Feel relieved?
From AP:
NEW YORK - The "dirty bomb" allegedly planned by terror suspect Jose Padilla would have been a dud, not the radiological threat portrayed last week by federal authorities, scientists say.At a June 1 news conference, the Justice Department said the alleged al-Qaida associate hoped to attack Americans by detonating "uranium wrapped with explosives" in order to spread radioactivity.
But uranium's extremely low radioactivity is harmless compared with high-radiation materials — such as cesium and cobalt isotopes used in medicine and industry that experts see as potential dirty bomb fuels.
"I used a 20-pound brick of uranium as a doorstop in my office," American nuclear physicist Peter D. Zimmerman, of King's College in London, said to illustrate the point.
Zimmerman, co-author of an expert analysis of dirty bombs for the U.S. National Defense University, said last week's government announcement was "extremely disturbing — because you cannot make a radiological dispersal device with uranium. There is just no significant radiation hazard."
Other specialists agreed. "It's the equivalent of blowing up lead," said physicist Ivan Oelrich of the Federation of American Scientists. ...
"Granted, it (uranium) could have a psychological effect" because of unfounded fears, said physicist Ferguson. But he said a government information campaign should quell any panic if such a weapon appeared.
BERLIN (AP) - An explosion ripped through a house in Cologne, injuring 16 people Wednesday, and officials said they believed the blast was caused by a bomb.
The explosion happened at about 4 p.m. on a shopping street in the suburb of Muelheim, police said.
"We are treating this as a bomb explosion," police spokesman Burkhard Jahn told The Associated Press.
Jahn said he had no immediate details on who might have carried out an attack or why.
A spokesman for the Cologne fire department, Stefan Lakenbrink, said 16 people were injured, including four seriously. One was in critical condition.
Fox News
Part of the American Tribe
God Bless the USA and her Fighting Forces and All who Fight with her give them Strength and Courage to stay the course to Victory Amen
Just one week ago you accused this Brother Muslim of everything you and your own ilk deserve, now it shows all was Lie and it's a dud, I am sure over one week it will be a chinees firework bought from walmart. You are not only ignorant but also soooo naive to believe everything your corrupted government is telling you. Open your eyes and ask forgivness from Almighty Allah (swt)
I spit on your rock!!!
I love my short skirts and music and wine and naked on the beach.
You want to destory mankind! and cut peoples heads off? We will not summit to your rock! You are the one who worships Idiols Like a big black rock? Why do you think that God has you living in a land that does not grow life but death?
You forgot to tell which God you worship?
Part of the American Tribe
God Bless the USA and her Fighting Forces and All who Fight with her give them Strength and Courage to stay the course to Victroy Amen
That is what terrorist are all about is fear!
Well here in the USA we have the 2nd Add. and will not live in Fear!!
Part of the American Tribe
God Bless the USA and her Fighting Forces and All who fight with her give them Strength and Courage to stay the course to Victory not to run away like the French Amen
UHM, GUYS......
Go very, very quietly to the Internet Haganah site on the left side of this page and look at the article there from June 6th.
"Palestinian terrorists and NEVEDA'S guide to attacking high-level nuclear waste."
QUOATE>"It was March 23.2003 when we first noted that the State of Nevada had posted what amounts to a guide for attacking shipments of high-level nuclear waste."
It's now posted on all the Islamic sites and look at how many hits this site has posted since the news has come out, that there is basicly no security there.
I can't believe the stupidity of our own agencies.
cool...
brick uranium as a doorstop.hope the scientist will not grow a third eye on his forehead soon. :)
RE: Dirty bomb duds----Scientists are not all that smart really, mostly becuz many think being tops in your field makes you tops in all fields. T'aint true.
For example(s), during a brief stint with DOE at Los Alamos I and other newbies were regaled with stories about the old timers who would slap two chunks of plutonium together, by hand, to make a big blue flash (total mass was sub-critical of course, but the stuff is also toxic). What fun! There's all kinds of nasty crap buried all over town as well; sometimes stuff shows up when you dig a foundation for a new building. They didn't plan well for disposal.
