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As the original author of 1 above, I must apologize for my awkwardness while using this site for the first time. I will try to gather a few of your comments together here.

Before beginning, I want to express my greatest appreciation to itslex 71 for posting my writing and urging me to join Free Republic. Very good friends, indeed.

First: I'm sorry, gaijin, for the embarrassing mistake of writing Leon instead of Lyons. Thanks for correction.

Second: For Jet Jaguar, Adam Selene 235, and Centurion 2000--My source was as stated elsewhere in the document, "Scientific American" magazine, Feb. 2006, pg 38. Title: "Thwarting Nuclear Terrorism," by Glaser/von Hipple, both of Princeton University with extensive experience in other high level related jobs. I highly recommend you read it.

Third: For what it's worth, I have seen a copy of the "Little Boy", myself at the Los Alamos visitors museum, but this was a long time ago and rather irrelevant.

Fourth: Please don't get hung-up on the size of this bomb. That line of thinking takes us back to the standard scenario that everyone is bantering around, i.e. "it's too big for Iran to build and deliver, so let's not worry about it."

I was trying to point out that I believe it will be possible to transport a sufficient amount of U-235 in small quantities to any number of places and, if necessary, build a bomb in place with whatever machinery you want to talk about. That's the minor part.

The terrorists only need to demonstrate that they can explode a device whenever and where ever they want.

Remember the Cold War. Soviet Missiles were aimed at Western military installations; Western missiles were aimed at cities. Why? Because when the Soviet missiles were launched, it would be too late to take out their military bases. So the only DETERENT left was to threaten the cities. That was the Cold War stand-off, and the repeat is developing again as grey-whiskers has suggested in 20.

But is it? If we are in a swamp of alligators five/ten years from now (Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur, Somalia, Lebanon etc.), and a nuclear device goes off in say, Milano, which alligator are you going to decide just bit you in the pepete? ("You" being the Western Allies.) And how many more of those devices are set to go off and where?

This refinement of U-235 in Iran must be stopped, and quickly. I thank those that are recognizing the gravity of this situation, namely, se-ohio-young, Chena, Quix, okie 01, grey-whiskers, and Fitzcaralldo. I saved Prospero (26) out for a reason. I read this many times and became more impressed each time. What Prospero recommends for a solution is horrifying--similar to grey-whiskers--but the logic of Prospero's approach is almost refutable. We cannot allow ourselves to be maneuvered into a cold storage refrigerator, and suddenly find the door has been slammed shut.

Fifth: The point claudiustg makes about the UN is so important that I want to start another thread solely on this subject. The UN is okay for aid work, but a disaster for controlling conflicts. Most of us know this, but I hope to highlight some lesser know background.

Sixth: For aught-6, I'm very happy that you raised this point about the Europeans. You are right; there are many that are on our side starting with my Belgian wife whom I struggle with daily to moderate. I don't have the space here to detail all my positive experiences even though the negatives weigh heavily at times; but positives are there. Despite what you hear, America does have friends in the world.

Seventh: For gotribe, I'm sorry, but I don't feel qualified for speaking to your comment, so I will leave that task for others.

Again, MANY THANKS for everybody's interest.