Al-Qaida has suitcase nuclear bombs: Pakistani journalist

Associated Press | March 21, 2004

[HAL9000]

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Osama bin Laden's terror network claims to have bought ready-made nuclear weapons on a Central Asian black market, the biographer of al-Qaida's No.2 leader was quoted telling an Australian television station.

In an interview scheduled to be televised Monday, Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir said Ayman al-Zawahri claimed "smart briefcase bombs" are available on the black market.

It was not clear when the interview between Mir and al-Zawahri took place.

U.S. intelligence agencies have long believed al-Qaida attempted to acquire a nuclear device on the black market but said there is no evidence they ever succeeded.

In the interview with Australian Broadcasting Corp. television, parts of which were released Sunday, Mir recalled telling al-Zawahri it was difficult to believe al-Qaida had nuclear weapons when the terror network didn't have the equipment to maintain or use them.

"Dr. Ayman al-Zawahri laughed and he said: 'Mr. Mir, if you have $30 million, go to the black market in Central Asia, contact any disgruntled Soviet scientist and a lot of...smart briefcase bombs are available,"' Mir said in the interview.

"They have contacted us, we sent our people to Moscow, to Tashkent, to other Central Asian states and they negotiated and we purchased some suitcase bombs," Mir quoted al-Zawahri saying.

Al-Zawahri's boast would not in itself prove the al-Qaida has actually succeeded in acquiring nuclear weapons.

Al-Qaida has never hidden its interest in acquiring nuclear weapons.

The U.S. government indictment of bin Laden charges as far back as 1992 he "and others known and unknown, made efforts to obtain the components of nuclear weapons."

Bin Laden, in a November 2001 interview with a Pakistani journalist, boasted of having hidden such components "as a deterrent." And in 1998, a Russian nuclear weapons design expert was investigated for allegedly working with bin Laden's Taliban allies.

It was revealed last month Pakistan's top nuclear scientist sold sensitive equipment and nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, fuelling fears the information could have also fallen into the hands of terrorists.

Mir describe al-Zawahri as "the real brain behind Osama bin Laden."

"He is the real strategist, Osama bin Laden is only a frontman," Mir was quoted saying during the interview.

"I think he is more dangerous than bin Laden."

Al-Zawahri - an Egyptian surgeon - is believed hiding in the rugged region around the Pakistan-Afghan border where U.S. and Pakistani troops are conducting a major operation against Taliban and al-Qaida forces.

He is said to have played a leading role in orchestrating the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

[pitinkie]

Isnt he the jouranlist Fox had on about the Wan offensive this last week?

[pitinkie]

journalist

[Stentor]

Hamid Mir put this story out now, IMO, because Al-Qaida is getting their ass hand to them and hopes the allied forces or some their populations will get scared and back off. The worse their situation, the more dire the threats.

The truth is more simple than that. In an interview on Fox this morning, he said it will all be in his new book. The Hamidization of America?

[SauronOfMordor]

Tritium is in thermonuclear weapons, suitcase nukes are (to the best of my knowledge) solely fission weapons

Tritium is used in tactical nukes. Tritium is a strong emitter of alpha particles. If you have alpha particles hitting beryllium nuclei, the beryllium transforms into carbon, and emits a neutron. The neutrons can then trigger fission.

I'm guessing that if you had a core of tritium, surrounded by beryllium, surrounded by plutonium, and you used explosives to suddenly compress the mass to absurd densities, you would have enough neutron flux to set off the plutonium.

Then again, I'm an engineer rather than a professional physicist, so I may be totally out to lunch

[VadeRetro]

I am guessing the "suitcase" nuke has to weigh in at least 100 lbs.

The known suitcase nukes made back in the 1950s were at least that heavy, maybe closer to 200. Not the kind of thing you can carry down the street inconspicuously. Not sure how much potential there is for lightening it up. Any electronics have shrunk by a huge factor with newer technology, but the rest of it would stay about the same size.

[SauronOfMordor]

The idea of someone just walking up the White House or some government building with a suitcase bomb or something like that is ludicrous. Thou if on the other had if two people were carrying a small crate toward the White House that would be very obvious and I would hope the security guards would shoot them to death.

Sept 12, 1994: Frank Eugene Corder crashes small plane into side of white house

Presumably the Stinger crews are more alert these days

[mikegi]

AQ doesn't have suitcase nukes. If they did, they would have used them already. They don't need them anyway. All AQ needs to do is set off a simple dirty bomb in a big city -- the media will do the rest of the terrorizing for them.

[Axenolith]

Tritium is a Hydrogen isotope. There are 2 neutrons and one proton in it. An Alpha particle is a Helium nucleus and contains 2 protons and 2 neutrons. If you're to have Tritium acting as an alpha emitter there's going to be Fusion going on and by then we're way past suitcase.

The case nuke merely needs a subcritical mass of plutonium to be compressed to criticality. Enhancements to reduce material quantity involve a good reflector (beryllium) which will reemit\redirect errant neutrons from the fissile mass back into the mass.

[pttttt]

Good for a scare but Madrid proved that there's plenty they can do with conventional explosives. Including breaking up a righteous alliance.

I would think actually employing suitcase nukes would be more trouble than they'd be worth.

[kimosabe31]

Very bad news.