Nuclear War Unthinkable?

Some nuclear-armed countries don't think so, in fact they are preparing now to win & survive it!
(But, first below we'll take a look at the potential for nuclear terrorism at home, then the larger world!)


Do You Rest Easy At Night?

Much of what is presented below is from a paper presented November, 2002 by the Director of Homeland Security Programs of the major supplier to the Federal Government of radiological detection instruments. Some of it is gleaned from my over 40 years of work in the nuclear industry, including 7 years as Chairman of a Nuclear Technology Program at a major southern college, 2 years at the DOE PANTEX FACILITY, 5 years at Los Alamos National Laboratory and 2 Years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

There are 4 basic problems concerning nuclear terrorism facing the U. S. today. These are [not in order of importance]:

(1) A terrorist act at a domestic nuclear facility such as

- A commercial nuclear reactor
- A DOE nuclear facility
- A commercial nuclear fuel enrichment or fabrication facility
- A university nuclear reactor

(2) Explosion of a "Dirty Bomb" in a public place such as

- A major city
- An amusement park
- A sports stadium
- An airport or sea port

(3) Release of radioactive material into and air or water supply

- An aerosol or other airborne radioactive material released into the air intake of a major building
- Radioactive material released into the water supply of a major city

(4) Explosion of a nuclear weapon

- There are over 200 documented cases of persons attempting to purchase special nuclear material (stuff to make bombs) or tactical nuclear weapons on the black market
- There are over 100 "suitcase bombs" missing from the Soviet nuclear inventory

This last item is probably the most important. The former head of Soviet National Security, Alexander Lebed testified to that fact before congress. He stated that the devices measure approximately 24" x 16" x 8" and can be set off by an individual in less than 30 minutes, producing a 1 kilo ton yield. Such a device, set off in New York Harbor would produce a 15 to 20 foot wave that would destroy New York City. Other sources have confirmed that the number of suitcase bombs missing from the Soviet inventory is correct.

Now, how do we detect such a device coming into the U.S.? Weapons grade plutonium, 94% Pu-239 produces a 414 KeV gamma ray, detectable and identifiable by gamma spectroscopy. It also contains approximately 6% Pu-240 that undergoes spontaneous fission, producing neutrons that can be detected by neutron detectors. It also contains Am-241 that produces 60 KeV gamma rays, again detectable by gamma spectroscopy. The significant quantity of weapons grade Pu is about 8 kilograms. The physical size of 8 Kgm of Pu 239 is about the size of a baseball. (Try to find that in a sea/land container.)

Weapons grade uranium is approximately 93% U-235, producing a 186 KeV gamma ray detectable by gamma spectroscopy and 7% U-238, producing a 1001 KeV gamma ray from it's daughter Pa-234m, also detectable by gamma spectroscopy. The significant quantity is about 25 Kgm, a sphere about 7" in diameter. (Again, try to find that in a sea/land container.)

The radiological signature of any of the gamma emitters could easily be shielded by a few inches of lead or tungsten. Four or five inches of steel would effectively reduce the radiations to background. Think about putting it inside the cylinders of and engine in a car being imported!

So where could this material enter the U.S.? It could come in as Sea Cargo. The U.S. Customs has stated that only 2% of Sea Cargo is inspected. It could come in as Air Cargo. FedEx, UPS and USPS are not inspected! It could come across at border crossings. Only a few of the border inspectors are equipped with alarming dosimeters and even fewer are trained in how to use them. A nuclear device or special nuclear material could come in with luggage from commercial aviation, general aviation, cruse ships or by private car. Or, perhaps, by fishing boat or private yacht. As you can see, there are many ways for an enemy to get a device into the U.S. (There's more to this story of our porous borders that can't/shouldn't be shared publicly, but bottom line is, it's actually much worse and easier penetrated than stated here.) Incidentally, there are not enough instruments currently available for purchase to equip all of the ports of entry and it will take at least 2 more years to manufacture such instruments. They are also expensive, ranging in price from a killobuck or so for an alarming dosimeter to detect special nuclear material to more than $100,000 for a single installation to survey a sea/land container.

What is being done to protect us?

Thursday morning, June 6 (anniversary of D-day), 2002, President George W. Bush met with his Homeland Security Council and discussed a Department of Homeland Security (DHS). That evening he proposed that Congress establish a Cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The mission of the DHS would be to prevent terrorist attacks within the U.S., reduce America's vulnerability to terrorism and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do occur. There would be four divisions of the Department. They would be Border and Transportation Security, Emergency Preparedness and Response, Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Countermeasures and Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection. The DHS would have approximately 169,000 employees and a budget of $37 billion.

