now, if they can just get someone who reads japanese... Audio
Posted on 11/16/2001 1:11:24 PM PST by blam
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 15 2001
Bin Laden's nuclear secrets found in al-Qaeda's Kabul safe houses
FROM ANTHONY LOYD IN KABUL
Times reporter finds blueprint for 'Nagasaki bomb'
Singed files left by fleeing terrorists
OSAMA BIN LADEN’S al-Qaeda network held detailed plans for nuclear devices and other terrorist bombs in one of its Kabul headquarters.
The Times discovered the partly burnt documents in a hastily abandoned safe house in the Karta Parwan quarter of the city. Written in Arabic, German, Urdu and English, the notes give detailed designs for missiles, bombs and nuclear weapons. There are descriptions of how the detonation of TNT compresses plutonium into a critical mass, sparking a chain reaction, and ultimately a thermonuclear reaction.
Both President Bush and British ministers are convinced that bin Laden has access to nuclear material and Mr Bush said earlier this month that al-Qaeda was “seeking chemical, biological and nuclear weapons”.
The discovery of the detailed bomb-making instructions, along with studies into chemical and nuclear devices, confirms the West’s worst fears and raises the spectre of plans for an attack that would far exceed the September 11 atrocities in scale and gravity.
Nuclear experts say the design suggests that bin Laden may be working on a fission device, similar to Fat Man, the bomb dropped on Nagasaki. However, they emphasised that it was extremely difficult to build a viable warhead.
While the terrorists may not yet have the capability to build such weapons, their hopes of doing so are clear. One set of notes, written on headed notepaper from the Hotel Grand in Peshawar and dated April 26, 1998, says: “Naturally the explosive liquid has a very high mechanical energy which is translated into destructive force. “But it can be tamed, controlled and can be used as a useful propulsive fuel if certain methods are applied to it. A supersonic moving missile has a shock wave. That shock wave can be used to contain an external combustion behind the missile . . .”
The document was one of many found in two of four al-Qaeda houses which had been used by Arabs and Pakistanis and even reportedly by bin Laden himself. The houses — two in the Karta Parwan district and the others further to the east — were abandoned on Monday night as Taleban units and their allies fled the city in the face of the Northern Alliance advance.
Attempts had been made to burn the evidence, but many documents still remained. They included studies into the development of a kinetic energy supergun capable of firing chemical or nuclear warheads, external propulsion missiles, preliminary research on the creation of a thermonuclear device, as well as a multitude of instructions for making smaller bombs.
There were also studies into Western special forces’ hostage rescue techniques, phone numbers for industrial chemical and synthetic producers, flight manuals, aerodynamic research, and advanced physics and chemistry manuals.
The houses were checked after being identified by local people. Afghan looters had concentrated on removing more appetising objects, ignoring foreign language documents that were of no use to them.
Bin Laden has said it is his “religious duty” to obtain a nuclear bomb. In an interview with the Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir last week, he claimed that al-Qaeda had nuclear capability and said: “I wish to declare that if America used chemical or nuclear weapons against us then we may retort with chemical and nuclear weapons as deterrent." Intelligence agencies already have indirect evidence from defectors, middlemen and scientists of Bin Laden’s obsession with obtaining or producing a nuclear device.
Al-Qaeda agents are known to have spent more than £1 million trying to obtain enough fissile material to make a “dirty bomb” that, if detonated with TNT in a populous area, could kill thousands and contaminate it for decades.
Intelligence sources told The Times last month that bin Laden and al-Qaeda had acquired nuclear materials illegally from Pakistan. And at least ten Pakistani nuclear scientists have been contacted by agents for the Taleban and al-Qaeda in the past two years, according to reports.
The knowledge that bin Laden has components for a nuclear weapon is believed to lie behind the warnings from President Bush and Tony Blair that he would commit worse atrocities than the suicide assaults in America if he could.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “Bin Laden would have killed 600,000 people on September 11 if he could have done. This simply underlines again why he has to be stopped.
Yup. ....and how many are here still sleeping.
My guess is that these same sorts are also on the Queens Aircrash threads saying don't jump to conclusions about the cause.
