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Unsung Bomb Squad Heroes: Volunteered to Die to Disarm Rumored Nuke in New York
The Blotter ^ | March 02, 2007 11:34 AM | ABC News

Posted on 03/02/2007 12:01:53 PM PST by weef

According to a new book by ABC News reporters: In October 2001, the fires were still burning at Ground Zero when New York City was faced with the threat of a nuclear bomb planted inside the city, a threat so dire that no city official, including the mayor, was informed of it by the secret team assigned to prevent the device from going off.

Some details of the still-classified incident have crept out over time, but until now it never has been reported that a handful of senior New York City Police Department bomb technicians, including at least one grandfather, had volunteered to disarm the device.

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.abcnews.com ...


TOPICS: Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 24; bomb; jackbauer; nuke; nyc; stilllooking; wot
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To: weef

something doesn't seem quite right here. i'm not convinced that this actually happenned. I'm sure that if it had, we would have found out a long time before now.

especially with all the rumors going around then.


21 posted on 03/02/2007 12:35:46 PM PST by camle (keep your mind open and somebody will fill it full of something for you)
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To: Jambe
Yep, I agree on both counts.

Also, a real nuclear weapon (not a radiological bomb) does not emit enough radiation to kill a person unless it has been damaged and then it would be, as you said, setting off alarms and leaving a trail of bodies.

22 posted on 03/02/2007 12:36:24 PM PST by COEXERJ145 (Bush Derangement Syndrome Has Reached Pandemic Levels on Free Republic.)
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To: The Great RJ
On that day I hope the cut and run Democrats and white flag Republicans in Congress find some testicles as the American people will demand swift retribution.

They certainly will! They will be demanding that "someone" do something. The most fleeting thought of actually doing something themselves will not exist.

23 posted on 03/02/2007 12:44:55 PM PST by TLI (ITINERIS IMPENDEO VALHALLA, MMP AZ 2005, TxMMP El Paso Oct+April 2006 TxMMP Laredo - El Paso)
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To: trimom

I am very suspect of this story and for one reason: "... new book... by ABC News reporters".

However, I have proudly served in both uniforms and I thank you for your comments.


24 posted on 03/02/2007 12:54:37 PM PST by Gator113
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Color me skeptical.

Oh, I think that the scenario is well within the realm of possibility.

And I have no doubt that the government would try to cover it up.

But that the ABC reporter's book is made up of anything more than rumor and imagination is very unlikely.


25 posted on 03/02/2007 1:05:53 PM PST by LegendHasIt
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To: weef

So... what happened to the bomb?


26 posted on 03/02/2007 1:11:22 PM PST by Stone Mountain
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To: trimom

I thank God every day for the fine men and women in uniformed service, whether in our cities or our military, who stand in the breach for us.

**
I most heartily second that!


27 posted on 03/02/2007 1:38:37 PM PST by Bigg Red (You are either with us or with the terrorists.)
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To: martin_fierro

...but what's the latest with Anna Nicole???

&&
I am so disgusted with the media obsession with that dead tramp. This morning, as I was trying to catch some news, I was subjected to video of her casket being loaded onto a plane, as if she was some sort of head of state instead of a brainless whore.


28 posted on 03/02/2007 1:41:03 PM PST by Bigg Red (You are either with us or with the terrorists.)
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To: Gator113

...I have proudly served in both uniforms....

&&
Thank you for your service.


29 posted on 03/02/2007 1:43:22 PM PST by Bigg Red (You are either with us or with the terrorists.)
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To: COEXERJ145; weef; Jambe; camle
until now it never has been reported that a handful of senior New York City Police Department bomb technicians, including at least one grandfather, had volunteered to disarm the device.

And they didn't even bother to consult someone who actually knew something about nuclear weapons?

30 posted on 03/02/2007 1:52:45 PM PST by wideminded
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To: Bigg Red
I don't know if this is true or not. If it has not already happened it most likely will happen within the next few years. They build them with a lot of fail-safes in place so that the most difficult part is making them go boom with a nuclear yield. Stopping a nuclear yield wouldn't bee too hard but stopping the conventional explosives from going off and turning it into a dirty bomb would be a bit harder. It there is any detonation those poor souls who are close are either going to be vaporized, killed or maimed by a conventional blast, or suffer with a very high dose of gamma radiation.
Putting yourself in that situation may or not be an easy choice. If it were to save our family and friends I'm sure most would say lets go!!!
Most who know their maker are not afraid of death, they are afraid of the dieing process. this process would be highly accelerated.
31 posted on 03/02/2007 1:55:27 PM PST by oldenuff2no
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To: oldenuff2no

If necessary, the last resort to stopping a nuclear device from producing yield is to simply blow it up. This will prevent the bomb's high explosives from going off in the proper sequence thus preventing the nuclear material from obtaining critical mass.