Thus far the DHS has not been funded by Congress. Sleep well tonight!


What are Russia, China expecting?

Moscow boosts civil-defense budget, Beijing conducting air-raid drills

Posted: February 15, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
With the world's attention focused on the impending war in Iraq, the international media have overlooked interesting war and emergency preparations in both China and Russia, reports Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

The Russian government is tripling civil-defense outlays this year, while the U.S. continues to see no need for a sheltering system to protect civilians from the effects of nuclear radiation and bio-chem warfare, reports G2B in its first edition this week.

According to G2B, a top Russian official noted civil defense has become a top priority for Moscow when "international terrorism made illusory the line between war and peace." New spending will focus on alerting the public to imminent threats. Russia already has an outstanding shelter system – something lacking in the United States.

There are no provisions in the Department of Homeland Security budget for building shelters, reports the intelligence newsletter.

At the same time, the new online intelligence newsletter launched by the editor and founder of WorldNetDaily.com reports Chinese air-raid drills are giving citizens of Taiwan the jitters.

"Why is China conducting air-raid drills in major cities like Shanghai?" asks G2B. "What are Beijing officials expecting? Who's going to attack the mainland?"

G2B says the drills are getting little notice at the Pentagon, which is single-mindedly focused on the impending war in Iraq.

Chinese officials call the exercises routine. But in a speech after a drill in Shanghai, Gen. Liang Guanglie, commander of the military district responsible for Shanghai's defense, said strengthening civil defense was necessary because of the "very serious" situation with Taiwan.

"Do the Chinese expect Taiwan to launch an invasion of the mainland?" asks G2B. "Hardly. The only threat to mainland China would occur if Beijing launched an attack on Taiwan."

Any conflict would likely involve the United States, which supports Taiwan's defense.

Asked whether the drill was meant to prepare for a possible American attack, Mao Yushu, vice director of Shanghai's Civil Defense Department, said, "The biggest threat is an air attack. Of course, we want to have done all preparations in this regard."

The last time air-raid sirens sounded within Shanghai was Feb. 6, 1950, when war planes from the Nationalist government in Taiwan passed near the city, according to the government-owned newspaper Shanghai Daily.

Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin is a subscription-based, independent, online intelligence resource edited and published by the veteran newsman and founder of WorldNetDaily.com. Each week it taps into Farah's network of international intelligence sources for insights into geo-political and geo-strategic developments.
WorldNetDaily.com


"In spite of the many uncertainties of our study we do have a great deal of confidence in some partial conclusions -- such as, that a nation like the United States or the Soviet Union could handle each of the problems of radioactivity, physical destruction, or likely levels of casualties, if they occurred by themselves. That is, we believe if either nation were to be dusted with radioactivity in a wartime manner, and if nothing else happened, this radioactivity could, with minor preparations for a small attack and elaborate preparations for a large one, be handled."
HERMAN KAHN: On Thermonuclear War

"Nuclear winter is the most recent attempt to prove that winning a nuclear war is impossible. A new apocalyptic theory was necessary from the viewpoint of the antinuclear activists who originated and publicized nuclear winter because other theories of apocalypse, such as the fallout theory, had been discredited by the scientific community."
PETER VINCENT PRY: Nuclear Wars, Exchanges and Outcomes

"In modern warfare, nuclear weapons can be employed for various missions: strategic, operational, and tactical. From a purely military point of view, a nuclear weapon is incomparably more effective than a conventional weapon. It permits the execution of military missions in a considerably shorter time than was possible in past wars. For this reason, experts believe that the nuclear weapon is the most powerful and effective instrument by which to destroy an opponent in any type of operation, or in war as a whole."
V.D. SOKOLOVSKII: Soviet Military Strategy

Russian War Preparations:

