Ramadan and nuke terror

[StreetScooby 5]

From this website:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com

Claims 7 cities are going to be hit at the same time. Ah, shit.

=====================================
The next terrorist attack on the United States – a "nuclear hell storm" planned for seven major cities – is set to occur this month.

That's the word from al-Qaida.

In a communiqué to Osama bin Laden, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the top al-Qaida lieutenant in Iraq, mentions the "Great Ramadan Offensive" that will create a "fateful confrontation" with the United States and Israel.

"I think that the plans for the next stage of the jihad has reached you or will reach you in a few days," Zarqawi writes in the letter. "O God, make the plans of Osama come to fruition!"

The communiqué, dated May 30, was intercepted by CIA officials and remains on the Global Information System database that is accessible only to government officials with high-security clearance.

Most U. S. intelligence officials dismissed Zarqawi's letter as wishful thinking until Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's second in command, appeared on al-Jazeera, the official television network of Saudi Arabia, to deliver a message to the American people.

In the message, which was broadcast Aug. 8, al-Zawahiri said: "What you have seen, O Americans, in New York and Washington and the losses you are having in Afghanistan and Iraq, in spite of the blackouts by your media, are only the losses of the initial clashes. ... You will soon experience horrors that will make you forget the horrors you have encountered in Vietnam."

The al-Qaida chieftain went on to say: "Jihadist forces have been established in all of Western Europe to defend the powerless within the nation. For the crimes that the Crusaders have committed against the Muslims will be reaped by Christians and Jews throughout the Western world."

Zawahiri's video messages are viewed by intelligence officials as telling signs that a terrorist attack is imminent. His televised message Sept. 6, 2004, took place before the December 6, 2004, bombing of the U.S. consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, while his message of June 17, 2005, preceded the London bombings.

Concerns about an October attack were heightened even more by reports that the radical Islamic community viewed the ravages of hurricanes Katrina and Rita as signs that Allah was pleased with the plans for "the American Hiroshima."

"Allah has punished America with winds and water," one imam is quoted in the GIS report as saying. Another imam reportedly quipped that America, as evidenced by the natural disasters, is "under the curse of the Jews."

Christopher Brown, research associate with the Hudson Institute's Transitions to Democracy project, maintains that the hurricanes have presented al-Qaida with a unique strategic opportunity.

"If this attack is launched soon," Brown said, "the devastation to the American economy alone could easily far exceed that of the September 11 attacks and could be equivalent to the detonation of a small nuclear device on American soil."

Ramadan represents the ninth month of the Islamic year, the month in which the Koran was revealed to the Prophet Mohammed. According to Muslim tradition, the actual revelation occurred on the night between the 26th and 27th days of the month. On this "Night of Determination," Allah determines the fate of the world for the coming year.

The fate of the world for the next Islamic year, if bin Laden has his way, will include the nuclear destruction of the United States.

Bin Laden has been amassing nuclear weapons and materials since 1992, when he was in the Sudan. This was substantiated by the testimony of al-Qaida officials in federal court during the hearings of "The U.S. v. Osama bin Laden."

When he returned to Afghanistan, bin Laden purchased tactical nuclear weapons from the Chechen Mafia. News of the sale was confirmed by Saudi, Israeli, British, Saudi and Russian intelligence and reported in The Times of London, the Jerusalem Report, Al Watan al-Arabi, Muslim Magazine, Al-Majallah (London's Saudi weekly) and by the BBC.

In 1997, bin Laden made additional small nuclear weapons from materials bought not only from the Chechens but also black market sources in Russia, China, Kazakhstan and the Ukraine.

In 1998, he purchased large quantities of highly enriched uranium from Simeon Mogilevich, a Ukrainian arms dealer. For one delivery of fifteen kilos of uranium-236, Mogilevich was paid $70 million. Bin Laden also purchased several bars of enriched uranium-138 from Ibrahim Abd, an Egyptian arms dealer and several Congolese opposition soldiers.

From 1999 to 2001, bin Laden hired scientists and technicians from the A.Q. Khan Research Facility in Pakistan not only to build new nukes from the highly enriched uranium and plutonium but also to maintain, upgrade, reconfigure, and redesign his "off-the shelf" nukes, including nuclear mines, so that they could be packed into lightweight (less than eight pounds) suitcases and backpacks or molded into warheads that could be launched from 120 or 155 millimeter recoilless rifles.

Upon the arrests of Dr. Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood and Dr. Chaudry Abdul Majid, two top officials from the Khan facility, the CIA discovered that several of bin Laden's tactical nukes had been forward-deployed to the United States from Karachi.

