World Tribune justs reports Bin Laden has 20 small suitcase nuclear devices

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

www.worldtribune.com

-- don (don29681@aol.com), August 09, 1999

Answers

Bin Laden has 20 nuclear bombs: Expert

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM Monday, August 9, 1999

WASHINGTON -- Saudi fugitive Osama Bin Laden is believed to have up to 20 nuclear bombs and is seeking to launch a massive terrorist strike against the United States, a congressional investigator and author says.

Yosef Bodansky, a researcher of the House Task Force for Counterterrorism and author of a new book on Bin Laden, told a news conference on Friday that Bin Laden has been seeking to follow up on his bombings of two U.S. embassies in east Africa one year ago. Echoing U.S. officials, Bodansky said Bin Laden was thwarted in plans to blow up the U.S. embassy and two consulates in India in last December and January.

Bin Laden has biological, chemical and nuclear weapons and has received technical help from Iraq, Bodansky said. The nuclear weapons include suitcase bombs acquired through Chechniyan rebels.

"The Russians believe that he has a handful [of nuclear weapons], the Saudi intelligence services are very conservative . . . they are friendly to the United States, [and] believe that he has in the neighborhood of 20," Bodansky said. Bin Laden obtained and purchased the suitcase bombs from multiple sources, he said. He has a "collection of individuals knowledgeable in activating the bombs" and "is recruiting former Soviet special forces [to learn] how to operate the bombs behind enemy lines."

"As far as decision-making in Washington is concerned, we should assume that he has them," he added. "Most of them have been transferred through Pakistan."

"Let me stress here: We don't have any indication that they are going to use [them] tomorrow or any other day," added Bodansky, whose intelligence estimates and analyses are considered controversial in Washingon. "But they have the capability, they have the legitimate authorization, they have the logic" for using them. "One does not [make] the tremendous amount of expenditures, effort, investment in human beings, in human resources, to have something that will be just kept somewhere in storage."

Bodansky said Bin Laden has strong ties with Islamic fundamentalists throughout the Middle East, the Balkans, Britain and the United States. He refused to name any specific organization in the United States.

"There's a distinct minority within the Moslem community in the United States that is very sympathetic to his cause, to his analysis and interpretation of the relationship between the hub of Islam and the penetration of Westernization, Western culture and the like," he said. "And a minority among this minority are known to have crossed the threshold of willingness to commit terrorist acts or commit violence. Many have been trained in Afghanistan, Bosnia and elsewhere throughout the Moslem world, so that they are capable. They have the skills and capabilities to carry out an operation as required."

Bodansky said Bin Laden remains in Afghanistan. He said the Saudi is located in Islam Darva, about 80 kilometers northwest of Kandahar. When he wants to communicate with the outside world, he travels to Jalalabad, he said.

-- a (a@a.a), August 09, 1999.


Well that makes my day. This nutcase will use them if he can.

-- Dog Gone (layinglow@rollover.now), August 09, 1999.

Ummm... does anyone know how powerful your average 'small' suitcase nuke is?

-- Deborah (infowars@yahoo.com), August 09, 1999.

Pursuing the nuclear option

Based on in-depth research and a series of extensive personal interviews with international experts Al J. Venter reports on Iran's continuing drive to procure nuclear technology.

The concept is simple and it is known to all nuclear powers. The devil, however, is in the detail. A miniaturised gun-type nuclear bomb weighs a few hundred pounds. At one end rests several pounds of highly-enriched uranium (HEU). At the other end of a barrel-shaped device is more HEU. With the ignition of propellents, the small plug of HEU travels down the barrel mating with the larger piece into supereritical assembly.

The bomb is crude. It has a yield of about two or three kilotons with massive radioactive fallout. For the purposes for which it was intended, it is adequate, for it will kill many people and cause great destruction. It is known in the trade as the 'suitcase nuke.' ...

http://www.africalynx.com/icpubs/me/oct97/meca1001.htm

-- E= (m@c.2), August 09, 1999.


By comparison, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima had a yield of around 15 kiloton.

http://www.fas.org/nuke/hew/Nwfaq/Nfaq8.html#nfaq8.1.3

-- E= (m@c.2), August 09, 1999.



