Suitcase bombs in NYC

[WilDFire]

So read today that on Oct. 11 2001 we had intelligence that Bin Laden had bought a small (10 KTon) weapon from Russia and had smuggled it into NYC. It was later discredited (the NYC part) but it is still widely believed that he has nuclear capability.

Scary.

Check it out.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/11/opinion/11kris.html?hp

[toasty]

Re:: Suitcase bombs in NYC

Holy shit. That is incredibly scary.

As an aside, I think you may have misspoken. The article actually says that the weapon was stolen from Russia, not purchased:

The weapon had supposedly been stolen from Russia

Not harpin' on ya, just thought that was worth clearing up, because my second thought (after "holy shit") when I saw the message was "Why is Russia selling nukes to Al Qaeda?"

[michaelbirney]

Re:: Suitcase bombs in NYC

Interesting episode of 60 minutes::: Sometime last year, I watched an episode that exposed the United States' weakness in detecting nuclear material entering the country through our ports. The team of reporters started their journey somewhere in Europe with a suitcase containing a 'safely sealed' amount low grade plutonium, just enough to be detected during international travel. The team went through 6 or 7 countries, never stopped, then paid someone in Budapest to ship it in a crate with other various goods from Hungary. It was shipped direct to NYC, and cleared by customs as it passed its suppossed "nuclear scan" to make sure there were no threats. The reporter then picked up the suitcase, and carried it right into Times Square. That is then where the story began. --It was a pretty effective opening segment as far as I'm concerned, and illustrates the scary reality that if people really want to do this, we can do very little to stop them.