These are also the "same" guys who let a Chinese spy send secrets home from his office, and lost years of research results during some forest fires becuz they didn't back up the data at a remote locale.
Moral of the above: take everything scientists say with a large dose of salt.
This is really nothing new, it's been known for a long time that dirty bombs are fairly ineffective in causing mass casualities. If you don't die in the initial explosion you'll probably live to a ripe old age. What dirty bombs are is a psychological weapon causing panic and fear plus very costly to cleanup.
How wise is it to provide corrective technical advice to islamist madmen -- either orally or in print or over the internet.
We are at war -- and the press is running their mouths off.
This revelation is not any different than publishing convoy transits during WWII.
Why is the government not cracking down on this?
Other Dave,
I guess you don't want my napalm recipe, then? ;-)
It is nice to hear all of the scientific intelligence that the posters here have. I had no idea that rust and pop cans could be so lethal. I urge everyone to go to pbs.org and check out the NOVA show on the results of a dirty bomb. It gives very good info and examples.
Here is a link to the site.
Ammonia and... something easily gotten, so I won't say. All I know is, they actually Showed people how to make this on PBS, while explaining why you shouldn't... idiots. (it was all I caught of the show, but it sure sticks in my mind).
It's the kind of stuff you would put into a compartmentalized bottle, so it would mix when smashed against something. Then it goes up in a flash. How much of an explosion it makes, I don't know.... yet.
The Other Dave,
"Finally, Padilla's defense is trying to downplay the threat he posed on the grounds that his bomb would not be as effective as he hoped. This is horribly dishonest; he was still planning to kill people."
Unfortunately, there's a basic legal principle which states that to be accused of a threatened crime, you have to be shown capable of carrying it out. In other words, if I rob a bank with an unloaded or fake gun, no matter what they can charge me with, I cannot be charged with armed robbery...because I could not have carried out the requisite threat.If I verbally threaten to physically harm someone twice my size from my wheelchair(hypothetically,that is,for the benefit of our radio audience, I'm not really in a wheelchair)and he attempts legal restraint or remedy, the judge must dismiss; no matter how annoying, disturbing, irritating, etc. I can not carry out the threat.
I don't believe everything I read or watch or hear in the media, in fact, very little of it. So I take all this Padilla business at its face value...but I wonder what's been going on,what act of terror has been planned and about to be successfully executed, if anything, over the last two years somewhere in this country, while the Justice Department has been wasting time, personnel, and resources on some pathetic lunatic.
"Forbid it, Almighty God!"
Phil,
I'll have to take your word regarding the legalities. I really know a guy, however, serving time for armed bank robbery here in Georgia who used a fake gun. He was arrested by the FBI. Maybe the rules vary from state to state?
As for Padilla being a waste of time, maybe so. The case, I think, illustrates how inadequate law inforcement methods are in dealing with terrorism. I'd certainly rather see resources used otherwise, e.g., profiling airline passengers, deporting foreigners who incite violence against "infidels" etc.
The Other Dave,
If he was arrested by the FBI then they got him on a Fed rap...a smart prosecutor or Attorney General's staff knows it's not the crime, it's what you can get a conviction on. That's what makes this whole "enemy combatant, holding without charges" Ashcroft sleight-of-hand so questionable.I'm trying to be neutral and unbiased, but even J. Edgar Hoover, with his wartime bungling of the German spy situation, at least had a good sense to know which fish to fry and which fish to throw back. I want to let the Government govern, but at the same time there are so many apparent red flags, like the number of Bush appointees like Ashcroft and Spencer Abraham, who were resoundingly defeated by their own constituency, or guys like Bill Bennett who have had immportant government positions all their adult lives and never once ran for office, or Dick Cheney, who's serving in what I think is his first elected office in almost thirty years in and around the White House.I believe,as did an unknown Andrew Jackson supporter two centuries ago, "The people is Oll Korrect", and when a conservative voting block votes a dead man into office knowing full well that means a woman (and Democrat) will hold the office rather than give John Ashcroft another term, well, The Other Dave, my gut feeling is...
