Given how much money is sloshing around Islamic Jihad countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Libya, money for Islamic Jihad can't really be said to be a problem.
Given the number of nukes the USSR had and how many top-line physicists they had, and how chaotic the collapse of the USSR was and how poverty stricken so many military people were, I guess they took what value they could out of military equipment in their possession.
I dare say a LOT of scrap metal was derived from tanks and bits and pieces. Many trucks will have been converted to commercial operations while reported as being "blown up by terrorists and insurgents" or merely "broken down on side of road and abandoned".
Some of those with a bit of nuclear weapon handling knowledge might have "lost" or had to "flee from" control of materials which "When control was regained, we found missing materials including, we believe, though accounting records were lost, half a dozen tactical nuclear weapons".
Given that a LOT of people in various states remaining after USSR collapse were financially quite desperate, many of them wouldn't be too particular about where and how they got cash, provided it didn't involve harm to their families or other close interests.
Since a LOT of Russians were killed in Afghanistan and they probably heard that the USA was an enthusiastic sponsor of "giving the Soviets their own Vietnam", they no doubt feel a fair bit of antipathy to the USA and harm to the USA would even give a sense of vengeance exacted.
A lot of Russians have been killed in Chechnya too and the USA was a supporter of that insurrection too.
Many Americans have got a LOT of money and feel a need for some thrills in life. Heroin seems to fill a need in that regard. Heroin comes from opium and Afghanistan is an excellent place to grow opium. Crops are booming and [apart from the Taleban time] have been for a long time.
Customs people in the USA need to earn a living and some of them no doubt think they aren't being paid enough and like some convicted drug smuggling customs officers in New Zealand, figure they might as well look the other way when the next shipment arrives. After all, it's going to adults who are making a free choice. And, if they don't let it in and collect a fee, somebody else will. And they do have to make those payments which are due and that's keeping them awake at night.
Sooo...... how can we make a lot of people happy?
Heroin users want to buy heroin.
Customs officers want some money on the side.
Opium growers want a lot of cash for what they grow.
Islamic Jihad wants the Great Satan to surrender and convert.
Russians and Kazakhs and others who happened to get hold of some spare military goods, which "fell off the back of a truck" need some money badly.
Islamic Jihad needs something better than box-cutters as weapons, though those were not bad at all.
Saudi and other super-rich oil exporting [to the USA ironically] people want to do something good with their money [such as promote Islam, and where better to promote it that where Satan has his HQ].
I've got an idea [which I'm sure Condoleezza would say nobody could have thought of, just as I thought of stepping into a cockpit through the wide-open door in the 1990s while flying across the USA to hijack an aircraft - in principle, not that I had any desire to do so, but she said nobody could have thought of it, though Osama and co obviously did].
How about the Russian soliders [now retired] sell a little nuke, complete with codes, for a big lump of cash. So he's happy. The Islamic Jihad bloke buys a ton of opium from some farmers in Afghanistan. So they are happy. Al Q wraps the bomb in a layer of lead or nickel-zirconium and stuff to prevent neutrons escaping and giving away the game. Then packs bags of opium all around that, putting it all in a box marked "Dried Dates" "Produced in Saudi Arabia" or some friendly country.
They then cart the box along with a cargo of potatoes, yams or something, to Pakistan. Then they ship the potatoes to Saudi Arabia. Many Pakistanis work in Saudi Arabia, so there must be a bit of freight travelling between the two. Maybe the dates were "Produced in Egypt", so they are shipped there overland.
Anyway, a container ship swings by and is loaded with a bunch of stuff, along with a container of dried dates, including the box which came from somewhere else.
So far, everyone is cash flow positive and very happy.
It arrives in the USA. The customs officer is assigned to check the ship. He checks the container, doing a thorough job on some of the boxes, but not so thorough on one. He ticks it off as A-OK.
Off goes the container to the date distribution centre to unpack the dates and fill orders around the country. The date merchants and eaters are all happy. Nice cheap delicious dates. Good profits.
The opium also goes off into its normal distribution chain and so they are a bunch of happy people too. People around the country shoot up and feel pretty good about life. Or smoke it to be extra cool, just like olde-style opium smokers, with hookahs. Their suppliers are also very happy. The police who are bribed to turn a blind eye are happy too. All cash flow positive and a good boost to GDP, though not in the official statistics.
Osama's cuzzie-bros, who have been studying for years in the USA as engineers and scientists, maybe even on nuclear physics, an interesting topic, take a weekend vacation to collect a box in a Ryder rental truck. Hmm, just like Timothy McVeigh.
They deliver it to a rented, or purchased, warehouse, or storage shed, which is used as, heck, maybe even a date distribution centre, but more likely something like a umm, let's see. Anyway, I'm sure there are thousands of places where they could unload a box with a fork lift and store it where it wouldn't get rained on, or get in the way of somebody trying to do something.
Then, a year or 5 later, after they have got their ducks in a row, Osama gives another warning that the USA must withdraw from the Holy Lands, convert to Islam or he will enact the Fatwah authorizing up to 10 million American infidels to be killed, Go- willing.
Japan surrendered after two. I wonder if the USA would surrender after just two, or would it take 10 before they gave in.
After a final warning, but without warning, to avoid a panicked search and maybe a disruption of the plan, the cellphone call to the device would be made. The device [aka bomb] would answer the phone, which would upload the codes and kablammmmm... a major adjustment in thinking for a lot of people.
In practise, I think a less complex plan such as the suicide bomber guards would just put the codes in, insert the key or whatever is needed. There would be guards so that somebody didn't just grab it and it could be fired if discovery seemed imminent and failure of the plan possible.
Things could get unpredictable at that stage, but I think a revenge attack of large proportions, and counter-threat would be made such as immediate destruction of Mecca, Medina and anything else if another attack happened. Meanwhile, troops would be geared up and all out invasion and ... well, there wouldn't be a lot of pussy-footing around. It would be unconditional surrender by all Islamic states, immediately, if not sooner, with a new constitution and ... well, there would be a LOT of drama.
But Osama would have enjoyed some excellent revenge.
Any leaks in the plan?
So far, we are up to: Osama has given warnings to convert, to withdraw, etc, a couple of times in the last year or two. USA citizens have been advised to reject their government. There is an issued Fatwah authorizing 10 million killed.
Mqurice |
