This is kind of scary

[imported_Technick]

HOMELAND INSECURITY
Boston scrambles over nuclear terror threat
FBI on alert for 4 Chinese said smuggled across border
-
Posted: January 19, 2005
5:00 p.m. Eastern

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

FBI on alert for possibly smuggled illegal aliens who may be involved in nuclear plot

Officials in Boston are dealing with a possible nuclear terror threat after receiving word that a number of illegal aliens were smuggled into the U.S., and would be headed to the Massachusetts capital, possibly with nuclear material.

Teams of police officers were said to be prowling city streets with radiological sensors after receiving information of a possible dirty bomb.

According to the Boston Herald, a man from Mexico called authorities in California to tell them of the smuggling and potential nuclear threat.


"They got a call from across the border in Mexico to the California Highway Patrol and he said he brought two Iraqis and four Chinese (individuals) across the border and according to him, they stated soon to follow behind them would be some sort of material,'' a law-enforcement source told the Herald.

"He refers to some sort of nuclear material that will follow them through New York up into Boston.''

The source said the caller didn't identify himself and failed to show up for a meeting with federal authorities in California, but he did leave pictures of four Chinese men along with some names at a drop site on the Mexico-California border.

"They were dropped by the source at a location. He literally threw them over a fence from Mexico to the U.S. side,'' the source told the paper. "There are pictures of the four Chinese and some names but just how accurate they are remains a question.''

Four suspects have been identified as Zengrong Lin, Wen Quin Zheng, Xiujin Chen and Guozhi Lin. None of them appeared on any terrorist watch list.

Law enforcement in Massachusetts was first notified of the threat at 5:30 a.m. through the FBI and Boston Police Joint Terrorist Task Force.

Local officials took the matter seriously enough to meet with representatives of the CIA, FBI, and Homeland Security, according to a high-ranking city official.

"They are desperately trying to piece it together,'' the official told the Herald, adding it's "very scary" if the threat is real.

Explosive-sniffing dogs are reportedly being deployed to search for a "dirty bomb," according to a New York City official.

According to the Associated Press, FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz said the terror alert had not been raised for Boston.

"Basically, what you have here is information that we often get," she told AP. "It's uncorroborated at this time. It's been passed on to our law enforcement partners and we're working it aggressively."

Deputy Chief Paul MacMillan of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority told AP an alert bulletin has been issued to its officers, as well as subway, train, and bus-station workers to be on the lookout for the individuals.

"There is no specific threat or target indicated," he said.

Gov. Mitt Romney returned to Massachusetts after traveling to Washington, D.C., where he had planned to attend the inauguration of President Bush.

"The source is anonymous," Romney told reporters. "But it is specific in that it mentions a location where individuals were dropped off – the location is New York – and it identifies a location where a threat might be directed in – the location is Boston."

The investigator talking to the Herald said much of the information sounds far-fetched.

"A lot of it doesn't make sense and some of it does,'' the source said. "It's totally uncorroborated. This all began several days ago as a series of phone calls and they don't know who the caller is. There are some parts of it that just don't make sense and other little pieces of it that fall into place. The information is these people that came into the country are going to New York into Boston and the (nuclear) material will follow them.''

There's speculation the caller could have been ripped off by illegal aliens he helped cross the border, and is now seeking vengeance.

"It's very weird. Even if (the Iraqis and Chinese) were going to do something why would they be blabbing to the yahoo smuggling them across the border? You have to wonder if they screwed him on a deal but you have to treat it seriously and the issue is how do you put it out to the public and not get everybody (in a panic)?''

[Nickatilynx]

If I was a terrorist with money......

A baby nuke exploded at the top of a skyscrapper could be ugly.

You once told me building a dirty bomb isn't that hard , I hope you were kidding.

[Mike AI]

Originally posted by Nickatilynx@Jan 20 2005, 01:05 PM
If I was a terrorist with money......

A baby nuke exploded at the top of a skyscrapper could be ugly.

You once told me building a dirty bomb isn't that hard , I hope you were kidding.
Nick, there is a major differnce between a nuclear bomb - even a small one, and a dirty bomb.