More information concerning al-Qaida's nukes came with the arrest in Pakistan of Sharif al-Masri, a key al-Qaida operative. Al Masri, an Egyptian national with close ties to al-Zawahiri, operative, informed CIA and ISI (Pakistani intelligence) officials that several tactical nukes for use in the American Hiroshima had been forward deployed to Mexico for transportation across the border by members of Mara Salvatrucha ("MS-13"), a Salvadoran street gang.

These developments caused both President Bush and Sen. John Kerry to speak of nuclear terrorism in the 2004 presidential campaign as "the single greatest danger facing the American people," and for Vice President Cheney to say that a nuclear attack from al-Qaeda appears "imminent."

The seven cities targeted by al-Qaida for nuclear destruction are New York, Washington D.C., Miami, Houston, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Chicago.

Several Islamic scholars say that Ramadan is an unlikely time for al-Qaida to strike since it is the holiest month of the year, a time in which Muslims traditionally refrain from warfare to spend time in fasting, meditation, and prayer. But many Islamic battles throughout history took place during Ramadan, including the following:

* 624 – The Battle of Badr occurred on 17 Ramadan when the Prophet Mohammed led his forces to victory over the Arabian tribes who opposed him.

* 627 – The Muslims trained for the Battle of Ditch during Ramadan

* 630 – The soldiers of Islam, under Mohammed, established a training camp in Tabouk during the month of fasting and attacked the Byzantine army.

* 653 – During Ramadan, the Muslim army conquered Rhodes and melted the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, into weapons for the soldiers.

* 1187 – The Battle of Hattin in which a combined force of Sunnis and Shiites destroyed the Christian army occurred the morning after the "Night of Determination."

* 1973 – On Oct. 6, Egyptian and Syrian forces launched a surprise offensive against Israel to launch the Yom Kippur or the 10th of Ramadan War.

* 2000 – Al-Qaida launches the suicide bombing of the USS Cole in Aden harbor Yemen. The attack of Oct. 5 kills 17 and wounds 39 American sailors.

In 2001, Dr. Fuad Mukheimar, secretary-general of the Egyptian Sharia Association, published an article in which he encouraged bin Laden to launch an attack against the U.S. during the holy month.

"During the month of Ramadan," Mukheimar wrote, "a great Muslim victory was won over the Crusaders under the leadership of Saladin. His advisers counseled him to rest from the jihad during the month of fasting, but Saladin insisted on continuing the jihad during Ramadan because he knew ... that fasting helps to [achieve] victory, because during Ramadan the Muslims overcome themselves through fasting, and thus their victory over their enemies is certain."

Bin Laden, who views himself as Saladin's successor, could opt to heed this advice.

Ramadan began Tuesday, Oct. 4, and ends Nov. 2. The Night of Determination will occur Oct. 29.

We are all engines of karma

[Skyrad 0]

I think if he had Nukes he would have used them by now.

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[StreetScooby 5]

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I think if he had Nukes he would have used them by now.

I've always agreed with this sentiment. Likewise, it's my understanding that nukes really don't have a shelf life per se. The heavier atoms are constantly emitting hydrogen which lodges in the crystal lattice making a symmetric detonation very unlikely.

But, this story seems to have legs. Even some detectives I know around here seem to believe it.

We are all engines of karma

[billvon 3,120]

>Likewise, it's my understanding that nukes really don't have a shelf
> life per se. The heavier atoms are constantly emitting hydrogen
> which lodges in the crystal lattice making a symmetric detonation
> very unlikely.

You may be thinking about lithium deuteride decay in thermonuclear weapons. A few thermonuclear weapons may even use tritium (much easier to ignite) - that has a half life of 12 years, so it would indeed have a very short shelf life. Simpler weapons (critical mass U-235 based weapons) are bigger and heavier, but have a shelf life of at least a few million years. (U-235 has a half life of 700 million years.)

[mnealtx 0]

If they're not worried about the biggest detonation they could get, could they actually make them as small as stated in the article?

If I recall correctly, our 'man-portable' nukes are 1KT and about 80 lbs.

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[billvon 3,120]

>If they're not worried about the biggest detonation they could get,
>could they actually make them as small as stated in the article?

Depends on how you define nuclear weapon, and what yields you want. If you want a low yield (sub-kiloton) and the martyr in question doesn't care about radiation shielding, you could make a gun-type, U-235 based weapon that weighed about 100 lbs and was the size of a really big suitcase. Actually it would look more like a tuba case; long and not as fat as a suitcase. It's pretty easy to make; if you screw up, the worst that happens is the explosion isn't as dramatic.