32 posted on 03/02/2007 2:12:13 PM PST by COEXERJ145 (Bush Derangement Syndrome Has Reached Pandemic Levels on Free Republic.)
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To: wideminded
They would have called in a NEST team the instant a nuclear device was detected.

This whole scenario doesn't pass the smell test.

33 posted on 03/02/2007 2:14:55 PM PST by COEXERJ145 (Bush Derangement Syndrome Has Reached Pandemic Levels on Free Republic.)
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To: Zeroisanumber

http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020311/story.html

For a few harrowing weeks last fall, a group of U.S. officials believed that the worst nightmare of their lives—something even more horrific than 9/11—was about to come true. In October an intelligence alert went out to a small number of government agencies, including the Energy Department's top-secret Nuclear Emergency Search Team, based in Nevada. The report said that terrorists were thought to have obtained a 10-kiloton nuclear weapon from the Russian arsenal and planned to smuggle it into New York City. The source of the report was a mercurial agent code-named dragonfire, who intelligence officials believed was of "undetermined" reliability. But dragonfire's claim tracked with a report from a Russian general who believed his forces were missing a 10-kiloton device. Since the mid-'90s, proliferation experts have suspected that several portable nuclear devices might be missing from the Russian stockpile. That made the dragonfire report alarming. So did this: detonated in lower Manhattan, a 10-kiloton bomb would kill some 100,000 civilians and irradiate 700,000 more, flattening everything in a half-mile diameter. And so counterterrorist investigators went on their highest state of alert.

"It was brutal," a U.S. official told Time. It was also highly classified and closely guarded. Under the aegis of the White House's Counterterrorism Security Group, part of the National Security Council, the suspected nuke was kept secret so as not to panic the people of New York. Senior FBI officials were not in the loop. Former mayor Rudolph Giuliani says he was never told about the threat. In the end, the investigators found nothing and concluded that dragonfire's information was false. But few of them slept better. They had made a chilling realization: if terrorists did manage to smuggle a nuclear weapon into the city, there was almost nothing anyone could do about it.


34 posted on 03/02/2007 2:18:43 PM PST by jimbo123
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To: COEXERJ145

If a nuke was found to be in NYC, I'm sure NYPD would not have a hand in disarming it, most likely group would be NEST or some other Super-Duper -Secret-Squirrel-Unit we've yet to hear about.


35 posted on 03/02/2007 2:19:09 PM PST by The Magical Mischief Tour
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To: weef

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/11/opinion/11kris.html?ex=1249963200&en=81fb0a21e469c56a&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt

He writes that on Oct. 11, 2001, exactly a month after 9/11, aides told President Bush that a C.I.A. source code-named Dragonfire had reported that Al Qaeda had obtained a 10-kiloton nuclear weapon and smuggled it into New York City.

The C.I.A. found the report plausible. The weapon had supposedly been stolen from Russia, which indeed has many 10-kiloton weapons. Russia is reported to have lost some of its nuclear materials, and Al Qaeda has mounted a determined effort to get or make such a weapon. And the C.I.A. had picked up Al Qaeda chatter about an "American Hiroshima."

President Bush dispatched nuclear experts to New York to search for the weapon and sent Dick Cheney and other officials out of town to ensure the continuity of government in case a weapon exploded in Washington instead. But to avoid panic, the White House told no one in New York City, not even Mayor Rudy Giuliani.


36 posted on 03/02/2007 2:22:51 PM PST by jimbo123
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To: COEXERJ145
Smell test fail is right.

The folks on the NEST team face this threat every day as part of their chosen career. I knew/hung with a NEST guy while stationed at Nellis AFB, and have the utmost respect for the work the team has performed.

They *did* manage to blow up Harrah's in Reno once in the 80s, that was pretty funny....
(not to be confused with the bomb at Harveys 8/80)
37 posted on 03/02/2007 3:21:00 PM PST by ASOC ("Once humans are exposed to excellence, mere average desirability is disappointing")
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To: weef

Got the red wire, the yellow wire, the blue wire. Now, which was it?


38 posted on 03/02/2007 3:23:40 PM PST by RightWhale (300 miles north of Big Wild Life)
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To: Bigg Red

You're welcome.

Now retired and very pleased about that. ;)


39 posted on 03/02/2007 4:25:42 PM PST by Gator113
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To: weef

bump


40 posted on 03/02/2007 10:17:33 PM PST by GOPJ (If the United States gave California to Mexico, Mexicans would be sneaking into Nevada.)
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