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Add an EventARE YOU SCARED YET? DIRTY BOMBS ALERTS AND OTHER PROPAGANDA
11 June 2002
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Forget the 'dirty bomb' - this looks more like dirty tactics on the part of the Bush administration. There was no dirty bomb; there was no realistic prospect of a dirty bomb; and there was next-to-no possibility of a dirty bomb being detonated anywhere in the USA. Rather, the whole affair looks like a desperate attempt by Bush and co to deflect accusations that they have failed to foil terrorist attacks - and many people seem to be falling for it.
The alleged dirty bomber, Abdullah al-Muhajir (formerly Jose Padilla), was arrested on 8 May 2002. Yet US attorney general John Ashcroft only chose to announce that al-Muhajir's arrest had helped to foil a dastardly dirty bomb plot on 10 June 2002 - more than a month after al-Muhajir had been arrested, but conveniently just days after America's secret services, the FBI and the CIA, were lambasted for failing to act on pre-11 September intelligence. Indeed, Ashcroft used the dirty bomb announcement to heap praise on both the FBI and the CIA for their good work.
As the BBC pointed out: 'In recent weeks, America's key intelligence agencies have had to face a series of accusations that they failed to act properly on warning signals they received prior to 11 September. For a government under pressure to show it is getting results in its war on terrorism, the apparent foiling of an attempt to make a dirty bomb will certainly not be unwelcome to the Bush administration.'
Muhajir hardly sounds like the kind of person capable of making and detonating a radioactive device. Consider the Washington Post's potted biography: 'He was born in Brooklyn. He joined a Latino gang in Chicago, where he was involved in a killing as a teenager. He worked at a hotel in Florida, where he was sent to prison after a road-rage shooting incident. And now the menacing 31-year-old man who calls himself Abdullah al Muhajir is the first accused al-Qaeda operative with "Jose" tattooed to his right arm....' Hmmm. As Dack says, 'Jose Padilla couldn't even spell bomb, let alone make one'.
But then, pretty much no one could make a radioactive bomb. Back on 5 April 2002, scientist Fred Singer argued: 'A dirty bomb makes no practical sense. To produce significant radioactivity over an area of, say, one square mile, the concentration within a small bomb would have to be roughly 10 million times greater and would quickly kill the terrorists trying to assemble the material. The radioactivity also creates large amounts of heat energy, sufficient to melt most containers. What's more, any such bomb would be easy to detect at long distance if it emits gamma rays. We therefore conclude that a dirty bomb is mostly hype.' (Also see Iain Murray's piece on Tech Central Station.)
Now, US officials are admitting that they are 'not sure' what al-Muhajir's plans were (if any) - with FBI director Robert Mueller conceding that 'there was not an actual plan'. So what was there? A disaffected Latino youth with Islamic fundamentalist aspirations who thought about - maybe even talked about - building a nuclear device and blowing up an American city? This looks like a slightly more serious version of arresting and detaining children for writing stories about shooting their teachers - the likelihood of either happening is slim to non-existent. Padilla seemed to be engaged in little more than a fantasy, which the rest of us are only too happy to treat as a potential reality that the great guys at the FBI and the CIA managed to foil. God bless them.
Bush has now announced a 'full-scale manhunt' for anyone else believed to be 'involved in the alleged al-Qaeda plot to detonate a radioactive bomb in the USA' - indicating that he intends to make 'tackling dirty bombers' a priority. He certainly won't let facts like there being no dirty bombs, no dirty bombers and no plot stand in his way. Why should he - when much of the US and European media seem content to report this blatant attempt to save face as a spectacular new development? It is exactly nine months
And if the dirty bombs are all hype, why Al Queda's sustained interest? Or is this just a Mossad dirty trick?
LOL
"We therefore conclude that a dirty bomb is mostly hype.' (Also see Iain Murray's piece on Tech Central Station.)"
Paper Tigers
By Iain Murray - 06/11/2002...However, the lack of immediate deadliness could be viewed as a strength of dirty bombs. Radioactive contamination would mean that an area became unusable, as staying in it for any length of time would be deadly. An area attacked by a bomb using uranium-234 would remain uninhabitable for thousands of years. Dirty bombs could therefore be very useful as economic weapons. Much has been made of scenarios where terrorists explode such bombs in The Mall in Washington DC. There would indeed be a significant psychological effect of having large areas of the national capital cordoned off, but the only practical effect would be to prevent people going to museums. A dirty bomb exploded at an airport like JFK, however, could have significant economic impact. Getting the right target becomes very important if you are going to use a dirty bomb primarily as an economic weapon.
Even so, new airports can be built relatively quickly. Fallout can be cleaned up. Economic effects may be severe, but they will be temporary. The nightmare scenarios mentioned wherein the entirety of Manhattan is rendered uninhabitable would require huge bombs with very large amounts of radioactive material, and can probably be discounted as fantasy.
Moreover, the sort of radioactive material available is an important element in assessing the scale of the threat posed by dirty nukes. Many commentators have mentioned strontium-90 as being readily available in medical waste. This is true, but strontium-90 is neither one thing nor the other when it comes to the effects it would have. It would not be deadly initially - the most harm would come to those people unlucky enough to ingest the material and have it affect their bone marrow. Others would suffer burns no worse or longer lasting than those from other heat sources. On the other hand, as radioactive materials go, strontium-90 would not contaminate for very long. Any area affected would be inhabitable again in about 30 years, a tiny period in the lifetime of cities and certainly miniscule by comparison with radium-226, which would continue to affect the area for 1.5 million years. The effect would be not so much "Keep out" as "Closed for repairs".