Damn1 now I'm losing my buzz....
The Other Dave,
If he was arrested by the FBI then they got him on a Fed rap...a smart prosecutor or Attorney General's staff knows it's not the crime, it's what you can get a conviction on. That's what makes this whole "enemy combatant, holding without charges" Ashcroft sleight-of-hand so questionable.I'm trying to be neutral and unbiased, but even J. Edgar Hoover, with his wartime bungling of the German spy situation, at least had a good sense to know which fish to fry and which fish to throw back. I want to let the Government govern, but at the same time there are so many apparent red flags, like the number of Bush appointees like Ashcroft and Spencer Abraham, who were resoundingly defeated by their own constituency, or guys like Bill Bennett who have had immportant government positions all their adult lives and never once ran for office, or Dick Cheney, who's serving in what I think is his first elected office in almost thirty years in and around the White House.I believe,as did an unknown Andrew Jackson supporter two centuries ago, "The people is Oll Korrect", and when a conservative voting block votes a dead man into office knowing full well that means a woman (and Democrat) will hold the office rather than give John Ashcroft another term, well, The Other Dave, my gut feeling is...
Damn! now I'm losing my buzz....
Phil,
Not sure where you are getting your imformation but threatening to harm someone is assault whether you are in a wheelchair or not.Sheik Yassin was a quadraplegic in a wheelchair and he was also a war criminal.His age and confinement to a wheelchair made no difference.It's also a matter of law that people with Alzheimers who batter others can be charged with battery. The theory is that Alzheimers is no excuse and no one is allowed to batter another person. The law says if a person with Alzheimers cannot control himself he should be on medication or placed in an institution.The one place someone with Alzheimers can get a way with battery is in an institution. The reason for that is health care workers should be able to handle violent patients they have backup and can use restraints and medications.The point I'm making is that physical infirmity does not shield you from the law.I've also heard of people being convicted of bank robbery who had no bomb only a note that said they had a bomb.
As for Padilla, back when he was arrested and Ashcroft held a news conference from Russia. It was reported that Padilla had been followed by FBI agents from Pakistan to Europe. He was under surveillence and observed picking up money ($10,000) from an Al Qaeda operative. FBI agents were on the plane he was on when he flew back to the US and arrested him at the airport. The information on Padilla came from captured terrorist and "enemy combatant" Abu Zubayda(sp).
Lily,
The legal point is the ability to carry out the threat, not whether someone is in a wheelchair. Perhaps I wasn't clear, but a smart prosecutor goes for the conviction, rather than the crime. The person with a note but no bomb is still robbing a bank,(a federal crime) but cannot be convicted of armed robbery, because they cannot carry out the threat. Having a quadraplegic half your size threaten to "kick your ass" maybe annoying, or embarrassing, and you're correct, may be illegal,and you may sue them and collect, but to the degree that they cannot carry out their threat, at least for the time being in our Anglo-American system, you will not get a conviction.This is not specialized knowledge, Lily,most of "where I get my information" is Social Studies I, History 101, the classics, the Library of Congress,Aristotle, Lord Mansfield, Samuel Johnson, F.A. Hayek,like any true Conservative - the fundamentals, the basics of Western Culture, Anglo-American jurisprudence,all resting on a solid foundation of a liberal education.
