West Coast Connection Forum
Lifestyle => Train of Thought => Topic started by: Don Rizzle on June 22, 2004, 05:20:32 PM
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Nuclear terror 'matter of time'
The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, Mohammed ElBaradei, has warned of a "race against time" to stop terrorists procuring nuclear materials.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency was speaking at a US conference hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
He endorsed the influential think tank's new arms control plan.
Under the plan, major nuclear powers would be expected to make concessions in the interests of global security.
We are actually having a race against time which I don't think we can afford
Mohammed ElBaradei
The IAEA director warned there was a real danger of uranium or plutonium falling into the wrong hands.
"We are actually having a race against time which I don't think we can afford," he said.
"The danger is so imminent... not only with regard to countries acquiring nuclear weapons but also terrorists getting their hands on some of these nuclear materials, uranium or plutonium.
"So the sooner that we start, the better for everybody involved."
'Dirty bomb'
The nuclear watchdog chief's message was picked up by the US Senator Sam Nunn, a security expert.
Mr Nunn told the BBC that the security of nuclear material in Russia was a key concern.
He said the biggest challenge was to have US President George W Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin put the issue to the top of their agenda.
Mr Nunn was instrumental in last month's unveiling of a multi-million dollar initiative to stop extremist groups from building so called "dirty bombs" with nuclear material.
Governments around the world are becoming increasingly concerned about nuclear proliferation particularly since the revelations, in February of this year, that the Pakistani nuclear scientist AQ Khan had passed on nuclear secrets to a number of countries.
'Tipping point'
One of the authors of the Carnegie Endowment's plan, Joseph Cirincione, said the world was at "a nuclear tipping point".
The BBC's diplomatic correspondent in Washington, Jonathan Marcus, says the Carnegie plan is certainly ambitious in scope.
It argues that all current nuclear arms control problems need to be put into a single pot and handled together.
Everyone - both the nuclear haves and have-nots - have to be seen to make concessions if all are to gain.
But our correspondent says other experts in Washington are not so sure.
Political capital, they say, is limited and needs to be focused on individual proliferation, problems like that between India and Pakistan or the continuing uncertainties surrounding Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/3827589.stm
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Bush's Pyongyang policy 'futile'
By Jonathan Marcus
BBC diplomatic correspondent in Washington
The architect of the Clinton administration's policy towards North Korea has told the BBC the current US approach to Pyongyang is going nowhere.
Ambassador Robert Gallucci stressed the growing danger that North Korea might sell nuclear materials or even a bomb to a terrorist group.
Ambassador Gallucci also urged a fundamental rethink of US policy.
His comments come as a new round of six-party talks on the North Korea nuclear stand-off begin in Beijing.
Proliferation threat
Dealing with North Korea is one of the most intractable problems facing any US administration.
Most experts believe that the Pyongyang government could already have up to eight nuclear bombs.
These weapons, if mounted on ballistic missiles, could threaten many of its neighbours.
But Ambassador Gallucci said North Korea could effectively be deterred from using such weapons and that the principal threat from Pyongyang was that of nuclear proliferation.
"The concern that does, I think, motivate most of the worry in Washington, and should, is that North Korea would transfer material weapons to a terrorist group," he told the BBC.
"The concern here of course is that a terrorist group like al-Qaeda would deliver them to the United States and detonate them in an American city and not be discouraged from doing so by the threat of response."
'Hobbled' US policy
Ambassador Gallucci was the architect of former US President Bill Clinton's administration's policy which persuaded Pyongyang to freeze its weapons programme in return for the provision of power generating reactors.
But this deal collapsed, in large part due to North Korea's actions.
But Ambassador Gallucci says that since then there has been no coherent strategy from the Bush administration in Washington.
Tensions between the State Department, on the one hand, and the Pentagon and the vice president's office, on the other, have hobbled US policy, leading to what he called the most distant of negotiations between the US and North Korea.
Ambassador Gallucci believes that only high level direct talks can succeed and while China's support is important, he criticises the Bush team for effectively-sub contracting Washington's North Korea policy to Beijing.
Such an approach, he says, fails to take into account the very different strategic and regional interests of China and the US.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3831231.stm
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you cant stop it.
and its only a matter of time
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I agree, just a matter of time.
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Scary.
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It's scary but you know what, there isn't a damn thing any of us can do about it. So live life, and don't even worry about it. At least that's what I'm gonna do.
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It's scary but you know what, there isn't a damn thing any of us can do about it. So live life, and don't even worry about it. At least that's what I'm gonna do.
yeah, that's basically the way to go... if you know the end is coming then we should use this time wisely and get right with God.
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It's really sad that humans created something that could completely destroy themselves. Just think about it.
