Posted on 04/23/2002 2:54:10 PM PDT by kattracks
WASHINGTON, Apr 23, 2002 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Terrorists intent on harming the United States are most likely to get the ingredients for weapons of mass destruction from Russia, former Defense Secretary William Cohen told a Senate panel Tuesday.
Cohen told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee "the clock is ticking" for the United States to prevent "the Armageddon we all want to avoid."
Cohen's testimony -- his first in front of this committee since leaving his post at the Pentagon -- comes amid news reports that a top al Qaida lieutenant captured in Pakistan, Abu Zubaida, has told U.S. intelligence officials that the terror network has worked on creating a "dirty" nuclear bomb.
Such a bomb would use conventional explosives to spread radiation and terror.
Committee Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del, said the United States must send money to Russia and give the administration more authority to work with the Russians and prevent nuclear materials from reaching terrorists' hands. Safety measures to stop terrorists from obtaining such materials are in serious disarray in Russia, Biden said.
According to Biden, Russia still has:
* Around 1,000 metric tons of excess highly enriched uranium, enough to produce 20,000 nuclear weapons.
* 160 metric tons of excess weapons grade plutonium.
* 40,000 metric tons of declared chemical weapons.
Russian experts in weapons of mass destruction face economic hardships that Cohen and senators of both parties said could lead them to sell their expertise to terrorists.
"There are many sources for weapons of mass destruction," Biden said. "But there is one place that has it all. That place is Russia."
Cohen said the reports about Zubaida show the United States must act aggressively to make sure terrorists do not get more potent tools, particularly from Russia. "I think it is, perhaps, the premier issue we have to address today," Cohen told the committee.
Senators from both parties said they would rush money to 10-year old programs set up between the United States and Russia to reduce such threats and would try to give the Bush administration more flexibility to spend it.
Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said terrorists would use such weapons if they could. "There is little doubt that Osama bin Laden and al Qaida would have used weapons of mass destruction on Sept. 11 if they had possessed them."
By MARK BENJAMIN
Copyright 2002 by United Press International.
Nuke labs have been throwing it away for years so it doesn't have to be smuggled in. The idea about terror is to scare people so it doesn't have to be a very big bomb ! Heck, a few gallons of radioactive waste blown up with a pipe bomb in Times Square would be news 24/7 for two weeks non stop ! How about on the steps of the NYSE ?
Well, let's see, if you and the rest of the traitors in your administration didn't drop the ball so miserably-maybe we wouldn't be in this predicament...
Did anyone ask him about Globle crossing?
right..
There seems to be a lot of hysteria and mis-information on this 'dirty bomb' idea.
The general premise is that the terrorists would detonate a non-nuclear yielding, radiological bomb that would contaminate large areas, and possibly kill large groups of people by exposure to high levels of radiation.
There seem to be some glaring inconsistencies with the idea here. Based on my own knowledge of working in the nuclear field for >20 years, allow me to elaborate on these.
The general idea is that there would be detonated a device that would give a non-nuclear yield. Rather, it would be conventional explosives surrounded by or mixed with, a quantity of radioactive material. The result, as described, would be "widespread contamination, exposure to the public resulting in illness and deaths."
Use of such a device truly would, depending upon the amount of radioactive material, result in the contamination of an area. How large? This would be affected by the amount of explosive, the amount and isotope of the radioactive material.
This contamination would be difficult to clean up. But not impossible. The report seems to focus on 'nuclear materials, plutonium, enriched uranium.' These are isotopes that can be difficult to detect as they decay by alpha emission, which is a very non-penetrating, low energy radiation. It has NO exposure dangers at all external to the body, only if it is ingested. Deaths from this material? I think not.
It would present difficulties for decontamination in the environment, as it is shielded by water, and the thinnest of materials, such as paper, dust and such. This would render it difficult to detect or find to clean it up. Also, these materials have very long half-lives, so would stay in the environment for the forseeable future if not cleaned up.
So would they may choose to use isotopes that WOULD be a hazard to people externally. These would be high energy gamma emitters, i'll not give the isotopes here, but they are common enough.
Large amounts of these materials, if spread over a limited area, could generate dose rate fields that could give significant exposure. IF the people had no idea they were there and stayed, or were trapped under rubble, or some such.
What has not been addressed, is that, should these terrorists choose a high energy gamma emitting isotope, and if there is enough there to create harmful dose rates after explosion, then there would be such incredibly high dose rates on the undetonated bomb that anyone approaching it would not live. It could not be handled to transport it, much less manufacture it.
These people would be martyrs before the word "GO"
An option could be that this type of bomb could be shielded. But that would result in a device so massive that it could not be moved with any stealth.
With this in mind, to build and use a 'dirty bomb', it would, at most be a device that would spread fear and little else. It is almost of no consequence.
I hope this has helped to put things in a little perspective.
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