this from the UK Times Bin Laden's nuclear secrets found 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. click for more
Dead man walking. When were through with him, we need to extinguish the remaining Taliban from Pakistan. Nice to know their Intelligence Service and nuclear scientists were probably a factor in getting them nuclear materials. I think their big mistake was striking us at the hearts of America and thinking we would not attack. There is no way they thought we would attack them because they probably felt we could not prove it. Or, they figured it would cause a world war between Muslims and everyone else. Instead, they have sealed their fate and all terrorists' fate. Can you imagine if we did not attack....what would have been next? Waiting on them to strike us with nuclear weapons before we act. Oh man...if anyone doesn't believe in what we are doing now...then they are clearly not thinking straight or are just as evil. Surf
I agree on the great danger this poses. There are a number of different ways of looking at this problem. 1) In the short run we should eliminate this particular group of terrorists, not only for 9-11, but for their nuclear and chemical threats. 2) In the long run we should start trying to eliminate nuclear weapons and probably nuclear energy, totally. Notice the concern that the terrorists might bomb our nuclear reactors. We are always worrying about the materials from the plants being used to make weaons. 3) In the long run we should change our bullying foreign policy so that we don't make large parts of the world hate the US. If we don't take these steps we are basically in danger,. hoping that our intelligence and military can always strike first before we are attacked with nuclear weapons. As 9-11 proved we can't always count on that. Unfortunately we are rapidly approaching what has always been the fear of anti-nuclear activists. The genie can not be kept in the bottle for ever. Sooner or later, if not already, the technology will fall into the wrong hands. Insisting that we are safe as long as we and our allies alone have it will not keep us safe in the long run. Mutually assured destruction as we're seeing may not work with terrorists. Maybe this realization is why Russia and the US are apparently agreeing right now to reduce their total nuclear arms by approximately 2/3.
As usual, glynch blames the US for this... 1) Eliminate this particular group? Why stop with this particular group? If we do then we lose. Oh, yeah, I forgot that you want us to lose... 2) Eliminate nukes? Great, as long as you can get everyone else to go along with it. Good luck, and I honestly hope you pull that one off. But forgive me if I don't hold my breath. Eliminate nuclear power? By this you mean increase our dependence on ME oil, correct? Because that's what would happen. No two ways about that. You seem to be under the mistaken impression that terrorists are getting nuclear material from western nuclear facilities. They are getting it from reactors in places like Russia, Iraq (before the Israelis destroyed it), and North Korea. Tell them to shut down their reactors. 3) Bullying foreign policy? Again, you blame the US for 9/11 and the possibility that we're going to get nuked... Please be specific: what actions would you take in changing our "bullying" foreign policy? What would you change? (this should be interesting) OR maybe it has something to do with the fact that huge nuclear arsenals are a) no longer necessary, and b) immensely expensive to maintain (the Russians literally can't afford more than 2,500 warheads anymore)? More lies and mischaracterizations... It never ceases to amaze me how you can blame the US for every goddam problem in the world, glynch. And now it's our fault that Osama has nukes... Getting more ridiculous by the day.
...speak of mutually assured destruction. Nice story. Tell it to Reader's Digest. Feeling paranoia, like the walls are closing in. Blood stains on my hands and I don't know where I've been. I'm in trouble for the things I haven't got to yet. I'm chomping at the bit, and my palms are getting wet. Sweating Bullets
<b>3) In the long run we should change our bullying foreign policy so that we don't make large parts of the world hate the US</b> Wow, I can't believe you blamed the U.S. for this! *gasp*! Let me get this straight, you want the U.S. to get bin Laden, but the only way to get him is to go through Afghanistan, and you're ripping the U.S. for bombing Afghanistan. You want the U.S. to get rid of their "bullying policy" while at the same time getting rid of nuclear weapons around the world which would require, guess what, POLICIES! Iraq has nuclear weapons, the only way to get it from them is to go take it from them, they won't hand it over. Yet glynch you would be the first one to rip the U.S. for attacking Iraq. So how exactly are the U.S. going to get nuclear weapons from bin Laden and Iraq if the bombings are, in your words on par with 9/11? And how is the U.S. going to stop other countries from getting and using nuclear weapons without instituting their "bullying policies"? It isn't the U.S. or their policies fault for 9/11, bin Laden is a nutcase, he has bombed countries around the world, and threaten Saudi Arabia so saying the U.S. brought it on themselves for 9/11 doesn't cut it, because it's a lie.
