Did anyone see the ABC. news report tonight

[Tommy-the-Greek]

They snuck a low grade uranium into our country from the middle east. They put a 15lb cyclander of dirty bomb grade uranium in a lead lined steel pipe. The object was smaller then a football. The pipe was put in a suitcase. The men carried it onboard a train across Europe to Turkey. The same route a blackmarket weapon from the old soviet union would take to istanbul. The suitcase was never checked all the way to the port city. They took the object out of the suitcase and put it in a trunk, the trunk was then crated and put into a shipping container and loaded onto a ship. Still this object was never opened or checked. It was then shipped to New York Harbour. Now remember this object was giving off the same levels of radiation as a highly enriched weapons grade uranium. If this was a bomb the ship would have been the delivery device and it could have gone off in the harbour.

The container was unloaded and checked by US customs. The container was never opened and thus the crates in the container were never opened. The hand held radiation detectors never detected it. The x-ray machines never picked it up. The container was loaded onto a truck and was taken to manhatten. Now keep in mind this truck at that point could have been driven almost anywhere into the U.S. undetected. It was then delevered to it's destination roughly a month after it left the border old Soviet Union.

This scares the hell out of me. This proves beyond a doubt that this could have been done 5 years ago, today or tomorrow. This package which could have been a real tactical nuke artillary shell went right thru europe and across the ocean into the US totally undetected.

The total cost to ship it from A to B to C was 10,000 dollars. Anyone who thinks it can't be done or it will never happened, it just did.

[Yomar]

I didn't watch any TV, and thats why. I know that its possible, its way too easy to hide something that small in industrial shipping cargo, no level of inspection acceptable to economic standards would ensure a fool proof solution, we'd have to turn into Fortress America, and thats probably not happening, at least I hope not. Its been quoted often since 9/11 and I firmly believe in what Ben Franklin said when he said, "They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." It is out of our hands, if someone wants to do it, it would be very difficult, but not impossible. But I put my faith in God and in humanity, its all I can do really.

[Mad Mike]

Ben Franklin never could have concieved of a nuke, or the thought that a few people with such a weapon could kill millions of Americans in one blow. If he had, I'm quite sure he would have reconsidered those words.

If people like Al Quada can get their hands on a nuke, they WILL use it. This is why we have to secure every source and take out enemys such as Sadam. Sorry Yomar but your -bury your head in the sand and hope for the best- attitude makes me want to hurl. That's the kind of attitude that allowed 9/11 to happen in the first place. We were attacked EIGHT times before then by Al Quada and we responded with half @ssed measures that told our enemys we were weak and afraid of a fight. I say NO MORE. Sadam CANNOT BE TRUSTED. Time for him, his supporters and his government to go. If we have to be nation builders, so be it. These are hard times and we must make tough choices. If we cannot do that, then the three thousand people that died on 9/11, died in vain.

[Yomar]

I suppose I should have added my faith in the agencies protecting us. I don't know about you, but I am just an ordinary Joe, I can offer nothing productive to Homeland Security other than to be a good citizen. And I think Ben Franklin could conceive of weapons of mass destruction, gun powder made that possible...perhaps not the destructive power of splitting Atoms, but I'm sure he was very aware of the upward trend in the destructive power of weapons.

Sorry Mad Mike, while your opinion does not make me want to hurl, I disagree, I think we should do everything in our power to protect ourselves, but I have come to grips with the fact that there are no guarantees. I don't know how many people on this board grew up in DC, but I imagine quite a few did. I grew up under Reagan and the Evil Empire of the Soviets. People would talk freely about the potential for nuclear war and as a child I realized that living in DC, if something like that were to happen, there wasn't much I could do about it and I had to accept it or be constantly worried by it. I'm no longer a child, but there is still not much I could do to prevent such a thing. Its the same thing with murder, if someone really sets his mind on killing you, chances are you are going to get killed unless you know who wants to do it and how and when and worrying about it isn't going to do any good. My role in society is to be the best citizen possible. Help out in the community when I can, pay my taxes and be congenial to the people I interact with. I am not Rambo and this is not a movie. I believe we as a country are doing everything we can to protect this country, and if we come under attack and I am able to defend it, I will to the best of my ability. But until then, my duty is to enjoy and respect the freedom sacrificed for by my ancestors and to be prepared to sacrifice to protect that freedom if needed. Right now I don't see how I can be of use to the effort against Al Qaeda, and all I'm saying is being controlled by fear of something which I myself have really no control over isn't going to do anyone any good. I did not say that I don't think anybody should do anything, I fully support or government agencies like customs and immigration and intelligence, and I am in a position where I essentially have to put my trust in them that they are doing everything they can do and I also know that there are no guarantees.

In regards to Hussein, what I think doesn't matter as it relates to this topic, but since you brought it up, I think going into the middle east right now with the intent of toppling a regime is not going to solve the problem of Al Qaeda.

Thats just my opinion

[Mad Mike]

Yomar, I'm glad you have such faith in the agencies protecting us because right now those agencies are sighting very good reasons to take out Sadam. There are times when the best defense is a good offense. Now is the time to take our fight to our enemys soil before they once again bring the fight to ours.

[Yomar]

well, like I said, that has nothing to do with what I originally posted and should be in the other thread, but I have not heard much of anything like you describe coming from anyone but the administration. Congress, people on the intelligence committee are saying they have not heard an argument supported by hard intelligence, so if that is true, I'd be interested in reading about it if you would be kind enough to post the links.

[Muskrat]

Unfortunately, the bottom line IS the sad fact that if someone, somewhere, wants to detonate a weapon of mass destruction on U.S. soil...then they WILL find a way. One of the traits that allow humans to currently rule the planet is the fact that we can think and reason, we can come up with ideas and share them...unfortunately, that trait is common in both good, honorable men and men who crave destruction. Ain't free-will a b!tch?

[Tommy-the-Greek]

Eventually the terrorist will be able to buy a nuclear warhead on the black market. The ABC report proved if they had one they could deliver it anywhere in the US they wanted. We need to train thousands of spies and flood the middle east and former soviet republics with them. We also need to pay foriegn nationals as spies regardless of there criminal record. We got caught with our pants down and can ill afford to let it happen again. In my opinion the worst thing Clinton ever did was dismantle and denegrade our espionage capablities.

This nation must have spies in every country, even our allies. Our nation relies too much on high tech information gathering. The best way to secure our safety and freedom is to know what are enemies are thinking and planning before they act.

FYI, there is a ship off the Jersey coast right now that was sent out of the NY harbour because of high levels of radiation. The fact that these foriegn ships are not checked untill after they get into a US harbour is insane.

[Hokieskin]

Was this a dirty nuke bomb that they smuggled? that is much different than a real nuke with the mushroom cloud. It is my understanding that the dirty bomb is basically dynamite with radiactive material around it. The idea is to spread radiactive material over a large area. It could not destroy a city. What I am worried about and I think the agencies are too is the weapons grade material but I assume it is easier to track that bc it is very hard to make. It has to be refined and can't be just found. Yes people will try to kill us and some might find a way to do so. That is why must remain diligent.