TERROR OF BIN LADEN'S 20 BACKPACK NUKES developing

Drudgereport.com ^ | drudge

[Fury]

The half-life of the triggers for such atomic weapons is typically 60 days, after that, the weapon requires new radioactive material (as well as specialized electronincs maintenance).

This is correct, as the physics package and associated electronics have a "limited shelf life".

[LibWhacker]

Well, I heard Osama got a bunch of de-coder ring nukes in a box of Crackerjacks.

(Actually, if this is true, or any variation on the theme is true, we should long ago have been threatening the Russians over it -- much as Pres. Kennedy himself did.)

[tinamina]

www.debka.com
And I've been reading about these backpack nukes in various places for about a year, it's not new, just probably a new source.

[Noswad]

"…The GRU's tactics toward terrorists are simple: never give them any orders, never tell them what to do. They are destroying Western civilization: they know how to do it, the argument goes, so let them get on with it unfettered by petty supervision. Among them there are idealists ready to die for their own ideas. So let them die for them. The most important thing is to preserve their illusion that they are completely free and independent. "

Spetsnaz --- Viktor Surovov 1987

[mikegi]

Not Debka, the UK's Sunday Express:

Looks like a tabloid to me.

[VOA]

PAPER: Osama bin Laden has bought nuclear firepower from renegade KGB agents

Since 9-11, about all these yahoos have done is blow up a nightclub in Bali,
a hotel in Africa...h-ll, they haven't blown up one major bridge in the USA
(well, at least that we know about...)

Maybe they really are going to be resurrgent.
But I would have expected some sort of major symbolic strike by now...
...at least something pyrotechnic at one of our military bases or embassies abroad...

[tortoise]

I understand the so called suitcase nukes to actually be the size of large foot lockers, 4' by 2.5' by 2.5'.

Yes, but honest-to-God backpack nukes do exist, though a bit heavy. I can't say if the Russians actually had them, but their nuclear tech was pretty decent.

[PokeyJoe]

Hmmmm.... Arafat "warns" Bin Laden to stop exploiting Palestinians. Why would Arafat do this?

Hmmmm.... So, let's suppose Bin Laden does have twenty nukes... just as a hypothetical...

Bin Laden manages to detonate at least 2 of the 20 nukes obtained before the triggers decay. Now... I'm no fan of Arafat, but he is a classic "survivor" and will do what needs to be done to stay in control of the PA. He's now in position to hopefully survive what would follow a nuclear strike on the UK and/or the US.

Hmmmm.... what's motivating Arafat to position himself opposite of Bin Laden? Is he afraid of something? Is something going to happen and he has intelligence of it? If he does have intelligence and doesn't share it with the US - he's in denial.

Hey, I can speculate almost as good as DEBKA and the CHEEZEWIZARDS. But don't tell my SISTER. She prefers MOOSE. (she heard an urban myth concerning the size of their feet in relation to other body parts)

[Blood of Tyrants]

Dirty radiological bombs could be any size.

[mewzilla]

Wonder if this is the reason the President looked like heck when he made his smallpox announcement?

[Honcho]

how would kgb agents get nukes?


Unfortunately the KGB did have control of some of the smaller "strategic nukes."

[FairOpinion]

This has been talked about for some time, it goes away, then someone reports it as "news" again. I personally think that it is quite likely that Al Quaeda does have nukes and the US gov. knows it, but don't want to confirm it, so as not to panic people. I think a lot of people are underestimating the real threat we are facing.

From an article in October, 2002:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=29109

Yossef Bodansky, author of "Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America" and the U.S. Congress' top terrorism expert, concurs that bin Laden has already succeeded in purchasing suitcase nukes. Former Russian security chief Alexander Lebed also testified to Congress that 40 nuclear suitcases disappeared from the Russian arsenal after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Williams quotes an anonymous federal official as saying: "The question isn't whether bin Laden has nuclear weapons, it's when he will try to use them."

In addition to the suitcase nukes, Williams reports that al-Qaida has also obtained chemical weapons from North Korea and Iraq. Williams says the FBI confirmed to him that Saddam Hussein provided bin Laden with a "gift" of anthrax spores.

Williams says al-Qaida also includes in its arsenal plague viruses, including ebola and salmonella, from the former Soviet Union and Iraq, samples of botulism biotoxin from the Czech Republic, and sarin from Iraq and North Korea.

[GirlShortstop]

 You owe each other a Coke     :-)

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To: big ern

Debka?

9 posted on 12/14/2002 7:30 PM EST by Mark
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To: big ern

Debka?

10 posted on 12/14/2002 7:30 PM EST by monkeywrench
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[rwfromkansas]

Could they simply rewire it with a new trigger?

[PokeyJoe]

Dr.Pepper if they were real men. =)

[FormerLurker]

Didn't President Bush mention something about nuclear retaliation the other day if anyone were to use weapons of mass destruction against us?