E,

Thanks for taking the time. :-)



-- Deborah (infowars@yahoo.com), August 09, 1999.


A suitcase nuke does NOT weigh 'a couple of hundred pounds'. Not the new ones, anyway. In 1970, a suitcase nuke weighed about 105 pounds not including the electronics. It took two men to deliver the nuke. the estimated effectiveness was about 0.5 to 0.7 kiloton. Obviously, it is delivered at ground level (I sure couldn't throw it very far). This makes it a VERY dirty weapon. Blast area is not that great compared to what we are used to hearing about but the real danger is in being downwind.

Maybe some of our discreet ops guys will be able to neutralize this threat. They should have done this instead of trying to bomb the dude. Hooyah!!

-- Lobo (atthelair@yahoo.com), August 09, 1999.


Maybe they should have been looking into this instead of spying for weeks on the DC Prepper with 30 empty water barrels in her backyard.

-- h (h@h.h), August 10, 1999.

Not that I think this sort of thing is impossible, but really, how reliable is worldtribune as a source?? Are they "yellow" journalism with a political bone to pick? What makes you think that this isn't just a scary tale? Why is it not in the "mainstream" press.

Now, of course, the mainstream press can be pretty sensationalist as well, and often not very factual. But in spite of how scary this scoop sounds, I remain skeptical until more information from other sources is forthcoming.

-- coprolith (coprolith@rocketship.com), August 10, 1999.


In regard to the reliability of the World Tribune, what they say is true. They state that the source of the information was Yosef Bodansky. I have seen Bodansky on at least two TV programs and he said the same thing. On was the 700 Club and I think the other was CNN, but I am not certain.

In any event, I have no trouble believing it. We know that scientists and military officers in Russia are not being paid, and we suspect that Bin Laden has plenty of money. I suspect that nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons from Russia have also been sold to others, such as Iraq and N. Korea.

-- Dave (dannco@hotmail.com), August 10, 1999.



It would be interesting to hear what Scott Ridder has to say.

-- a (a@a.a), August 10, 1999.

British and U.S. airlines reportedly on special alert for terrorist bombs

Copyright ) 1999 Nando Media, Copyright ) 1999 Reuters News Service

LONDON (August 13, 1999 8:21 p.m. EDT

- All British and United States airlines are on top security alert because of warnings of a bombing campaign by Muslim terrorists, a British newspaper reported Saturday.

The Daily Mail said a secret warning, based on information from U.S. intelligence, had been given to the airlines to beware of attempts to smuggle bombs onto planes during the next three months.

"Behind the threat are thought to be supporters of one of the world's most wanted terrorists, Saudi exile Osama bin Laden," the newspaper said in a front-page report.

The United States has linked Bin Laden, based in Afghanistan, to the bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania a year ago in which at least 226 people died.

"The warning from the Department of Transport, which follows a tipoff from U.S. intelligence, specifically mentions Samsonite suitcases," the report said.

Police and Britain's main international airline, British Airways Plc, refused comment on the report.

---------------------------------------------------------------------- --

-- oh oh (oh@oh.oh), August 14, 1999.


Russia Loses Its Suitcase Nukes By Ivo Dawnay in Washington

The Electronic Telegraph 11-9-97 From Richard Finke

The nightmare scenario of terrorists acquiring Russian suitcase-sized nuclear weapons took a dramatic turn last week when the Kremlin implicitly admitted that the bombs exist - and some may be missing. Until now, persistent rumours of the existence of the small, portable bombs have been vehemently denied by Moscow, with even Premier Viktor Chernomyrdin shrugging off the claims as an "absolute absurdity".

But The Telegraph has learned that Professor Alexei Yablokov, who first disclosed the existence of the sophisticated device, was quietly co-opted by the Russian Defence Council last week to devise new legislation to control the weapons.

On Thursday, he was secretly summoned to the Kremlin and ordered to help to draft a presidential decree to co-ordinate the location of "compact nuclear weapons", bring them under secure control, and arrange for their speedy destruction.

