quote: Building instructions nuclear bomb found in al-Qaeda houses
Published: 15-11-2001 9:44 Last edited: 15-11-2001 9:47
LONDON - Technical documents on the construction of a nuclear weapon were found in two houses in Kabul, used by the terrorist network of al-Qaeda. According to the British paper The Times, the buildings were hurriedly evacuated last monday when the leaders of the Taliban retreated from the city.
The homes were inhabited by Arabs, Pakistanians, and possibly by Osama bin Laden, the Saudian who is being held responsible by the United States for the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. The residents tried to burn the documents before they departed, but succeeded only partially.
Great-Britain and the United States are convinced that Bin Laden has access to nuclear material, and that he will not be afraid to commit attacks far larger in scope than those of september 11th. The Kabul findings again strengthen the belief that the Saudian has plans in that direction.
I am afraid we will become a generation to witness events that will utterly dwarf the earlier terrorist attacks...
[ November 17, 2001: Message edited by: Mojo Jojo ]
Posted by Vogon Poet (Member # 393) on :
So? Maybe this is what passes for pornographic literature among terrorists. I've got instructions for building a nuclear bomb. There's a "how-to" for a simple device in Frederick Forsythe's The Fourth Protocol.
Posted by Grokca (Member # 722) on :
I don't know how true this is, you hear so much unconfirmed stuff, but I hear that the plans they found were just the rudimentary stuff you can find on the internet. I think they might have been trying but the stuff was they had was not enough to actually make a bomb. Could they have just left this stuff there to cause more fear. Who knows? Paul
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
Bin Laden's rich, but he's not THAT rich. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get uranium or plutonium at ANY price?
Sure, he has the plans. Anyone with a copy of "The Sum of All Fears" has the plans, for a fusion bomb, no less. But it takes materials that he couldn't get, and facilities that he doesn't have. The only way he's got a nuke is if he stole one or had it given to him. THAT I might worry about. But not all that much.
Posted by First of Two (Member # 16) on :
I Have the plans for a functional nuclear device.
Unfortunately, to gather the fissionable materials, I will have to spend the next 78 years scraping the luminous stuff off glow-in-the-dark posters and watch dials.
Oh, well.
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
It'll take that long even with your vast army of librarians in your secret base under the children's library? Wow.
Posted by USS Vanguard (Member # 130) on :
"How to build a A-bomb for under 400$ and other Household hints"
its probably on amazon or something.
Posted by Mojo Jojo (Member # 256) on :
These weren't general how-to documents... they were very highly detailed technical schematics. It is true that do-it-yourself blueprints are readily available on the internet, but the discovered papers were far more than a simple "build your own A-bomb in 10 easy steps" FAQ - as everyone here seems to think.
Since we don't know the full extent of OBL's fortune or resources, saying that he absolutely can't afford or obtain a prefab-warhead is a large and dangerous assumption to make. Russia, India, and Pakistan (which are all nucleair powers) are just around the corner, and it is definitely not inconceivable that OBL could acquire a weapon from sources within those countries. Then there are Irak and Iran (not exactly famous for their western sentiments), likely in possession of both the means and the information to construct a nuke.
Assume the worst, not the best. Personally, I can't understand how some people can remain calm given the circumstances. I only hope you're all right and I'm wrong... because the consequences will be horrific if you aren't.
Posted by BlueElectron (Member # 281) on :
Man, those terrorists got no technologies to build one, even if they do somehow got their hands on detailed schematics.
First, as a few of you have pointed out already, to obtain the right amount of the right radioactive materials is gonna be hella expensive, and very hard to come by without being tracked by people like CIA.
Second, critical mass have to carefully calculated, and the surrounding TNT have to be built to exact shape to apply uniform pressure into the radioactive materials to trigger a fission reaction.
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
Not to mention shaping the uranium into a PERFECT sphere...
Posted by BlueElectron (Member # 281) on :
There's a rumors about how U.S. track "rogue" nuclear materials...
Some say that American spy satellites are fitted with the equippment to detect heat coming out of nuclear materials of the right amount...
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
I really doubt it's all that expensive, providing you know where to look.
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
Under the bed ... ?
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
That's where I keep my shoes and what remains of my box of V8 Splashes. (Tropical Blend.) No weapons-grade nuclear material, there, but then I haven't really examined it very closely.
Posted by targetemployee (Member # 217) on :
This is like the conflicts that occur between my mother and I. She may say a threatening word. Though she may not be able to back up her word with action, she did press a button which created a reaction.
OBL and his network do the same with the US. They are trying to press our buttons in an effort to get a response. I doubt that they will hit us with a nuke.
Posted by Jack_Crusher (Member # 696) on :
OBL could have obtained nuclear material very easily, if he has any. His lackeys could have easily broken into stores of Russian nuclear material, because of their lack of security. And building a device to detonate the material is relativeely easy. Just watch the "Manhatten Project".
Posted by Veers (Member # 661) on :
I was worried at the World Series for a moment. I thought something was going to happen with the president there, sort of like in "Sum of All Fears" when they nuked the Super Bowl. It fit in perfectly with the "coincidences" before: Plane crashes into WTC: Almost happened in "Lone Gunmen" pilot and a similar incident occured in the Clancy book "Debt of Honor," when a Japanese terrorist crashes a 747 into the Capitol. Anthrax: Happened in Clancy book "Executive Orders," Some terrorists start killing people with a bio-weapon, although the death toll is much higher, it's a different disease, and the culprits were from Iran.
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
Well, considering that Clancy specializes in predicting possible future war/terror scenarios...
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
quote: This is like the conflicts that occur between my mother and I. She may say a threatening word. Though she may not be able to back up her word with action, she did press a button which created a reaction.
The hell?
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Made sense to me, aside from the "mother and I" grammatical error.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
Oh dear god Tim, please stop.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
While I won't deny being a dear god, what is it I'm supposed to stop?
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
Grammatical nixpicking.
And if you're a god, do you believe in yourself? And surely that makes you...religious?
Ha! I got the logic trap and won the game!
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Hm... I'll have to handle this like Yahweh would...
How dare you question me?! *sends a plague on Liam, his family, his neighbors, his friends, the entire country of England, and fifteen generations of the descendants of all those people* And you're going to hell, too!
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
Can't you do it in the style of New-Testement God, were you basically say "You've been a bit naughty Liam, but I'll let you off. Come on up to heaven anyway. You old mucker, you"?
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Nah. Old-school maniacal deities are much cooler. Unless you actually have to live under their rule, of course.