Please don't get me started on Ashcroft's handling investigations by way of news conferences...especially in light of the Congressional investigation regarding memos a few days ago. Ashcroft's claim that the President can consult the Attorney General on legal matters is so off the mark! The President has a White House counsel with whom he must discuss the interpretation of the law.Why? because if the President breaks the law, it is the Attorney General who must investigate, possibly even prosecute him or his staff.Bush consulting Ashcroft (no matter how well or how long they've known each other)on a legal limitation is like me asking the local police how far above the speed limit I can go before they'll pull me over.And again, Lily, this is not some obscure legal tenet, this can be referenced in any high school or junior college social studies texbook.
This is what frightens me almost as much as the threat of radical Islam: that the only line between us on the homefront and domestic terror may be legal and law enforcement amateurs.
I know you want to see arrests and prosecutions,we all do.But most of what was announced in the "Russian" news conference appears to have been "dated" material, and frankly, ratting somebody out when you're in custody is such a unreliable form of testimony I can't believe they wasted their time. Smart police work, dogged surveillance, teamwork, and unrelenting pursuit of the "thin veil of sympathizers" that is, the white supremist and separatists that are known to be supporting our enemies abroad.
My point is, even if we aren't indulging in optinistic prosecution, you still have to prove intent, even if you can't prove the ability to carry out the threat.
"You are still guilty of attempted murder because the INTENT was to kill." Wrong. You are guilty of attempted murder by virtue of intent upon conviction.
It works like this - the prosecution must prove the following: Motive(or will to carry out the crime), Opportunity(carry out the crime within an acceptable timeframe,presuming presence at the crime scene),Intent(planning or anticipating carrying out the crime),and Capability (actually being able to carry out or otherwise facilitate the crime).
The fewer of these you are able to establish or prove, the less likely you will get a conviction. the less you're able to get a conviction, the less likely a good prosecutor will try a case.In worst case senarios,a judge may throw the case out altogether, if only one point can be established, if at all.
Prosecution by mind-reading or clairvoyance, like we saw during the Salem Witch trials, went out with the, well, Salem Witch trials.
And holding someone for two years or two months (as was the case with the Moslem-Amercan lawyer, they were sure it was him, they had him, he was a "material witness"...no, wait, I guess the smudged half-thumbprint on the bagsn't his after all)against the hope for a breakthrough or miracle went out with Divine Right of Kings.
And as far as the Colepaugh or similar cases are concerned, it's a matter of record (the Congressional Record)that FDR created the tribunal to avoid embarrassing J. Edgar Hoover, who was so busy chasing Bolsheviks and interning Americans of Japanese descent, he completely missed a vital, active, German espionage operation that operated at will during virtually the entire war.
09/11 was a lot of things, but it wasn't the serial number on the Justice Department's learner's permit. The American people need and deserve the best investigation, prosecution, and conviction talents available. And they're out there, at the state, federal, and local level.And I've seen the work firsthand they're doing everyday at the grassroots level to secure the homeland.But we're not getting it at the top - our "Acheilles Forehead", if you will, and you can suspend the last five centuries of Anglo-American jurisprudence, and you still will not make a silk legal brief from this sow's ear.
We all agree that we all want to see our enemies, foreign and domestic, brought to justice. Can we leave it at that?
I guess it depends on who you talk to about the military tribunals for the nazi saboteurs. According to then Attorney General Francis Biddle in his memoir "In Brief Authority", FDR ordered military tribunals for the nazi saboteurs because he felt a few years in federal prison was "not enough".The eight conspirators were tried by military tribunal resulting in six death sentences and two lengthy prison terms.The result, within nine weeks of the saboteurs arrival by submarine in Florida and New York six had been executed.I would love to see that kind of swift justice for terrorists and their sympathizers today.
BTW - The muslim attorney's name was leaked by Spain, he was picked up as a material witness after the Spanish government leaked his name. Prior to that he had been placed under surveillance by the FBI at the request of the Spanish government after that govenment matched his fingerprint with a fingerprint from interpol.
Not sure what the point is of your last statement. I don't recall anyone saying you didn't want the enemies of the country brought to justice.I'm here stating my opinion about the Padilla case.