Posted on 11/14/2002 7:48:21 AM PST by newuserOH2002
Edited on 11/14/2002 8:03:24 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
At a time when a tape handed over to the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television station has received widespread expose for its purported comments by Osama bin Laden in praise of recent terror events around the world, another al-Qaeda message released to the same station has received little coverage.
Al-Jazeera was granted an interview with one Mohammed al-Usuquf, allegedly al-Qaeda's number three. Al-Usuquf is said to be a doctor in physics and to hold a masters degree in international economics. A copy of the interview was sent to the prestigious Arab-language daily Al Quds Al Arabi, edited in London, but it was not printed.
Asia Times Online has obtained a copy of the interview, and reproduces excerpts here, with the caveat that the identity of the man has not yet been confirmed, nor has his membership within al- Qaeda.
Al-Usuquf says that al-Qaeda's Kuwaiti spokesman, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, and bin Laden himself, suggested that he grant the interview. Bin Laden, he says, is "alive and healthy, along with his commanders Mohammed Atef, Khalid Shaik Mohammed and Mullah Omar".
Al-Usuquf starts by criticizing Washington's disrespect of the Kyoto Protocol on climatic change, the International Criminal Court and the Palestinian cause, as well as the "financial greed" engendering speculative gains over Third World countries. He also criticizes the manner in which America wastes wealth, like US$80 billion a year on gambling. "They [have] lost the notion of spirituality and only live in sin."
For this reason, America must be destroyed, and al-Usuquf insists that "aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and spy satellites will be worthless in the next war".
Al-Qaeda, according to him, has 5,000 first rank operatives and around 20,000 all over the world. Of all the prisoners in the US, only "20 or 30" are al-Qaeda, and all of them "second-rank". Confirming Asia Times Online information, he swears that there are no first- rank prisoners in Guantanamo in Cuba. Al-Usuquf says, "We have more than 500 first-rank and 800 second-rank [operatives] inside the US." "First rank" are considered ones that have lived in the US for more than 10 years, most of them married with children. "They have an idea about the plans, and they are just waiting for a call." "Second-rank" operatives arrived in the past five years and "have no idea about the plans". They are all willing to die.
Al-Usuquf insists that September 11 "was just the beginning. It was a way to call the world's attention to what's going to happen." He then details a plan to destroy the US by "attacking the heart of what they consider the most important thing in the world: money".
"The American economy is an economy of false appearances," says al-Usuquf. "There's no real economic weight. American GNP is something around $10 trillion, but only 1 percent comes from agriculture, and only 24 percent from industry. So 75 percent of its GNP comes from services, and most of it is financial speculation. For someone who understands economics, and apparently America's Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill does not, or cannot, the US as a whole behaves like an immense dot.com, and dollars are its stocks. The value of stocks from a given company is directly proportional to its profitability. When a company only provides services, but does not produce goods, the value of its stocks depends on its credibility. What I'm saying is if US credibility is affected, its stocks - the US dollar - will fall at tremendous speed, and the whole American economy will collapse."
Al-Usuquf is absolutely positive, "because, in a smaller scale, this is exactly what big financial conglomerates do with Third World countries to collect profits in one month that no Swiss bank would guarantee in four to five years". Al-Usuquf says that al-Qaeda could do the same by "provoking a deficit of $50 to 70 trillion, the equivalent to five to seven years of the GNP of the US". How? By "destroying America's seven largest cities and some other measures". The means? "Atomic bombs." Al-Usuquf's most startling revelation is that the bombs "won't be launched, they are already there". "Seven nuclear heads have already been positioned on American soil, before September 11, and they are ready to be detonated. Before September 11, American security was a fiasco, and even later, if we needed, we could position the bombs there. They arrived through seaports, as normal cargo. A nuclear head is not bigger than a fridge, so it can easily be camouflaged as one. Thousands of containers arrive at a seaport every day, and even with very efficient security, it's impossible to check and examine each one of them."
Al-Usuquf says that the bombs were bought on the black market: five from the former USSR and two from Pakistan. The five Russian heads "are from T-3 missiles, also known as RD-107, and their power is around 100 kilotons each, that is five times the Hiroshima bomb. The Pakistani ones are less powerful, something around 10 kilotons each."
Each of the Russian bombs would have cost around $200 million. Al-Qaeda was able to raise the money "because we have many sponsors. Many countries sponsor us, and also some very rich people." And not all of these are Arab countries. "Some European countries as well are also interested in the fall of the US." As to the "rich people", they are "people who are also tired of seeing the US bleeding the rest of the world."
And Iraq's Saddam Hussein, says Al-Usuquf, is not one of these people, "but just a collaborator, represented by Abdul Tawab Hawaish, his vice prime minister and responsible for Iraq's arms program".
Al-Usuquf says that the bombs cannot be detected by US authorities. "Even if they are old, they were modernized and are very well hidden. Even if they were located, they have autodetonation mechanisms in case something or someone gets close. Even an electromagnetic pulse is not capable of deactivating them." The bombs allegedly cannot be detected because "they are enveloped in thick layers of lead". They could be detonated "by various methods - cellphone call, radio frequency, seismic shock or by their regressive clock".
Al-Usuquf details the whole plan. "First, one head would be detonated, which would cause the deaths of 800,000 to 1 million people and a chaos never seen before. During this chaos, two or three planes, which are now disassembled inside barns near empty roads in the US countryside, would take off in suicide missions to pulverize another two or three big American cities with chemicals. Once the disease was identified, all seaports and airports would be quarantined. Land borders would also be closed. No plane, boat or car would enter or leave the US. This would be total chaos." The first target would be the city "that would offer the best conditions, for example bright sky and winds of eight or more miles an hour blowing towards the center of the country, so radioactive dust can contaminate the largest possible area".