I would submit that concluding that Bin Laden has or does not have nuclear weapons based upon what some reporter found in the left overs from a fleeing army is similarly jumping to conclusions. For all we know what this reporter found was some Al Quaeda recruit's homework.I should also think that were I a fleeing Al Quaeda Nuclear Operative, I would be sure to take the most important papers with me while not necessarily returning for less important "crud" that happened to fall out of the files.
I don't know whether he has them or not. But until CONCLUSIVELY shown that he does NOT have them, the intelligent and prudent thing to do would be to assume the worst case scenario and plan accordingly.
Actually, I think that's just some sort of poetic vengeance phrase from the Koran.
...especially since the US doesn't *have* deserts. At least not in places where any terrorist would be able to find his "enemies".
Fusion the Russians learned the hard way. Arclight has slapped the faces of the Taliban who are simply no more but protein for some simpler form of life on the ground in Afghanistan. The rest have been routed and are heading for the hills which matters not. Arclight does not discriminate, the buffs continue and the rest remain patient for that chance. Will be away for a while, got a friend to see in the Boz. Wraith
Let me pose a question. If Osama needed to have plans for Nagasaki-type bomb, why do we think that he acquired Russian suitcase nukes?????
There is a huge disconnect in logic here. My deduction: the suitcase nukes (being in the hands of Al Qaeda) is mere wild conjecture, based on very little evidence and a whole lot of supposition.
Your ignorance of Custer's troops and the Little Big Horn is matched only by your ignorance of the modern world.
The trapdoor Springfield carbine was the standard weapon of the 7th. If you haven't figured it out, it was a single shot weapon.
Many of your, so-called, "mindless savages" were the ones armed with repeating rifles.
Excuse me?
Why do we believe anything this bozo says? He obviously cannot fight a war, cannot keep his own troops in line (or alive). Why do we think anything he says has any validity at all.
He can take 5 years to plan a sneak attack against an unsuspecting nation at peace. But he hasn't been able to do squat against a ready foe. He's no more formidable (maybe less) than the Iraqi Republican guard was against the Big Red One.
Osama bin Ladin is a punk. And we're kicking his ass to kingdom come. If he's got all these fancy weapons he'd better use them pretty damn quick, because he's going to be awful dead awful soon.
How dare you voice reason on this thread. You will be shouted down I am sure. Don't you know that Al Qaeda is a bunch of ignorant ragheads who don't know a proton from a protein? They could never possibly have developed, begged, borrowed or stolen such a device.
Dontcha know that if they had acquired nukes they would have already used them? </sarcasm off>
It is my guess he is referring to the deserts of Afghanistan.
And also that he's a lonnnnnnnnnnng way away from building any.
And, if he was trying to develop one, doesn't that suggest that he was unable to obtain one?
If there was ever a topic worth of wild conjecture and supposition it is whether or not Al Qaeda has nukes. My assumption is that they have been acquiring EVRERYTHING COULD GET THEIR HANDS ON. That is certainly what you are I would do given the motivation and resources.
Not at all. It simply suggests he wanted more or bigger ones than he bought.
And also that he's a lonnnnnnnnnnng way away from building any.
And, if he was trying to develop one, doesn't that suggest that he was unable to obtain one?
I would guess that he is trying to acquire, develop, modify, retrofit, reverse engineer, or whatever. One of the articles I have read about the subject suggested that what they have actually done was to obtain an existing device and rather than bypass the safeguards on the device they disassembled it to obtain the enriched uranium-232. So that they could use it in a device which they were constructing.
Who knows? I assume the worst.
Did you read the articles about the Pakistani nuclear scientist who was helping them and was arrested by Pakistan? I can post them if you would like. You can search for them though.
Ask yourself this. If you don't have any fissionable material and your not constructing an a-bomb what the hell do you need a nuclear scientist for?
There were also studies into Western special forces’ hostage rescue techniques, phone numbers for industrial chemical and synthetic producers, flight manuals, aerodynamic research, and advanced physics and chemistry manuals.
Pretty intelligent and well-educated people. Yet they didn't have one person smart enough to realize that if they attacked the United States, they'd be dead meat inside of three months.
ummm, that 'safe house' probably wasn't in the past few days.
now, if they can just get someone who reads japanese... Audio
What if he was able to obtain a few nukes? Does that mean he wouldn't want more?
Precisely. I don't why it is so hard for people to see this.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.