EU prostitute corridor may let in terror bomb

The Times of India ^ | SUNDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2003 11:07:46 AM | AP

[Destro]

EU prostitute corridor may let in terror bomb

AP[ SUNDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2003 11:07:46 AM ]

ROTTERDAM : Efforts to tighten security for sea-borne containers won't lessen the risk that terrorists could team up with criminal gangs to sneak a nuclear weapon into Europe by land, through the poorly policed Balkans, some security experts warn.

Al-Qaeda or some other terrorist group could send a Soviet-built tactical warhead along the same, well-traveled routes that traffickers use to smuggle prostitutes and drugs into western Europe, said Tom Sanderson of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington .

A nuclear artillery shell, pilfered or purchased from the 12,000 tactical weapons stockpiled in Russia , would take up no more space than a slender garbage can. Gangs could even move such a package along with some of the thousands of women from eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union who journey west through the Balkans each year.

"I just can't believe it hasn't happened already," Sanderson said. "There's no reason why a nuclear warhead couldn't go into the same van with those five Romanian girls, using the routes that these guys know."

Chris Wright of the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London agreed that smuggling routes through southeastern Europe are well established and said there is "a lot of scope" for collusion between terrorist groups and criminal gangs.

By bribing underpaid border guards, traffickers based in the Balkans could transport a warhead across the porous frontiers of southeastern Europe and over the Adriatic Sea to Italy , Sanderson said. Once in Italy , they could travel anywhere inside the 15-nation European Union without having to stop for a customs inspection.

"These guys have been running this same gig for 10 to 12 years. They know which Bulgarian guard on the western border is on duty at what time to allow them to penetrate into Serbia and Kosovo. Then they know which Albanian border patrol is on duty at which time to get them to port. And then they know which shipping company or cargo boats are going to Italy and when it's safe to do that," he said.

Terrorists could pay a gang and await delivery of their deadly cargo at a prearranged destination in western Europe, Sanderson said, instead of hiding a bomb inside a container and trying to bring it into Europe themselves through a relatively secure port like Rotterdam .

"This system is already in place. They don't have to create it."

Wright argued that terrorists and criminals would have to overcome mutual distrust. Terrorists might worry that gang members would turn them over to authorities, while smugglers might fear a severe crackdown by European governments if they contributed to a successful attack.

But "a dollop of money" from well-financed terrorists might seal the deal, Wright suggested.

Russia isn't a crucial part of this alarming scenario. If terrorists succeeded in obtaining a weapon of mass destruction elsewhere, they could ship it from a backwater port in Africa or the Middle East to a terminal in the former Yugoslavia , where their Balkan partners could then take over, Sanderson said.

[Destro]

The Kosvo Albanian Islamo/narco/terror-mafia that the Clinton Administration put into power controls these white slavery and heroin routes and are protected by NATO for political reasons.

Enjoy the Clinton/Blair/Schroeder/Chriac/NATO Legacy.

[Destro]

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[Pubbie]

Don't blame ME! - I voted for Dole in '96!

[Destro]

So did I but Dole would have been just as bad.

[expatpat]

Wasn't Dole from Albanian stock?

[Pubbie]

I have to respectfully disagree with you - Dole would have been a bad President, but I don't see why he would have gone to the trouble of toppling Milosevic in 1999.

He never really expressed much interest in the Balkans when he was in Congress.

[Destro]

Well he may sold himself for Albanian stock. The Dole's needed the money to run for office.

[Destro]

AH! You are right when in congress he expressed little interest-but when Dole ran for president he needed cash and Albanian-Americans (cough-cough) seemed to have a lot of it. Suddenly Dole was the Albanian Avenger.

[livius]

Well, the initial mental image was certainly alarming!!!

In any case, getting over the picture of hookers of mass destruction, this is very possible. Organized crime has no specific interest in terrorism, but I'm sure it is certainly willing to make a few bucks here and there by offering its services to terrorists.

[GaConfed]

You should have added Bush and his little band of Trotskyite band of thugs in neo con drag also. They have just perpetuated the problem.

[Dark Wing]

FYI

[Destro]

Good point.

[self_evident]

That's just false. Dole was emphatically pro-Albanian at least in 1986... 3 years before Milosevic came to power and LONG before Clinton.

[peter the great]

That is correct. He is Albanian and he would have been just as bad as The Great Stainmaker.