The Yeltsin government's decision to bring in the professor is a tacit admission that the suitcase bombs not only exist, but could be outside secure control and represent a genuine international security risk.

It was Prof Yablokov, a distinguished ecologist, academician and former special adviser to Boris Yeltsin, who first alerted the world to the danger posed by the bombs - ideal portable terrorist weapons. In October, he told a United States Congressional committee that he was "absolutely certain" they had been built as he had met someone involved in their construction.

This week he told The Telegraph that while there was "no certainty" that any of the bombs were unaccounted for, there were indeed "some suspicions". He said: "I won't say how many I think have gone missing - you will publish it and scare the whole world," he said. "It is a question of units, not dozens."

The Kremlin's decision to draft the professor represents a momentous U-turn. Only a week earlier, Prof Yablokov had issued an ultimatum to President Yeltsin, threatening to go public with technical details of the bombs if action were not taken immediately.

The Kremlin's decision also represents a personal triumph for US Congressman Curt Weldon. As chairman of the House of Representatives' National Security, in May, he disclosed that Gen Alexander Lebed had told him of his own concerns about suitcase nuclear weapons. Gen Lebed, who in his brief six months in government was charged by President Yeltsin to review nuclear security, said that only 48 out of 132 known bombs had been adequately accounted for.

He suspected that some of the weapons may have been built for the KGB by the Ministry of Atomic Energy without the knowledge of the Defence Ministry. Yesterday Mr Weldon welcomed the news of Prof Yablokov's appointment as vindicating his campaign. "We finally have full confirmation of our suspicions that these devices have existed and do exist," Mr Weldon said. "This is not a time to embarrass Russia, but to come together to secure nuclear stability for people in Russia, the US and the world."

Small, tactical nuclear devices have long been deployed on both sides of the Cold War trenches. The US military is believed to have as many as 600 atomic demolition munitions (ADMs) - some of which are known to troops as "satchel" bombs. The weapons were intended for special forces to use behind enemy lines for blowing up key infrastructure like airports and roads. Similar equipment is understood to have been issued to Soviet Spetznaz units as part of some 25,000 tactical nuclear weapons in the Red Army's armoury.

In 1995, rumours swirled round Moscow that two such bombs had been acquired in Vilnius, Lithuania by Chechen rebels. According to the Russian nationalist paper Zavtra, the weapons were bought for $600,000 and all those associated with the transaction were later murdered to ensure secrecy. The correspondent who wrote the article was subsequently abducted and threatened with death if he pursued the story - which was later withdrawn by Zavtra.

Despite the "official" American acceptance of Russia's assurances that there was no threat, US Intelligence agencies are believed to have been probing claims of loose tactical nuclear weapons since 1995. According to One Point Safe, a book by Leslie and Andrew Cockburn, two Washington-based journalists, the US was approached by the Chechens during their war of secession and threatened with nuclear blackmail.

"They told them that if Washington did not formally recognise the Chechen state, they would sell the weapons to Gaddafi (the Libyan dictator)," Andrew Cockburn claims. A subsequent clandestine CIA mission to Chechenya - secretly agreed to by the Russians - failed to turn up evidence of a bomb.

This and other stories of hoaxes and skulduggery, however, proved sufficiently compelling to inspire the Cockburns to write the screenplay for The Peacemaker, a fictionalised thriller bought by Steven Spielberg. Professional analysts are not so much interested in whether the bombs exist, but in where exactly they are located and whether they are under Russia's secure control.

Now that Prof Yablokov has persuaded the Kremlin to take the issue seriously, it may be easier to discover whether any bombs are missing. But, given that the Russians have lied repeatedly about the very existence of the weapons, it may be too much to expect them to report honestly about when or whether they have this arsenal of terror under firm control.

Additional reporting by Alan Philps in Moscow

Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997. Also, check out my threads on Mr. Lunev, who has said repeatedly that spetznaz soldiers are already on US soil, waiting to take out military and polital "leaders", use suitcase nukes, and sabaotage vital targets, should a strike be launched.



-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), August 14, 1999.


Samsonite?

-- could one fit (sam@wheel.on), August 14, 1999.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