This attack would not knock out the US, recognizes al-Usuquf, "But the process would be initiated. As with the World Trade Center, it would be just a question of time for the whole economic structure to be turned to dust. If the objectives are reached with one bomb and diseases, probably we will save the lives of other people, but it's risky, and probably six more bombs will be detonated, one a week, and more attacks with chemical weapons will be launched." According to estimates made by al-Usuquf "and Ayman al- Zawahiri", al-Qaeda's number 2, about 15 million people would die, victims of the bombs and the radiation. Among those contaminated by diseases, "25 percent will die, a figure around more than 5 million, plus many others due to the chaos and disorder".
Al-Usuquf does not fear an American military response. "Even if five or 10 cities are chosen at random to be destroyed, it will still be a small price to pay. The problem is that the economic despair will be so great that even if it saves [money] by not using weapons, American liquidity will be near zero, and the US will make more money selling a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier to Turkey or Italy for $5 billion, because they will urgently need to recapitalize. But it will be too late. Moreover, what will remain of an American soldier's morale to fight knowing that his whole family died and his country ceased to exist? To fight for what?"
The world economy would not collapse, says al-Usuquf, although "in the beginning, it will be very difficult. But without the US the world will soon rise in a more just and fraternal manner. Nothing can stop the plan."
And whatever America does, "it's too late". When will the attack begin? "I can't tell."
(Excerpt) Read more at atimes.com ...
I believe modern ones do. The variety used in the Fat Man device used Polonium, which decays in a few months. Modern initiators use Dt-T reactions, and last as long as their tritium does, which is years.
Unless we do this:
GET 'EM OUT!!!
Cancel all visas from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Pakistan. Give holders of cancelled visas 48 hours to report for internment and repatriation.
Turn INS Interior Enforcement over to DOD. Begin arrests of any holders of cancelled visas immediately upon expiration of the 48-hour reporting period.
Begin military action against non-visa holding nationals of the above countries. Execute any males from the above seven countries aged 17-50 apprehended without papers or evading pre-repatriation detention.
GET 'EM OUT!!!
The polonium initiators generated a fizzle yield inside of one week.
Modern initiators use Dt-T reactions, and last as long as their tritium does, which is years.
The half-life of tritium is 12.3 years; however, tritium decays in to 3He2, which has a truly voracious appetite for neutrons and will generate fizzle yields in very minute quantities. A D-T initiator is going to need new tritium in less than one year.
Al-Usuquf starts by criticizing Washington's disrespect of the Kyoto Protocol on climatic change.
The Kyoto Protocol was an Enviral Whacko Proctocol to economically weaken if not destroy America. One of these days we will be able to connect the dots from the Islamofascists and the Opecker Princes and their blood money to create the Kyoto Protocol and to make us more dependent on Opecker Oil the last two decades since Jimmy Carter started on that road.
The guy has no understanding of the U.S. After being nuked, every American man (except the girly-man, cowardly pacificst) would do whatever they could to help this nation. The outpouring of patriotism after 9/11 was incredible and that was in a situation where there wasn't a whole lot the average American could directly do in the aftermath because the terrorist attacks were in just two cities. Americans did do the very best they could through donations of money and blood to relief organizations and the local people put their lives on the line to find survivors. If whole cities were devastated, that patriotism would manifest itself in the greatest show of fellowship, support and help this nations has ever seen. Nuking would galvanize the U.S. in ways never seen before. The world of Islam could never conceive of the holy hell they would experience thereafter.
John Ashcroft, you know what to do.
That works if the owner of the nukes has something to lose. Alqaida doesn't.
If we were to use them, they would be sent to Mecca and Medina. We would probably give 24 hours notice to minimize civilian losses. Muslims worldwide would be whipped into a frenzy, and the shooting war begins in earnest.
The nutjob Jihadist who wrote the piece is wrong on a few counts, however. The economy would not collapse, the nation would not cease to exist, and wild horses couldn't drag a SINGLE American, ESPECIALLY the soldiers, from the fight after these cultists murder 800,000 more innocents.
We should certainly be mindful of how evil and rotten to the core these people can be...
But, let's not give them any more credit than they've earned
Two 12 year old boys could come up with every detail in the plan described by this story. This is the stuff of stories told in middle school and not the plan of a sophisticated military attack.
Ye olde pin on the Holy Hand Grenade. Good call.
Question, how much apparatus and infrastructure does it take to do this kind of work? Pressure bottles, controls, flow meters... that sort of thing? How big and sophisticated does the shop have to be? Could you fit that into a container? Is there a way to stabilize the tritium for storage and transportation? Are there large power requirements?
Bud I wish you were right. There are folks within our borders who would be smiling down deep inside if such an event took place. They protest loudly in Washington, D.C. quite often. No I'm not kidding.
Tritium is generated in a nuclear reactor. The market price is $50,000 an ounce. Controls are TIGHT because it can be stolen.
Pressure bottles, controls, flow meters... that sort of thing? How big and sophisticated does the shop have to be? Could you fit that into a container?
You need a fuel-processing facility. Not exactly portable.
Is there a way to stabilize the tritium for storage and transportation?
Tritium is easily transported as lithium tritide (chemically identical to lithium hydride). Just keep it dry (it sucks moisture out of the air). However, it still decays--you can't stop that.
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