Posted on 12/22/2001 11:48:06 AM PST by classygreeneyedblonde
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Anti-Taliban fighters discovered low-grade uranium, cyanide and other poisonous chemicals in an underground al Qaeda storage facility near the Kandahar airport after they captured it two weeks ago, according to a senior Afghan commander and senior U.S. officials. `
`I saw it with my own eyes,'' Haji Gulalai, Kandahar's security and intelligence chief, said Friday. ``There were large machines, and those things were inside sealed containers. We gave it to the Americans because it was very dangerous, and we do not know about such things.''
The U.S. officials, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity, said they have concluded that al Qaeda intended to use the uranium-238 found in the complex to make ``dirty bombs,'' which use conventional explosives to spread radioactive material over a wide area.
In addition to killing people in the bomb blast and poisoning others with radiation, the officials said, such a bomb could render large zones unusable and require lengthy and expensive cleanup efforts.
Uranium-238, the isotope of the element that U.S. officials said was discovered by the anti-Taliban forces, is used to fuel nuclear reactors and in some medical devices, but it cannot be used to make nuclear weapons.
So far, the officials said, there is no evidence that Osama bin Laden's organization was able to procure either weapons-grade uranium or plutonium -- which can be made from U-238 in specialized facilities -- to make a nuclear device.
NUCLEAR PLANS
Nevertheless, the officials said, Afghan, U.S. and other fighters have found extensive evidence that bin Laden was trying to make a nuclear weapon with help from at least one Pakistani nuclear scientist.
But the officials said that experts in the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology and in the Department of Energy have concluded that al Qaeda could not have constructed a ``viable nuclear device'' from the plans and specifications found so far in Afghanistan.
DANGEROUS MIX `
`If they had gotten their hands on the stuff they needed, like plutonium, they probably would just have poisoned themselves,'' said one official.
Al Qaeda, however, could readily have made both ``dirty bombs'' and chemical bombs using the materials found near the airport, said the officials, and there is evidence that the group was experimenting with both at a camp near Darunta, about eight miles east of Jalalabad.
The U.S. officials said it isn't clear where al Qaeda got the materials, but they said the former Soviet Union and Pakistan are possible sources.
Gulalai said the tunnels where the uranium, cyanide and other poisons were stored were located at Kandahar International Airport, a sprawling complex of several hundred acres about 12 miles south of the city. The al Qaeda camp known as Turnak Farms is located only a mile or two away.
DISCOVERY
Gulalai said the tunnels were discovered the day anti-Taliban fighters captured the airport after a 10-day battle with al Qaeda forces.
``They were big tunnels,'' he said, saying a large truck could drive into each. `
`It is a big tunnel with many rooms, and every one was filled with bombs and ammunition and these containers.''
During a swing through the region last week, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld alluded to significant finds at Turnak Farms pertaining to potential weapons of mass destruction.
Marine Corps spokesmen Capt. David Romley and Maj. Chris Hughes said they did not know about the find or the tunnels. `
`If there are tunnels that we've found out about pertaining to weapons of mass destruction, I don't know anything about it,'' Romley said.
NETWORK OF TUNNELS
A nuclear, biological and chemical weapons detection team swept the area around the airport last week, but it is not known if they removed any materials when they left.
The area around the airport and Turnak Farms is laced with a number of tunnels in which virtually anything can be hidden, one soldier noted.
Kandahar International Airport was seized three weeks ago by the U.S. Marine Corps and is now under the control of about 1,500 Marines and other military personnel, including Army Special Forces and Navy SEALs.
Marines and other military personnel at the airport and elsewhere in the vicinity of the city are operating at the lowest state of alert for chemical, biological or nuclear exposure, indicating that threats are virtually nonexistent.
Troops at the airfield are not carrying gas masks or other protective gear.
This was my second reaction. I can't print the first one.
It's hard to tell what to make of comments like these. Stupidity, disinformation, or what? Bin Laden is a well-educated engineer. Several senior officials from the Pakistani nuclear program have had contacts with him. The Chinese supplied him with advanced weapons such as portable SAMs, even after 9/11. There are plenty of people in the world who know how to work with plutonium outside of America.
It's all very well to make jokes about these people, but they should not be underestimated. Bin Laden has hundreds of millions of dollars at his disposal, and with that kind of money he could buy just about any kind of weapon or weapons specialist. And he's had years to do it.
What DOES worry me is what (and Who) they HAVEN'T found...
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