Dirty Bomb Warheads Disappear

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A41921-2003Dec6?language=printer | Sunday, December 7, 2003 | By Joby Warrick

[vladog]

Dirty Bomb Warheads Disappear Stocks of Soviet-Era Arms For Sale on Black Market By Joby Warrick Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, December 7, 2003; Page A01

TIRASPOL, Moldova -- In the ethnic conflicts that surrounded the collapse of the Soviet Union, fighters in several countries seized upon an unlikely new weapon: a small, thin rocket known as the Alazan. Originally built for weather experiments, the Alazan rockets were packed with explosives and lobbed into cities. Military records show that at least 38 Alazan warheads were modified to carry radioactive material, effectively creating the world's first surface-to-surface dirty bomb.

The radioactive warheads are not known to have been used. But now, according to experts and officials, they have disappeared.

The last known repository was here, in a tiny separatist enclave known as Transdniester, which broke away from Moldova 12 years ago. The Transdniester Moldovan Republic is a sliver of land no bigger than Rhode Island located along Moldova's eastern border with Ukraine. Its government is recognized by no other nation. But its weapons stocks -- new, used and modified -- have attracted the attention of black-market arms dealers worldwide. And they're for sale, according to U.S. and Moldovan officials and weapons experts.

When the Soviet army withdrew from this corner of Eastern Europe, the weapons were deposited into an arsenal of stupefying proportions. In fortified bunkers are stored 50,000 tons of aging artillery shells, mines and rockets, enough to fill 2,500 boxcars.

Conventional arms originating in Transdniester have been turning up for years in conflict zones from the Caucasus to Central Africa, evidence of what U.S. officials describe as an invisible pipeline for smuggled goods that runs through Tiraspol to the Black Sea and beyond. Now, governments and terrorism experts fear the same pipeline is carrying nonconventional weapons such as the radioactive Alazan, and that terrorists are starting to tap in.

[cd jones]

hopefully, the CIA bought them.

[Prodigal Son]

Let me fix that link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A41921-2003Dec6?language=printer

For posterity ;-)

[genefromjersey]

Just a comment or so:

1.The rockets have been "missing" for at least 10 years.
2.No information is given as to what radioisotope was used-
a. Cesium 137 has a half life of 30years;
b. Many of the other,more available isotopes are quite
short-lived, and may, by now, present no real threat.
3.The regular weapons stocks-supposedly controlled by Russian troops,but obviously "going south" at a lively clip
would seem to be the primary worry.

[Happy2BMe]

DIRTY BOMB BUMP!