Dirty nukes are therefore useful really only for their significant disruptive power. At the moment, however, there is substantial added value to the terrorist from the fear their possible use engenders. The panic this fear could produce in the event of one being used might kill more than the explosion. That is why it is best to think of them as paper tigers. The more we know about what they really are, the less frightening they become.
get them to ignore it. claim it is a governmental conspiracy. guess what? it not only can happen, it's inevitably going to happen. it's just a matter of time.
all you have to do is take a few nuclear chemistry classes, get your hands on some plutonium, and waaaala! you're the worlds smallest nuclear power.
so if you don't buy into the possibility, if your not afraid, then you're stupid.
the REAL possibility of being ARRESTED FOR POSSIBLY NO *GOOD* REASON AT ALL--price--i mean, scary.
call me stupid but i am not scared of an angry brown-skinned person, however, those fuckers in the white house do send a bit of a shiver up my spine.
Obviously not anywhere near NYC.
the REAL possibility of TERRORISTS PLOTTING MORE STRIKES AGAINST THE US--price--i mean, scary.
call me stupid but i am not scared of an angry brown-skinned person, however, those people who think Al Qaida is harmless do send a bit of a shiver up my spine.
We have NO REASON to be afraid compared to so many other people. Moreover, people die all the freakin time. When I was in college, some kid on my dorm floor, blasted two other kids in their dorm room at 2:00 AM in the morning! I went down to see what the noise was and my FRIEND was standing there, his lips going white, and freaking GUTS EXPOSED. He died in my arms while the paniced paramedic was putting some plastic crap over his intestines!
Yea, for a while, I was so devastated I could barely leave my room...afraid of getting shot. But you know, SHIT HAPPENS. It ain't cool, but its life. I don't run around shouting GIVE ME GUN CONTROL! because of that incident. You have to eventually realize that when it happens, it happens. BE BOLD, don't go running to the gestapo just because your day-nightmares make u pee your pants. Freakin Cowards!!
I'm saying, there is no reason to give up our liberties, our faith in ourselves, and surrender our personal sense of security to a "homeland defense gestapo."
Of course we protect our WAY OF LIFE--which is not a Police state--AMERICA: HOME OF THE FREE AND THE BRAVE!
If one Tragic and sick event makes you so fearful that you wanna have a spy on every corner, then you do not deserve to live in AMERICA.
SO GET OUT you moron.
I'm saying, there is no reason to give up our liberties, our faith in ourselves, and surrender our personal sense of security to a "gestapo conspiracy theory."
Of course we protect our WAY OF LIFE--which is not a Police state--AMERICA: HOME OF THE FREE AND THE BRAVE!
If one Tragic and sick event makes you so fearful that you see conspiracies on every corner, then you do not deserve to live in AMERICA.
SO GET OUT you moron.
Your rich imagination is causing you problems.
Several others are said to have been injured.
The blast is thought to have been caused by a bomb in a car placed near the US consulate building.
Relief work at the site has begun and it is feared the number of casualties may rise.
A recent car bomb attack outside the Sheraton hotel in Karachi in May killed 11 French nationals and three Pakistanis.
Pakistani police suspect the Sheraton bombing was the work of the al-Qaeda network.
from Jane's Terrorism & Security Monitor
12 June 2002On 10 June the threat of radiological weapons moved a step closer beyond mere speculation when the US Justice Department revealed that a US citizen with suspected ties to al-Qa'ida had been arrested by the FBI. He had allegedly planned to build and explode a radiological dispersion device (RDD, often called a 'dirty bomb') in the United States.
Washington DC was the probable target of the plot. Robert Mueller, Director of the FBI, said the plot was in the 'discussion stage' when the suspect, Abdullah al Muhajir, was arrested. Al Muhajir was allegedly scouting targets after learning how to build such a device in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mueller said the plot had not gone any further.
Al Muhajir was arrested on 8 May at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago on his arrival from Pakistan and is being detained as an enemy combatant. He had spent several years overseas, had direct contact with an al-Qa'ida associate, Abu Zubaida, in 2001, and travelled to Lahore and Karachi in Pakistan for research and debriefings on the plan. Zubaida, who has emerged as one of the most important sources of information about possible al-Qa'ida plots, told interrogators about the alleged dirty bomb plan in general terms, but did not name individuals.
An RDD is a conventional bomb combined with radioactive material, such as medical isotopes or spent fuel rods designed to spread over a wide area. The number of immediate deaths and injuries from an RDD may not be substantially greater than from a conventional bomb explosion, but the main effect is panic over radioactivity.
The ready availability of radioactive material needed to make an RDD was highlighted earlier this month with the arrest of six Lithuanian nationals who had stolen a kilo of caesium-137 and intended to sell it on to a German national with links to organised crime. The material, which was confiscated in a raid on 6 June, was unlikely to be pure caesium-137 – which would need protective casing – but the arrests have added weight to recent warnings by security sources that radioactive material has become available on the black market since the break-up of the Soviet Union.
The full version of this article is accessible through our subscription services.
http://edition.cnn.com/2002/LAW/07/31/dirty.bomb.hearing/index.html
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