Osama had the stuff, all right!
straitstimes.asia1.com.sg
Cache of uranium found in Al-Qaeda tunnel
The discovery near Kandahar gives credibility to fears of a nuclear attack plan by a desperate Osama
KANDAHAR - Uranium has been found in an Al-Qaeda base outside Kandahar - the first evidence that Osama bin Laden had obtained materials for a nuclear arsenal.
The discovery gave some credibility to the fear that he could unleash a weapon of mass destruction as his dying act, the Telegraph newspaper said yesterday.
It said anti-Taleban leaders in Kandahar revealed that the uranium and other materials, including cyanide, had been discovered in a tunnel complex beneath the former base near the city's airport.
The find was confirmed by American officials.
It was also revealed that when tribal forces took the Al-Qaeda complex earlier this month they found hundreds of jars, drums and metal cases in an underground labyrinth at the desert compound where Arab fighters staged a bloody last stand before the Taleban surrendered control of Kandahar.
The cache included low-grade uranium-238, which could be used to make a so-called 'dirty bomb' if wrapped around a conventional explosive. It would spread radiation over a large area.
Haji Gullalai, now the interim intelligence chief for Kandahar province, told The Telegraph: 'We knew we were not well equipped to deal with these things so we called in foreign experts.'
'For our own safety we did not touch the bottles but from a distance we saw there were hundreds of different kinds of containers - small jars and big jars, sealed with metal lids and containing powders and liquids, white and yellowish in colour.
'There were big drums the size of petrol drums and metal boxes with sides seven or eight inches thick. The bottles were labelled in four different languages - Chinese, Russian, Arabic and English.'
However, specialised equipment and facilities are needed to turn uranium-238 into a fissile device like the Hiroshima bomb.
American intelligence officials told Newsweek magazine that Al-Qaeda had enough of the material to make a 'dirty bomb'.
US officials said that Russia, the states of the former Soviet Union, China and Pakistan were all possible sources for the uranium.
While the device would not wreak the same kind of havoc as a nuclear weapon, if set off in a crowded city it would terrify or demoralise people still shaken from the Sept 11 terrorist strikes, Newsweek said. --AFP |