I got a really bad feeling that this guy has something huge up his sleeve. I think if I lived in New York or DC I would be taking a couple months long vacation. They need to find the guy like yesterday.
The more of these upper level guys you find the more info you can get from torturing them. We should deport all of these foreign nationals under arrest and then have the CIA scoop them up in their respective countries. Invite the Mossad over too. I'm sure some Al-Qaeda guys would be really stoked to hear the Mossad will be conducting their interrogations.
I think they seem to be overly panicked with the current information. From Reuters via the Boston Globe: It goes on to say this proves nothing regarding capability.
<b>I got a really bad feeling that this guy has something huge up his sleeve. I think if I lived in New York or DC I would be taking a couple months long vacation. They need to find the guy like yesterday.</b> If they have something huge up their sleeves it's not going to be in New York or Washington DC. The best they could do was hijack planes and now even that is thwarted. There is no way they'll be able to smuggle nuclear weapons into this country. If they try and pull a stunt it'll be overseas. And if they try to pull it in New York or DC it's the worst mistake they could ever make. I'm still kind of suspicious whether they even have nuclear weapons. And if they wanted to pull another terrorist attack they would have done it already.
If you can smuggle a truckload of Mexicans over the border, you can smuggle a suitcase nuke over. And if they have a nuke of any kind, they will not waste it overseas. If they have any nukes then they have a precious few, and they are meant for American cities. I guarantee that. Why did they wait until 9/11 to blow up the WTC and Pentagon? Assuming that they don't have it/won't do it simply because they haven't done it yet is not only faulty logic, it's an extremely dangerous assumption. The CIA has said on several occasions that they believe that Al Qaeda likely has two suitcase nukes. And that they will likely be turned into dirty nukes, since they lack the arming codes. If they have it then they'll use it soon. Think of it as their ace in the hole that they haven't needed until now.
And who's to say they weren't over here before 911? I mean no matter what we think, OBL is not stupid. He knew what our reaction would be and what would happen with security. Who's to say someone hasn't been sitting on one of these things for the last few months?
It was easier to smuggle people over the border before the attacks and before this report then it is now. I'm pretty sure that border protection will be increased a million times more then it was before. Before, smuggling people in wasn't a threat to national security. I don't know, the problem I have is why would Al Qaeda go through all the trouble of trying to hijack planes and fly them into buildings when they could unleash nukes and just kill off people for the next thousands of years with radiation poisoning?
Bingo! Good for you, rocksmillenium. Saddam has spent millions and billions on a nuclear weapon program that probably still hasn't produced a bomb. I have a lot of difficulty believing some Afghans holed up in caves are going to be that much more successful. And besides, if they had them... why didn't they use these weapons first? I mean, maybe they could manage to ferret a nuke into New York tomorrow. But it's sure as hell going to be harder than it would have been two months ago. And all those "nuclear manuals..." doesn't it seem likely that those were planted there on purpose? "Partially burned." Whatever. These people aren't incompetent, if they wanted to eliminate these documents, they've had weeks to do it. My guess is that if they can' thave nukes, they figure they might as well have the paranoia that nukes inspire. I could be wrong. But let's all hope I'm not this time .
Hate to break to some of you but there are hundreds of ships coming into the US every day and nobody is checking every single one of the containers on those ships. If drug lords can smuggle thousands of pounds of drugs into the country every year, surely something the size of suitcase wouldn't be so darn tough.
