's a damn thing we're going to be able to do about it."
The DRUDGE REPORT has been briefed on other revelations coming from TIME's investigation:
The Coast Guard is arming itself against a possible terrorist attempt to destroy a major U.S. coastal city by detonating a tanker loaded with liquified natural gas.
The Administration has recalled old CIA hands with experience in Central Asia. Says an Administration official: "You ended up going back to retirees because the bench was so light on Afghanistan. We’re still trying to get up to speed."
This week, Tom Ridge’s office plans to announce a new color-coded alert system to warn local law enforcement and the public about threats within U.S. borders, sources tell TIME.
While there is a genuine debate inside the government about whether Osama bin Laden is still alive, there is far less argument about what will happen after Washington is able to confirm that he is dead. A U.S. official told TIME last week that it is widely presumed that al-Qaeda sleeper cells will take retaliatory action once the terrorist leader is killed or proven dead.
"We're as vulnerable today as we were on 9/10 or 9/12," says presidential counselor Karen Hughes. "We just know more."
Developing...
At least the Administration gets it. Tom Dasshole and the rest of the RATS through malice, stupidity, or a belief in their own omnipotence, are helping the terrorists accomplish their goals.
Probably hid it in drugs.
Probably float it in on a barge or something.
A 10kt nuke is tactical ballistic missile sized. So think a lot smaller, say the shipping box for a 21" monitor or two.
"A 10kt nuke is tactical ballistic missile sized. So think a lot smaller, say the shipping box for a 21" monitor or two."
That is a HUGE box!! All the moreso if it is TWO boxes! Have you seen just how BIG those 21 inch monitor boxes are??
Such a bomb--even with the latest bomb designs--would easily weigh nearly 50 kilograms in weight and also need at least a minivan with all the rear seats removed to move it around.
Yes. I even saw a diagram of a suitcase nuke in the regular media. The diagram was part of a briefing to the senate a few years ago. A diagram was also published on FR a few months ago.
I was on a B-52 crew for a few years, and in a later job I worked with ICBMs. I have spent a lot of time around nukes.
Even the nukes we put in planes and/or missiles are a lot smaller than most people think. They give off very little radiation and would be very hard to detect from more than a few feet away. If they were shielded by the lead aprons used in your dentist's office, they would be almost invisible to any possible detector.
A primitive radiological bomb is a completely different matter. These are simply regular bombs with radioactive material placed around the explosive. They do no more damage than a regular bomb, but they scatter the radioactive material at the same time. It would take a huge amount of radioactive material for this to really be dangerous, but even a small amount would be enough to scatter detectable amounts of radioactive material over a several block area. The psychological effect would be much larger than the actual damage or actual risk from radiation.
These bombs are very radioactive, and thus far easier to detect than an actual American or Russian nuke. As long as you do not care about your own health, they are extremely easy to make. It seems certain that the terrorists have this kind of weapon.
BTW: Having a stolen nuke and being able to set it off are far different things. Setting them off is very, very difficult without the proper activation code. Given enough time and an extra one to reverse engineer, you might be able to figure it out. However, even then it is not certain you could actually set it off.
Maybe not. But it probably could be placed in the hold of a ship and detonated in New York Harbor.
From the article:
"That made the DRAGONFIRE report alarming. So did this: detonated in lower Manhattan, a 10-kiloton bomb would kill some 100,000 civilians and irradiate 700,000 more, flattening everything in a half-mile diameter"
In October 2001 attorney David Schippers announced on Alex Jones radio program in Austin, Texas that Schippers and two active FBI (from Chicago and Minneapolis)agents had tried in August 2001 to warn FBI and DOJ officials about what they believed would be a "nuclear attack on lower Manhattan" by ME terrorists connected to Bin LAden. Schippers reported that he and the FBI agents were blocked and ignored in getting their information acted upon by Federal authorities. Schippers and Judicial Watch are now representing at least one of these agents in a Federal lawsuit against the FBI and DOJ.
Schippers has said that if acted upon and taken more seriously he beleives his warnings in August could have made the 9/11 attacks less likely by AlQaeda.
But could Schippers' and the FBI agent's information from August 2001 also be connected to the reports in the article for this thread telling of fears of a 10 kiloton nuclear device AlQaeda allegedly has and wants to detonate in lower Manahttan?
Furthermore, who is to say that the nuclear device, if real and actually brought into the US, could not be detonated somewhere else (change in plans?)now besides Manhattan such as in other heavily populated areas like LA or CHicago or even the nation's capital DC?
And sadly, these stories, true or not, when taken now (even as necessary)to this level of alert by law enforcement authorities and elected officials result in terrorization of American commerce and citities and people.
Dogpatch, minus the mushroom clouds, is looking better with each warning of doom and boom. "No shadow government" Mayberry ain't all that bad either.
The Schippers interview on Alex Jones show referrred to in reply #34 was posted on FreeRepublic by ratcat and others.
But, more seriously, this is just incredibly disturbing. Your thoughts on flexibility are spot-on. We like to call terrorists "dumb" and think of them as stupid--no doubt the footsoldiers could be--but in truth, they've out-thought us a number of times, and could again. Lower Manhattan--I wonder what the fixation with New York is? Nevertheless, they still have other prime targets, I'm sure--DisneyWorld, many major cities, perhaps even Washington DC would be enticing.
Please see replies #34 and #37.
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