[imported_Technick]

Yeah ... very easy....just wrap a regular bomb in a whole load of nasty radioactive stuff set it off and let the wind take it.

Also, for the Chinese, a regular nuke probably wouldn't be so hard.

I wonder why Chinese nationals are involved.

Maybe Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has a lot of money on the Steelers in the Superbowl :)

[imported_Technick]

Originally posted by Mike AI+Jan 20 2005, 10:11 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Mike AI @ Jan 20 2005, 10:11 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Nickatilynx@Jan 20 2005, 01:05 PM
If I was a terrorist with money......

A baby nuke exploded at the top of a skyscrapper could be ugly.

You once told me building a dirty bomb isn't that hard , I hope you were kidding.
Nick, there is a major differnce between a nuclear bomb - even a small one, and a dirty bomb. [/b][/quote]
True Mike

An actual fission device, like you say, is a whole different kettle of fish. Just a regular 5 kiloton "suitcase" bomb would vaporize city blocks.

But even a dirty bomb, although it has only a small conventional explosive yield would cause major panic and render several city blocks of prime Boston real estate unusable for a good while :(

[Almighty Colin]

It's a hoax. Someone is just trying to get Bush to say "nuclear" on inauguration day.

[Peaches]

Originally posted by Almighty Colin@Jan 20 2005, 02:22 PM
It's a hoax. Someone is just trying to get Bush to say "nuclear" on inauguration day.
:lol: :lol: :lol:

Has anyone seen the previews for the HBO movie/show about a dirty bomb? Looks good - and scary! :unsure:

[Nickatilynx]

Just a regular 5 kiloton "suitcase" bomb would vaporize city blocks.

Thats the puppy I'd be after if I was a terrorist.

I read that there were a few missing too.

[Newton]

Nick you know the docks here and the sheer amount of containers that get shipped, not all of them are checked, only a small percentage ever is.

[imported_Technick]

The tricky thing about building a nuclear bomb isn't so much the bomb case itself, it's getting hold of the Uranium or Plutonium to put inside it.

Hence the US obsession with Iran's nuclear reactor program (used for breeding plutonium) and Saddam Hussein's gas centrifuges (used for enriching uranium).

Unfortunately China is one of a handful of countries with a lot of enriched Uranium and Plutonium :(

[grimm]

id just like to say to whomevers watching that i happened on this thread, and i never used any of the target words, hell i dont even know these people:)

[imported_Technick]

Originally posted by Newton - XXXAmigoz@Jan 20 2005, 10:27 AM
Nick you know the docks here and the sheer amount of containers that get shipped, not all of them are checked, only a small percentage ever is.
Too true Newton.

"Canada's import and export trade through the Port of Vancouver grew 11% to 73.9 million tonnes in 2004, with shipments of sulphur, potash and containers reaching record levels. Containers increased by 8% to 1.66 million TEU."

And then there's Seattle, Oakland, L.A., oh and the east coast and gulf ports.

Thats a lot of places to hide 10-20lbs of plutonium :(

[imported_Technick]

Originally posted by grimm@Jan 20 2005, 10:33 AM
id just like to say to whomevers watching that i happened on this thread, and i never used any of the target words, hell i dont even know these people:)
LOL Grimm,

Just a quick hello to our friends at the FBI, CIA, NSA etc :)

[Nickatilynx]

I'd like to welcome our latest member , "SpecialAgentJones" to Oprano.


:)

[Newton]

I am just going to mention red mercury to make sure it flags to get these containers checked ;)

[Dravyk]

Originally posted by Almighty Colin@Jan 20 2005, 01:22 PM
It's a hoax. Someone is just trying to get Bush to say "nuclear" on inauguration day.
:lol:

[imported_Technick]

http://boston.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel...ement011905.htm (http://boston.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel05/statement011905.htm)

The agent in charge is a Kenneth. W. Kaiser.

Kaiser? Surely not.......