* Moscow has outfitted hundreds of fighter-bombers with additional fuel tanks and in-flight refueling capability, augmenting Russia's intercontinental strike capability.
* Russia has been constructing large numbers of military transport aircraft for foreign customers who do not exist.
* Russia has been building and accumulating dry docks even though, at the moment, no foreign customers for them exist.
* Russia has recently fielded a new battle tank; a new state-of-the-art fighter; super-quiet submarines which can engage sea, land and air targets simultaneously; a new attack helicopter and sniper rifle.
* Russia has developed a revolutionary new rifle-fired infantry weapon, the so-called vacuum grenade, which can give a single Russian soldier the firepower of a 155mm howitzer. Russia has begun joint production of this weapon with the Chinese.
* Russia now emphasizes the production of mobile ICBMs like the Topol-M, which are designed to evade satellite detection, permitting the Russians to cheat on arms control agreements.
* Russia continues to develop biological and chemical weapons, sometimes with the use of U.S. funds. According to recent defectors, Russia is now working on a super-plague weapon.
* Russian diplomacy is clearly attempting to build an anti-American alliance which includes countries like China, North Korea, Cuba, Iraq, Libya, South Africa, Syria, Venezuela, Vietnam, Iran and India.
* Russian Spetsnaz commandos continue to train with suitcase nukes against U.S. targets.
* Russia is hoarding strategic metals which are vital for keeping up war production through the first months of a nuclear world war.
* Russia is importing more food than needed for domestic consumption. At the same time, Russia has constructed huge underground nuclear-proof food storage facilities.
* Russia has developed an impressive engineering rescue capability, organized into special military formations positioned outside large cities, for rescuing citizens trapped beneath rubble in the event of a nuclear attack.
* Recent Russian movies and pop songs depict Americans as stupid animals who deserve to die. In keeping with this theme, NATO is depicted as an aggressive alliance, sometimes likened to Hitler's Third Reich.
* Russia is building huge underground cities, like the one at Yamantau Mountain in the Urals. These cities are built more than a thousand feet into the earth and are able to withstand direct nuclear attack.
* Russia has been modernizing nuclear bunkers located beneath Moscow.
* Russia has erected a system of national missile defense far beyond that allowed by the 1972 ABM Treaty. Deploying approximately 10,000 dual-purpose mobile SAM/ABMs, Russia has used a loophole in the treaty to provide a powerful missile shield. Using a common-sense approach to ABM defense, Russia's interceptor missiles employ special nuclear warheads that can destroy incoming warheads without having to score a direct head-on hit.
* Russia is also ahead of the United States in directed energy weapons that could be used to blind or destroy U.S. early warning satellites.
* Many of Russia's mafia organizations operate in collaboration with, or under the supervision of, military intelligence and the state security services. Organized crime is used to penetrate Western banks, technology companies, law enforcement and government. Routes used for smuggling drugs and other contraband are reserved in wartime for bringing biological, chemical and nuclear weapons into the U.S.

Chinese war preparations:

* Civil defense drills began in major Chinese cities last summer.
* Chinese military commanders have been told that nuclear war with America could begin at any time.
* China has been developing and deploying new road-mobile long range missiles like the DF-31 and DF-41.
* China is modernizing its navy, purchasing advanced Russian warships and missiles capable of sinking U.S. carriers.
* China has been rapidly building a large store of advanced nuclear warheads.
* China has positioned bases to block the main western entry point into the Pacific, and has acquired indirect control of the Panama Canal through front companies.
* China has formed military ties with Cuba and Venezuela.
* China has also penetrated Sudan, and is spreading missile and nuclear technology to rogue states in Africa and the Middle East.
* China has massed troops, aircraft, ships and missiles opposite Taiwan.
* China has engaged in war exercises during which U.S. forces in the Pacific were targeted by Chinese forces.

USA War Preparations:

* No civil defense.
* No national missile defense.
* No road or rail-mobile ICBMs.
* Abandonment of the Panama Canal.
* U.S. officials have allowed nuclear warhead secrets to leak out to China.
* The U.S. pays Russia billions of dollars to encourage disarmament measures, but these billions are diverted to Russian war preparations.
* The U.S. Navy is short of fuel.
* The U.S. Army is short of recruits and officers, and has only 10 divisions, with 8 of them unfit for combat.
* The U.S. Air Force is facing pilot shortages, and many aircraft remain grounded for lack of spare parts.
* Only 18 ballistic missile submarines remain in the U.S. Navy, with only 9 at sea on any given day. Many of the missile tubes on these boats are loaded with ballast instead of missiles, due to the START Treaty.
* America's ballistic missile submarine commanders no longer have the launch codes to fire their nuclear weapons, but must rely on the president to send them the launch codes in the event of a war emergency.
* Shop until you drop.
* Wave good-bye to your country.
* Say hello to your new landlord, Mr. Wang.