I do believe with the right amount of cash, whoever can get whatever they want or need as the Almighty $$$ is somes only Savior in this world today.
Extremists have already put one together before.
Read this article this morning:
Patrick Goodenough, CNSNews.com
Tuesday, June 11, 2002
Terrorists armed with "dirty bombs" might not be able to cause the devastation of a World Trade Center collapse, but they could trigger unprecedented panic, at enormous economic cost.
Experts with Jane's, the defense publication group, say the detonation of a "dirty bomb" -- conventional explosives packed with highly radioactive material -- in an urban area could have "catastrophic" results.
An entire suburb of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, had to be evacuated in the early 1990s because of a radiation leak from a broken X-ray tube, according to a Jane's Sentinel Security Assessment report.
"A similar catastrophe in New York, London, Paris or Berlin could have major financial repercussions as well as a high human cost," it said.
"The longer-term effects could leave municipal areas uninhabitable for years and give rise to cancers and hereditary defects."
The Pentagon announced Monday that a suspected terrorist, Abdullah al-Mujahir, was arrested last month as he returned to the U.S. after receiving explosive training from Osama bin Laden's group.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz said the man, who used to be known as Jose Padilla, was tasked to look for targets in the U.S. for a possible "dirty bomb" attack.
Jane's assessment of the potential effects of a "dirty bomb" terrorist strike echoes that of the global nuclear watchdog, International Atomic Energy Agency.
The IAEA's Abel Gonzales also sees the most serious implications being psychological and economic, rather than actual loss of life.
Experts generally cite another incident in Brazil when discussing the potential repercussions of a terrorist "dirty bomb" attack.
In 1987, scrap metal thieves stole a capsule of highly-radioactive cesium-137 from an abandoned clinic in the city of Goiania, and handed pieces of it to associates around the city to sell.
Exposure to the radiation contaminated 249 people and cost four lives. Eighty-five houses had to be destroyed, and 125,000 drums of contaminated clothing and other items were collected. More than 110,000 people had to be monitored for possible exposure over the months that followed.
"A dirty bomb exploded in a major city could produce similar effects [to the Goiania incident]," says analyst S. Gopal of the South Asia Analysis Group (SAAG) in India. "While the death toll may not be high, the impact would be great with general panic and demoralization."
In the view of Jane's Terrorism and Security Monitor, "the mere threat of using a radiological weapon is a potent terrorist tactic, particularly in an urban center, given the likely terror induced by anything nuclear."
Similarly, Brig. Gurmeet Kanwal, an Indian Army nuclear issues analyst, sees the potential result as the creation of "a fear psychosis that will add to the paranoia that has already got a deep hold over ordinary people the world over after the September 11 attacks."
And he adds that, depending on the radioactive ingredient used, the device could continue to spread radiation for many years.
Pakistan Concerns
According to the Pentagon, al-Qaeda suspect Abdullah al-Muhajir was arrested on his return from Pakistan.
Security analysts in South Asia and elsewhere point to Pakistan as a key potential source for the type of radioactive material necessary to make an effective "dirty bomb," also known as a radiological dispersal device.
Gopal argues that Pakistan's own nuclear program was born out of nuclear espionage and smuggling.
"It is therefore not improbable that some Pakistani official or scientist with sympathies for the [Islamic] fundamentalists would be tempted to supply nuclear technology or material."
The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security has reported that it's not known whether all of the nuclear-grade material in Pakistan's possession has been used in actual nuclear weapons.
There is a possibility, it says, that some remains unused and unless properly secured, could be vulnerable to theft by those motivated either by profit or ideology.
Bin Laden is strongly suspected of wanting to acquire non-conventional weaponry.
Last October, a leading Indian newspaper reported that customs officials earlier in 2001 confiscated ten packages of unspecified radioactive material on the Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan border. The report said they were bound southward for Quetta in Pakistan, and al-Qaeda was suspected to be the intended recipient.
Dr. Rajesh Kumar Mishra, another SAAG analyst, recalls that testimony during the trial of terrorists involved in the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in East Africa pointed to efforts by al-Qaeda to acquire radioactive material as early in 1993.
Sudanese witness Jamal Ahmet Al-Fadl, a former close bin Laden aide, told the Manhattan court he had been approached back then by an al-Qaeda representative about the possibility of buying uranium from Sudan. Al-Fadl could not confirm whether the material had actually been bought.
Common Sources
But the major concern about "dirty bombs" is that they do not necessarily need highly-sensitive materials like enriched uranium or plutonium.
According to the IAEA, the required material could be stolen from low-security institutions like hospitals, laboratories or universities.
"The number of radioactive sources around the world is vast," it says, and include substances used in cancer radiotherapy treatment, for food preservation and in industry, for example for checking structural quality.
"Security of radioactive materials has traditionally been relatively light," says the IAEA's Gonzalez.
"An undetermined number of radioactive sources have become orphaned of regulatory control and their location is unknown."
According to a Stimson Center report, the most prominent case of nuclear terrorism occurred in 1995, when Chechen separatists marked the first anniversary of the beginning of their conflict with Russia by placing a "dirty bomb" in a popular Moscow park.
The device, which contained cesium-137 -- the same isotope that triggered the 1987 contamination panic in Brazil -- was recovered before detonation and rendered harmless.
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