[JoesHO]

I think it is a scare tactic, but then again sorta like picking wich god to believe in, when it is time you wouldnt want to have made the wrong choice....

with all the talk, I think it is just a matter of time now, but I do not believe anyone is strong enough to come here and take the US no way.....

our gangs control the streets, and all the crime with it, and our hillbillies control the mountians, NO WAY any foreign invader can do anything here, and if a dirty bomb goes off, this country will be on lock down, so as bad as it might be, it will only be minimul in the grand scheme of things , cause I am sure we will launch all out attacks on anyone or country associated with that for sure...

[NickPapageorgio]

Originally posted by Nickatilynx@Jan 20 2005, 10:24 AM
Just a regular 5 kiloton "suitcase" bomb would vaporize city blocks.

Thats the puppy I'd be after if I was a terrorist.

I read that there were a few missing too.
If I am not mistaken it's more than a few. I remember seeing report about them going missing from the old USSR. The count I heard was around 200 missing.

[PornoDoggy]

You don't need the material from a weapon to make a dirty bomb.

Certain kinds of medical waste would work just as well.

[TheEnforcer]

I don't believe it for a second. Obviously it has to be fully investigated but I don't buy that for a second. The reports I have been reading just don't ring true to me.

[imported_Technick]

Got this from AP:

Radiation bomb: Crude but deadly device is most feared nuke


By Jim Krane

NEW YORK -- Among the terrorist weapons experts worry about, one device tops the list: the atom bomb. While chances are remote that a terrorist might obtain one of the suitcase-sized nuclear bombs produced by the United States or former Soviet Union, analysts worry that a crude but deadly device might be fashioned from stolen nuclear material and a few sticks of dynamite. Such a radiological bomb wouldn't yield a nuclear explosion but rather a plume of toxic radiation.

"Had the terrorists at the World Trade Center used a radiological dispersal device, most parts of lower Manhattan would have been rendered uninhabitable," said Tariq Rauf, director of the nonproliferation program at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

Such a bomb requires neither knowledge of physics nor the rigors of smuggling weapons-grade uranium or plutonium.

"It's not that hard to build a radiological bomb since all you have to do is disperse a bunch of radioactive material," said Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Highly radioactive material is stored at over 1,000 facilities in 50 countries, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The group says some facilities have insufficient security against would-be thieves looking for bomb ingredients.

America's defense against nuclear smuggling consists of pressuring countries to bolster safeguards on weapons-usable and radioactive material, along with boosting border defenses in the United States and in countries on likely transit routes.

The nuclear terrorism threat, however remote, remains serious enough for President Bush to describe it in a speech eastern European leaders on Tuesday. Court documents show that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network has sought nuclear material. It is unclear whether the group succeeded.

"The probability is not zero," said Tim Brown, an intelligence and military analyst with GlobalSecurity.org. "It's somewhere between zero and low."

Analysts who have examined the threat describe three separate scenarios.

In the first, a so-called "suitcase nuke," probably from the ex-Soviet Union, could be sold to terrorists, who would seek to smuggle it into the United States, or within range of an U.S. overseas interest.

In the depths of the Cold War, the United States and Soviet Union each produced a few hundred portable nuclear weapons, said Rauf. The U.S. munitions were intended to slow a hypothetical Soviet invasion of western Europe by demolishing bridges and railways, he said.

Since the demise of the Soviet Union, rumors pointing to missing portable Soviet nuclear weapons have percolated through the defense community. None have been verified.

One stems from 1997 statements by Russian General Alexander Lebed, who said some portable Soviet weapons were unaccounted for. Another originates in Russian press reports that Chechen rebels stole, or attempted to steal, small nuclear weapons from a military base. In a third case, a pair of ethnic Russians were arrested in Miami in 1997 after offering to sell a suitcase nuke to undercover U.S. Customs agents. No evidence indicated the men had access to such a weapon, said Customs spokesman Dean Boyd.

"I'm not overly concerned about the suitcase bomb threat," said Jon Wolfsthal, an associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "The U.S. intelligence services have very high confidence that Russia has accounted for all its nuclear weapons."

A second threat scenario involves a terrorist group building its own nuclear bomb using smuggled nuclear material. The International Atomic Energy Agency has documented 18 cases of weapons-grade nuclear smuggling since 1993, among hundreds of cases of trafficking in radioactive materials. None of the cases involved enough for a bomb.

