Y
Yard Ape
Guest
Police suspect bin Laden making ‘dirty‘ nuclear bombs
(click for full story)
October 17, 2001
By a journalist
Ottawa Citizen
Police in Canada, Britain and Bulgaria are urgently investigating suspicious activity involving atomic energy research facilities as fears grow that Osama bin Laden may be attempting to build crude nuclear weapons.
Terrorists could build a "dirty" radiological bomb with little effort capable of killing 2,000 people and contaminating thousands more, according to a report from the Center for Defense Information, a think tank in Washington.
. . .
Bin Laden has voiced his desire to have a nuclear bomb. In May, 1998, he issued a statement arguing it was necessary to obtain nuclear weapons and that it was the duty of Muslims "to prepare as much force as possible to terrorize the enemies of God." In a 1998 interview with Time, bin Laden dodged the question of whether he actually had such a device. "If I have indeed acquired these weapons, then I thank God for enabling me to do so," he said.
. . .
Earlier this year, customs officers from Uzbekistan seized 10 lead-lined containers at a remote border crossing with Kazakhstan. Intelligence analysts say they were filled with enough radioactive material to construct dozens of crude radiological weapons. The containers were being shipped to a company in Quetta, Pakistan, but since Pakistan already has an arsenal of nuclear weapons, most analysts believe it would have no need for such material, prompting speculation it was destined for bin Laden.
There is also the possibility bin Laden has built or obtained a nuclear bomb, stolen from the stockpile of the former Soviet Union. In 1998, an Arabic news magazine reported bin Laden‘s organization paid Chechen gangsters US$30-million for 20 Russian nuclear warheads. The plan, according to the magazine, was to detonate the bombs in U.S. cities.
The Russian government denies any of its warheads are missing. But according to Republican Congressman Curt Weldon, the former Soviet Union cannot account for 48 of its 10-kiloton suitcase nuclear weapons.
(click for full story)
October 17, 2001
By a journalist
Ottawa Citizen
Police in Canada, Britain and Bulgaria are urgently investigating suspicious activity involving atomic energy research facilities as fears grow that Osama bin Laden may be attempting to build crude nuclear weapons.
Terrorists could build a "dirty" radiological bomb with little effort capable of killing 2,000 people and contaminating thousands more, according to a report from the Center for Defense Information, a think tank in Washington.
. . .
Bin Laden has voiced his desire to have a nuclear bomb. In May, 1998, he issued a statement arguing it was necessary to obtain nuclear weapons and that it was the duty of Muslims "to prepare as much force as possible to terrorize the enemies of God." In a 1998 interview with Time, bin Laden dodged the question of whether he actually had such a device. "If I have indeed acquired these weapons, then I thank God for enabling me to do so," he said.
. . .
Earlier this year, customs officers from Uzbekistan seized 10 lead-lined containers at a remote border crossing with Kazakhstan. Intelligence analysts say they were filled with enough radioactive material to construct dozens of crude radiological weapons. The containers were being shipped to a company in Quetta, Pakistan, but since Pakistan already has an arsenal of nuclear weapons, most analysts believe it would have no need for such material, prompting speculation it was destined for bin Laden.
There is also the possibility bin Laden has built or obtained a nuclear bomb, stolen from the stockpile of the former Soviet Union. In 1998, an Arabic news magazine reported bin Laden‘s organization paid Chechen gangsters US$30-million for 20 Russian nuclear warheads. The plan, according to the magazine, was to detonate the bombs in U.S. cities.
The Russian government denies any of its warheads are missing. But according to Republican Congressman Curt Weldon, the former Soviet Union cannot account for 48 of its 10-kiloton suitcase nuclear weapons.
