Now Saddam, Iran, or North Korea, on the other hand, maybe. That's where the Axis of Evil gets tricky.
Posted on 12/15/2002 10:50:57 AM PST by Mossad1967
President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have been warned Osama bin Laden has 20 suitcase nuclear weapons obtained for cash from former KGB agents, the London Sunday Express reports in tomorrow's editions.
Last October, WorldNetDaily broke the story of bin Laden’s suitcase nukes, detailed in a new book by an FBI consultant on international terrorism.
The book,''Al Qaeda: Brotherhood of Terror,'' by Paul L. Williams, says bin Laden purchased 20 suitcase nuclear weapons in 1998 from former KGB agents for $30 million. The deal is reportedly one of three in the last decade in which al-Qaida purchased small nuclear weapons or weapons-grade nuclear uranium.
Williams says bin Laden's search for nuclear weapons began in 1988 when he hired a team of five nuclear scientists from Turkmenistan. These were former employees at the atomic reactor in Iraq before it was destroyed by Israel, Williams says. The team's project was the development of a nuclear reactor that could be used ''to transform a very small amount of material that could be placed in a package smaller than a backpack.''
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
I was hoping for a wee bit more in the way of a recommendation. The front page image from TaRaRaBoomDeAy says a lot more about the paper, for me! Handy Tabloid size paper to scrap the crud off your shoes from the Subway or the Tube. (and easy to carry)
Of course, some people prefer to have their news censored, massaged and predigested for them. So I guess it boils down to individual taste.
The difference between Matt Drudge and CNN.com is that Drudge admits he's right about 70% of the time, and therefore wrong about 30% of the time. CNN.com would have you believe they are never wrong, except for occasional minor corrections.
Another major difference is that most of Drudge's editorial involvement is invested in deciding what to put on his page, rather than changing the content of stories to suit his journalistic agenda. This is woefully rare in modern journalism.
When I want the latest news, I look at sources like Drudge first, then corroborate with other sources (the sources Drudge links to are often quite credible). I also look at the wires, most of which are conveniently linked from Drudge's page. Over time, I have found this to be a good way to get accurate news fast. I don't subscribe to or read print newspapers.
Of course, the "mainstream media" hate Drudge and sneer at him as an unreliable source. I suppose they're right, as I can always count on them to write editorials and op/ed pieces and present them as "news reports". Rely strictly on them for news, and the world will always look consistent to you. Meanwhile, Drudge's reports are all over the map, lack traditional editorial "discretion" and don't present a cookie-cutter world view suitable for consumption by peasants.
In the end, it's up to you to decide what to believe. Name your poison.
Seriously, if by some fluke there's a couple grains of truth in this, this is some series <expletive deleted>.
Now Saddam, Iran, or North Korea, on the other hand, maybe. That's where the Axis of Evil gets tricky.
This may do it... 
I agree mostly... and note the source for the above Lott "Newsweek Cover" is Drudge, via MSNBC
I know how you feel... when the [extremes] collaborate and eat the heart out of the center of anything, it burns me up too!
And some of them don't even realize what they are really doing.
I say we round up these aliens and send them back where they came from...
That is exactly the answer I love to read!
Please don't mistake my sarcasm as an attack on your skepticism, for healthy skepticism is a supreme virtue in these days of rumors and disinformation.
Trust no one, suspect everyone.
I think you hit the nail on the head, with the key expression being "workable". While I'm skeptical of this story in general, it IS possible that AQ does, in fact have one or more nuclear wepaons, suitcase-sized or otherwise.
However, the very technical sophistication that allows subcritical masses of fissionable material to be used as weapons also makes them expensive and difficult to maintain in combat-ready condition. Because they usually require such short half-life components as tritium, the triggers for such tiny nukes tend to degrade rather quickly.
AQ may very well have nukes, but lack the ability to detonate them. To be sure, they would (if this is true) be seeking triggers for these devices, but triggers are very weapon-specific, and, unless the ones they obtain were made for their specific models, they would be extremely difficult to adapt to the weapons they have.
That may ultimately inspire them to either try to pool the fissionable material in their weapons to make a crude, low-yield device, or parcel it out for dirty bombs.
In any case, while it's hard to be certain whether or not AQ has nukes, it's not hard to imagine them acquiring radioactive material, even if it's from X-ray machines.
That's why I think U.S. agencies are mainly concerned about dirty bombs for now, and are trying to head off terrorist acquisition of modern, functioning nukes by going after regimes such as Iraq, Iran and North Korea, while keeping Pakistan firmly under our thumb.
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