About a dozen countries have the material, but the largest amount -- some 1,300 metric tons of plutonium and highly enriched uranium -- sits in Russian weapons facilities and laboratories, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

"It's very hard to track," Wolfsthal said. "There's no way to verify that materials aren't already missing. The Russians themselves don't know themselves how much they have."

Since 1992, U.S. agencies have spent more than $5 billion helping Russia upgrade security at the sites, and making sure weapons scientists were peaceably employed. Border guards in the region trained by U.S. Customs have already seized radioactive materials, including, in 1999, 10 grams of weapons-grade uranium hidden inside a car traveling into Bulgaria.

Still, a terrorist-made A-bomb is a low-probability threat. "Even Saddam Hussein's weapons program, after 10 years and several billion dollars in investments, was not able to make a nuclear bomb," Rauf said.

The radiological bomb is a much simpler matter.

Depending on its potency, a contamination-spewing radiological bomb could kill dozens, hundreds, possibly thousands. Its toxic plume could render a square mile or more uninhabitable for a decade or longer. It would cause a huge cleanup and demoralize a city, perhaps a nation.

In the case of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown, a six-mile belt around the reactor is still uninhabitable, Rauf said.

"To a terrorist who is trying to create widespread panic, this option is more appealing," Rauf said. "You can see the white powder of anthrax, but not radiation. It can be carried by wind, by the water. In the public mind, a radiological device is more terrorizing."

[SmokingDawn]

These dirty bombs are pretty damn scary and can end up killing alot of people...I hope we are doing all we can to keep them out

[SykkBoy]

Originally posted by Technick+Jan 20 2005, 01:48 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Technick @ Jan 20 2005, 01:48 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-grimm@Jan 20 2005, 10:33 AM
id just like to say to whomevers watching that i happened on this thread, and i never used any of the target words, hell i dont even know these people:)
LOL Grimm,

Just a quick hello to our friends at the FBI, CIA, NSA etc :) [/b][/quote]
and the FTC and IRS...

[sarettah]

Originally posted by JoesHO1@Jan 20 2005, 02:19 PM
I think it is a scare tactic, but then again sorta like picking wich god to believe in, when it is time you wouldnt want to have made the wrong choice....

Go Mormon !!!!!

I have it on very good authority :okthumb:

[Nickatilynx]

Originally posted by SykkBoy+Jan 20 2005, 01:31 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (SykkBoy @ Jan 20 2005, 01:31 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Originally posted by Technick@Jan 20 2005, 01:48 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-grimm@Jan 20 2005, 10:33 AM
id just like to say to whomevers watching that i happened on this thread, and i never used any of the target words, hell i dont even know these people:)
LOL Grimm,

Just a quick hello to our friends at the FBI, CIA, NSA etc :)
and the FTC and IRS... [/b][/quote]
Hmmm according to server logs we are being read by someone in Afghanistan ..


:ph34r:

[Almighty Colin]

Originally posted by Nickatilynx@Jan 20 2005, 06:06 PM
Adghanistan ..


That's your banner spambot. Serge didn't tell you?

[DrGuile]

Originally posted by JoesHO1@Jan 20 2005, 02:19 PM
[...] it will only be minimul in the grand scheme of things , cause I am sure we will launch all out attacks on anyone or country associated with that for sure...
Or not associated with it, in some case....


;)

[Nickatilynx]

Originally posted by Almighty Colin+Jan 20 2005, 03:07 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Almighty Colin @ Jan 20 2005, 03:07 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Nickatilynx@Jan 20 2005, 06:06 PM
Adghanistan ..


That's your banner spambot. Serge didn't tell you? [/b][/quote]
Ahhhhhhh..........

[JoesHO]

Originally posted by DrGuile+Jan 20 2005, 03:08 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (DrGuile @ Jan 20 2005, 03:08 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-JoesHO1@Jan 20 2005, 02:19 PM
[...] it will only be minimul in the grand scheme of things , cause I am sure we will launch all out attacks on anyone or country associated with that for sure...
Or not associated with it, in some case....


;) [/b][/quote]
good point