January 23, 2004
THIS is what's important...this is what we should be worrying about...
From The Guardian, Libya's black market deals shock nuclear inspectors
...Colonel Muammar Gadafy of Libya has been buying complete sets of uranium enrichment centrifuges on the international black market as the central element in his secret nuclear bomb programme, according to United Nations nuclear inspectors."Turnkey systems." "networks considerably more extensive than believed." Chew on that a little as you listen to the "debates." Posted by John Weidner at January 23, 2004 09:18 PMThe ease with which the complex bomb-making equipment was acquired has stunned experienced international inspectors. The scale and the sophistication of the networks supplying so-called rogue states seeking nuclear weapons are considerably more extensive than previously believed....
..."What was found in Libya marks a new stage in proliferation," said one knowledgeable source. "Libya was buying what was available. And what is available, the centrifuges, are close to turnkey facilities. That's a new challenge. Libya was buying something that's ready to wear."...
...A centrifuge is made up of hundreds of separate components. Typically, a country covertly seeking the uranium enrichment technology will seek to cover its tracks by obtaining a design blueprint and then purchasing the varied components separately from different suppliers.
The German ship was seized by Italians after a tip-off from the CIA. Knowledgeable sources said the centrifuges on board were "made-to-order" in Malaysia for Libya, based on designs directly or indirectly from Pakistan....
It's one thing to buy the equipment, another to make it work, another to assemble and test a weapon, another still to deliver it. We are still a long way from being genuinely threatened by these petty tyrannies and satrapies. I felt a lot more concerned about nuclear annihilation in the Seventies that I do now, and in the world of the present I worry more about biological threats than nuclear ones.
Posted by: Alan Sullivan at January 24, 2004 05:15 AMA Uranium bomb can be pretty simple, and would not have to be tested. In fact we never tested the Uranium bomb that we used on Japan, though the much more complex Plutonium weapon was tested first.
Terrorist delivery--Load it on a pretty sailboat, park in a marina, and turn on the timer...
On the positive side, the goal of most petty tyrannies would not be to give terrorists that much power, but, like NK, to let it be known that they have a bomb, so we will treat them with extreme caution and respect.
Posted by: John Weidner at January 24, 2004 10:43 AM
