Report: U.S. Can Prevent Nuclear Attack

NewsMax ^ | January 7, 2006 | NewsMax

[DJ Taylor]

Americans concerned about a possible terrorist attack using nuclear weapons can take solace in this fact: The U.S. is much better prepared to prevent such an attack than many believe.

That's the finding of an intensive probe by best-selling author Kenneth R. Timmerman that appears in the December issue of NewsMax Magazine "Avoiding Nuclear D-Day." [For more info our FREE offer - Go Here Now.]

Here are just a few of the revelations contained in Timmerman's exclusive report:

Exactly one month after 9/11, CIA Director George Tenet told the White House that terrorists had reportedly smuggled a 10-kiloton nuclear warhead into the Port of New York, hidden inside a cargo container. The alarm set off a flurry of activity by Customs officials. They first used a radiation detection device, then a truck-mounted Vehicle and Cargo Inspection System, which uses gamma rays to produce a density map of the cargo packed inside containers.

The result: Officials were able to determine that there was nothing in the container other than what was supposed to be there.

The Automated Commercial System (ACS), a computer tracking system first set up in the 1980s and upgraded regularly since then, allows Customs officials to locate a suspect shipping container at a port within minutes. The officials can see who shipped the container, what it is supposed to contain and, most importantly, where it is at any given moment.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection have installed 600 Radiation Portal Monitors at major U.S. entry points. Now 90 percent of tractor-trailers coming in from Canada pass through these highly sensitive detectors, as do 80 percent of passenger vehicles. The devices - which can "see" through 16 inches of solid steel - reveal the presence of radiological material used to construct a dirty bomb or a nuclear device itself.

The so-called "nuclear suitcase weapon" is a myth. A former Soviet general declared in 1997 that the U.S.S.R. had produced more than 100 suitcase-size nuclear bombs but could account for only 48 of them.

But a new book discloses that while the Soviets did produce nuclear mines, they were much larger and could not be transported by one person.

Thanks to the Container Security Initiative, announced in January 2002, Customs and Border Protection now has agreements with 38 of the world's largest ports to inspect cargo overseas, with the help of local Customs officials, before it ever leaves port.

In late 2001, U.S. intelligence picked up information that terrorists carrying heavy duffel bags had taken over a cargo vessel headed for New York and could be carrying a nuclear weapon. The U.S. Coast Guard quickly organized a midnight boarding party, sending out about two dozen armed men on a 40-foot patrol boat.

The suspect vessel was intercepted 25 miles out at sea, and a search of the ship turned up nothing suspicious. It was one more successful test of the professionalism of America's homefront defenders.

[stephenjohnbanker]

: )

[STD]

Most ports of any size are also patrolled by Coast Guard vessels, which all have active radiological scanning function.
Unless your target is very small, you'll never get near enough to hit anything.

[goresalooza]

"I can think of numerous ways for a boat of this class to smuggle 1000-2000 pounds in the US."

Exactimundo! Which makes me believe that the bad guys don't have such a weapon...yet. If they did, they'd have used it by now.

There's really no way to completely keep out such a weapon, that is the scary part.