You could make a much smaller implosion weapon with much higher yields, but that's several orders of magnitude harder. You need near-perfect explosive lenses, plutonium, an initiator, carefully machined tampers/reflectors etc. I doubt any organization smaller than, say, North Korea could pull it off. Unless, of course, they stole the weapons. If they did that, all they would have to know is how to maintain them, which generally means keeping their neutron triggers 'fresh' (i.e. new batteries for the accelerator-based initiators, polonium or whatnot for conventional initiators.)

[StreetScooby 5]

I'm not saying they don't have a half life. It's getting a symmetric detonation that's the tricky part. It'll go boom, just not BOOM.

We are all engines of karma

[billvon 3,120]

>It's getting a symmetric detonation that's the tricky part. It'll go
>boom, just not BOOM.

Oh, any terrorist-produced weapon is going to be hideously inefficient. But you could get a ground level quarter-kiloton weapon detonation in Manhattan, and the long term effect would not be much different than a ten-kiloton weapon. The resulting panic and permanent loss of that part of the city would be about the same in both cases.

[kallend 2,151]

Quote

>If they're not worried about the biggest detonation they could get,
>could they actually make them as small as stated in the article?

Depends on how you define nuclear weapon, and what yields you want. If you want a low yield (sub-kiloton) and the martyr in question doesn't care about radiation shielding, you could make a gun-type, U-235 based weapon that weighed about 100 lbs and was the size of a really big suitcase. Actually it would look more like a tuba case; long and not as fat as a suitcase. It's pretty easy to make; if you screw up, the worst that happens is the explosion isn't as dramatic.

You could make a much smaller implosion weapon with much higher yields, but that's several orders of magnitude harder. You need near-perfect explosive lenses, plutonium, an initiator, carefully machined tampers/reflectors etc. I doubt any organization smaller than, say, North Korea could pull it off. Unless, of course, they stole the weapons. If they did that, all they would have to know is how to maintain them, which generally means keeping their neutron triggers 'fresh' (i.e. new batteries for the accelerator-based initiators, polonium or whatnot for conventional initiators.)

The strong alpha emitting isotope of Po has a half life of 4 months or so. So it needs frequent replacement in a Po-Be neutron source.

BUT

According to the Los Alamos web site, "Polonium is available commercially on special order from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory."

SO AQ just needs to set up a front company and order the stuff from the US Govt.

Easy.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[billvon 3,120]

>SO AQ just needs to set up a front company and order the stuff from
>the US Govt.

You think that's scary? I was recently in a cheezy surplus electronics store (name withheld for obvious reason) and they had a whole box of surplus krytrons for $10 per.

[StreetScooby 5]

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The resulting panic and permanent loss of that part of the city would be about the same in both cases.

I work between the NYSE and Goldman Sachs buildings. If it happens, I just hope it's quick. I'm actually advocating the inclusion of shotguns in addition to stock piles of water and food in our business continuity plan.

We are all engines of karma

[kallend 2,151]

Quote

>SO AQ just needs to set up a front company and order the stuff from
>the US Govt.

You think that's scary? I was recently in a cheezy surplus electronics store (name withheld for obvious reason) and they had a whole box of surplus krytrons for $10 per.

So how many did you buy?

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[billvon 3,120]

>So how many did you buy?

Right. Because I really need a box of slightly radioactive vacuum tubes rattling around my house.

[Guest]

Sounds like the usual Moslem whacko hot air.

mh

.

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[Gawain 0]

Quote

SO AQ just needs to set up a front company and order the stuff from the US Govt.

Easy.

Simple, yes. But easy? I don't know. While polonium is commercially available, I understand its uses are severely limited (hence, "special order"). A "new" company suddenly appearing requesting some polonium from Oak Ridge is bound to raise an eyebrow.

So I try and I scream and I beg and I sigh
Just to prove I'm alive, and it's alright
'Cause tonight there's a way I'll make light of my treacherous life
Make light!

[billvon 3,120]

> I understand its uses are severely limited (hence, "special order").

Same with krytrons, but you can get them in a lot of places. The good thing about polonium is it doesn't last forever, so you can't hoard it (or sell it 20 years later and have it work well.)

[kallend 2,151]

Quote

> I understand its uses are severely limited (hence, "special order").

Same with krytrons, but you can get them in a lot of places. The good thing about polonium is it doesn't last forever, so you can't hoard it (or sell it 20 years later and have it work well.)

