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Terrorist attack - could this happen?

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    Terrorist attack - could this happen?

    Islamic terrorists obtain nuclear warhead. Maybe old Soviet unit for some hard dollars from their friends with oil and money to burn.

    Place into private jet or even old container ship.

    Go to USA (fly in or sail up to Eastern port of USA) and detonate. A few martyrs and a lot of dead people on the ground.

    Would make 9/11 look like kids stuff.

    Is this a possibility?

    What do our military types think?

    #2
    Originally posted by King Cnvt
    Is this a possibility?
    Possible, but too pricey - and quite easy to trace. Why not, instead, make a good old fashioned dirty bomb, using the rather nasty radio-isotopes that have mysteriously disappeared over the past few years from decommissioned hospital equipment (or from Sellafield, whose inventory is, according to recent news, a bit "light")?

    Cheap 'n' cheerful, but pretty good at rendering city centres out of bounds for decades.
    Last edited by richard-af; 1 August 2007, 08:10.

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      #3
      Originally posted by King Cnvt
      Islamic terrorists obtain nuclear warhead. Maybe old Soviet unit for some hard dollars from their friends with oil and money to burn.

      Place into private jet or even old container ship.

      Go to USA (fly in or sail up to Eastern port of USA) and detonate. A few martyrs and a lot of dead people on the ground.

      Would make 9/11 look like kids stuff.

      Is this a possibility?
      Yes. I've been going on about this scenario for years. And it's not just USA that is a potential target.

      Furthermore, we're on a loser - as time goes by it gets easier and cheaper for someone to do it.

      If I had to bet it would be a small container ship up the Thames, so when you city types pop out for lunch, always take your sunglasses with you just in case.

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        #4
        Yes... next
        How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think

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          #5
          What would in all likelyhood happen is that the bomb would explode but in a non-nuclear fashion. The soviet bombs have not been serviced for years due to cut-backs, and this means the fissionable material will not be squeezed together long enough to go supercritical any more.

          But I guess it would be fun to try.

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by King Cnvt
            Islamic terrorists obtain nuclear warhead. Maybe old Soviet unit for some hard dollars from their friends with oil and money to burn.

            Place into private jet or even old container ship.

            Go to USA (fly in or sail up to Eastern port of USA) and detonate. A few martyrs and a lot of dead people on the ground.

            Would make 9/11 look like kids stuff.

            Is this a possibility?

            What do our military types think?
            This scenario has been mooted for years.

            Two points:

            Either there is an effective 'system' in place that is preventing this from happening e.g. Counter intelligence

            or

            The beardies aren't the sophisticated, well structured and co-ordinated loonies we are constantly told they are.

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              #7
              I think any of the rumoured "suitcase nukes" still knocking about would be too knackered to do anything other than fizzle.

              Trying to blow up a warhead without the correct equipment will result in a broken warhead and a bit of radiation.

              Dirty bomb would be more effective.
              ‎"See, you think I give a tulip. Wrong. In fact, while you talk, I'm thinking; How can I give less of a tulip? That's why I look interested."

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                #8
                It doesn't need to be a sophisticated suitcase nuke if you load it onto a container ship. It can be a complete 10 ton, old, 1970's nuke missile.

                Also, a 2nd hand private jet with all the seats stripped out can carry a rather large nuke on board and no one will know until it detonates 5,000 feet above a western city.

                Cheap as chips.
                Last edited by King Cnvt; 31 July 2007, 21:48.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by King Cnvt
                  It doesn't need to be a sophisticated suitcase nuke if you load it onto a container ship. It can be a complete 100 ton, old, 1970's nuke missile.
                  You would need to know what to tell the missile to blow itself up - I think this knowledge is quite difficult to come by, but I've never worked for Lockheed or whatever the Russian equivalent is.


                  Originally posted by King Cnvt
                  Also, a 2nd hand private jet with all the seats stripped out can carry a rather large nuke on board and no one will know until it detonates 5,000 feet above a western city.

                  Cheap as chips.
                  True, but the only nukes that are easy to detonate are suitcase nukes and airdrops.

                  The missile hardware itself might be easy to come by but I wouldn't want to mess around with one trying to work out how to properly detonate it.
                  ‎"See, you think I give a tulip. Wrong. In fact, while you talk, I'm thinking; How can I give less of a tulip? That's why I look interested."

                  Comment


                    #10
                    If someone will sell you a nuke then they will sell you the expertise to detonate it. OK they might not accompany you, but they will give you a shiny red button to push for a price.

                    Tom Clancy 'The sum of all fears'. IMHO completely plausible plot.

                    I don't think the organised extremists will consider this, they know God is on the side of the cruise missiles, which will go splat in the middle of any country associated with such an atrocity. Killing a few thousand fat cat businessmen really upset the americans as it would us,however they kill more on the roads every year and they saw the fireworks of shock and awe on TV so they are fairly placated. The IRA messed up big time with Mountbatten & Enniskillen they then went back to causing serious injuries and attacking official targets.

                    Blowing up Seattle will have every American reaching for their pump action shotgun and GW for the button. It would make the crusades look like a playground fight, anyone with a long beard or in a burka would be a target.

                    Scares the hell out of me though, they may have some who are mad enough to do it.
                    Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

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