8 half-lives is the rule of thumb used for having essentially none left. For Po that would be around 3 years. Use it or lose it.

Pity you didn't pick up a krytron or two.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[kallend 2,151]

Quote

Quote

SO AQ just needs to set up a front company and order the stuff from the US Govt.

Easy.

Simple, yes. But easy? I don't know. While polonium is commercially available, I understand its uses are severely limited (hence, "special order"). A "new" company suddenly appearing requesting some polonium from Oak Ridge is bound to raise an eyebrow.

Maybe a university would be a better front. Have the physics department order it. How does Osama U sound?

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[Gawain 0]

Quote

Quote

Quote

SO AQ just needs to set up a front company and order the stuff from the US Govt.

Easy.

Simple, yes. But easy? I don't know. While polonium is commercially available, I understand its uses are severely limited (hence, "special order"). A "new" company suddenly appearing requesting some polonium from Oak Ridge is bound to raise an eyebrow.

Maybe a university would be a better front. Have the physics department order it. How does Osama U sound?

I think it's excellent you have changed your avatar to Ming the Merciless. ... ...

So I try and I scream and I beg and I sigh
Just to prove I'm alive, and it's alright
'Cause tonight there's a way I'll make light of my treacherous life
Make light!

[mnealtx 0]

Quote

>So how many did you buy?

Right. Because I really need a box of slightly radioactive vacuum tubes rattling around my house.

Are they useful in anything besides weapon technology?

Thanks for the info in the other post, btw...

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[kallend 2,151]

Quote

Quote

>So how many did you buy?

Right. Because I really need a box of slightly radioactive vacuum tubes rattling around my house.

Are they useful in anything besides weapon technology?

Thanks for the info in the other post, btw...

Sure. They are used in the machines (lithotropters) that zap kidney stones. They are precision, high speed, high current switches.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[mnealtx 0]

Quote

Quote

Quote

>So how many did you buy?

Right. Because I really need a box of slightly radioactive vacuum tubes rattling around my house.

Are they useful in anything besides weapon technology?

Thanks for the info in the other post, btw...

Sure. They are used in the machines (lithotropters) that zap kidney stones. They are precision, high speed, high current switches.

Thanks for the info - I didn't know that!

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[Ron 10]

Quote

I think if he had Nukes he would have used them by now.

I don't. As others have better stated a nuke is not an easy weapon to buy/build, maintain ect.

I would think they would be woring on getting a the best and biggest bang they could get. While even a small bang with a nuke would cause panic, why waste it if you can take your time and make a really big boom?

Also, If a group uses a nuke in ANY country imagine the shit strom that it would start.

I would save my nuke for the biggest attack I could plan, and I would work to make sure it did the most damage I could.

All hell will break loose and even many anti war folks will want them dead.

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[kallend 2,151]

Quote

Quote

I think if he had Nukes he would have used them by now.

I don't. As others have better stated a nuke is not an easy weapon to buy/build, maintain ect.

I would think they would be woring on getting a the best and biggest bang they could get. While even a small bang with a nuke would cause panic, why waste it if you can take your time and make a really big boom?

Also, If a group uses a nuke in ANY country imagine the shit strom that it would start.

I would save my nuke for the biggest attack I could plan, and I would work to make sure it did the most damage I could.

All hell will break loose and even many anti war folks will want them dead.

I would be quite happy if OBL were dead right now. However, the war in Iraq is not the way to achieve that. All it's doing is recruiting for him.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[Guest]

Quote

From this website:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com

Claims 7 cities are going to be hit at the same time. Bull, shit.

=====================================
The next terrorist attack on the United States – a "nuclear hell storm" planned for seven major cities – is set to occur this month.

That's the word from al-Qaida.

Bogus, and here's a very "DUH!" reason, from the Strategy Page:

---------------------------------------------
After 911, a rush to put radiological sensors into place to detect a "dirty bomb" caused consternation for medical patients receiving treatment for cancer and various diagnostic tests that involved radioactive isotopes. The sensors picked up the isotope radioactivity, triggering an investigation by law-enforcement personnel. Exact numbers of false alarms aren't known, but around 16 million nuclear medicine procedures are performed per year, with patients giving off detectable radiation anywhere from 24 hours to 95 days. Doctors are now providing patients with detailed explanations of their treatments along with telephone and pager numbers. – Doug Mohney
--------------------------------

In other words, a radiological device is going to be just about impossible to hide from NEST.

Instead, look for a chemical or biological weapon of some kind first - it's a whole lot easier to accomplish, having been used for centuries.

.

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."