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Didn't Albert Einstein have a hand in it? And hell, we've been mischievious little boogers since we were created.
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Didn't Albert Einstein have a hand in it? And hell, we've been mischievious little boogers since we were created.
he said no human being can be enough dumb to actually use these bombs, so wars will be limited cause everybody know the other country can bomb em, and therefore nobody will do shit. unfortunately, america's dumbness proved him wrong. can you blame him?
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It wouldnt be that hard to obtain them either. When the price is right.
Countries like n. korea and russia are not very rich countries from what i understand. selling some weapons grade uranium to terrorists for millions of dollars could very well happen.
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Didn't Albert Einstein have a hand in it? And hell, we've been mischievious little boogers since we were created.
Very true. And we all know what curiosity did to the cat.
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yea but back then these men who invented the atomic bomb didnt have the knowledge that we have today.
back then ww2 was at its highest point and these men were looking for a way to end the nazis rule over europe. they had no idea of the power that nuclear weapons could yield, until they had created them....
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This is really scaring me. What would be the results of one these bombs going off, i mean how much land can one of those bombs going off effect? are we talking suburbs, city's, states, country's, hell world wide?
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This is really scaring me. What would be the results of one these bombs going off, i mean how much land can one of those bombs going off effect? are we talking suburbs, city's, states, country's, hell world wide?
actually Im not informed either, but when these bombs could destory 2 japanese cities big time 60 years ago.. damn. you do the math what they can possibly do nowadays.
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good news on north korea tho america has seemed have made a workable solution to ending their nuclear program but nothing will really happen until US elections cos north korea are likely to get a better deal under the democrats so they stall for that
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good news on north korea tho america has seemed have made a workable solution to ending their nuclear program but nothing will really happen until US elections cos north korea are likely to get a better deal under the democrats so they stall for that
I dont believe a country would dare bombing the US anyways. Besides they have this rocket defense stuff or something lol. The only way the US could possibly be nuked is that some terrorist get into the US and smuggle some bombs (lol) and nuke them bombs from US territory into US territory. LoL. Wont happen.
North Korea is only a threat to other eastern countries, not to the west.
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the power of a nuclear bomb depends on how much stuff is packed in it. but it would have to be small. but basically they could make one down the road that is small but has the same power as the hiroshima bomb. which i dunno its like 1 mile? doesnt seem like alot but in a highly populated area with lots of buildings..
A nuclear attack wont be anytime soon. I think that because its gonna be awhile before they can shrink the size of a nuclear bomb into a briefcase size.
Well in my opinion the next terrorist attack will be biological. This would be the easiest way, and nobody would know that it would happen until its too late. ill give you a scenario.
The ebola virus is something that is very very easy to get ahold of. ebola spreads through direct contact. meaning you can spread it even if your close to the person. All a terrorist has to do is put some of this in his pocket (if its powder form). Go to a popular event like the superbowl. he sits in the stands, and then throws ebola in the air. suddenly it would spread to basically everyone near him. those people could easily spread it to the people next to them. before you know it basically the whole stadium has ebola, but the wierd thing is you dont know you haveit. then people leave the superbowl and go back home (even out of state) they continue to spread it wherever they go.
ebola takes a week for you to die. you could easily kill millions. scary thought.
besides nukes or chemical warefare there is also dirty bombs. its basically taking a normal bomb (like they use in car bombs) and adding some nuclear waste. So then they drive the truck into a building and the building gets destroyed (its not that big of an explosion.) but because it has the waste its now spreads radioactive stuff into the air. from what i understand the radioactive stuff would go into the air and spread about 2-3 miles in a radius. which if you do it in a popular place could be very very deadly.
wow sometimes i like to ramble on....sorry to scare ya
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you know its still very easy to smuggle things in by boat most of the containers arn't searched. i know america is stepping up security but it would be impossible to make it totally secure
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Yup, it's inevitable, i'm totally surprised they're doing as good of a job as they are keeping these assholes at bay... (literally, at the fucking bay before they get in!). Terrorists must be some stupid motherfuckers, because if I wanted to go to Iraq and blow up a fucking building, it'd be pretty damn easy to do, I have no doubt I'd cause some major damage, and I wouldn't get caught or killed. These dumbasses hatch up major plans with dozens of people, and can't even get a bomb to explode.
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Oh, Engies was asking about the power of the bombs. A full-scale American grade nuclear warhead (which the terrorists wouldn't have access to or the ability to build) has an amazing amount of power.
They say that the capabilities (and this is bombs that EXIST, not just things they CAN build, this is the big ones we have pointed at Russia and shit) have the power to do this:
If you're standing inside your house, 50 miles away from teh epicenter, where the bomb hits... and you're washing dishes. If you drop a fork, as the bomb touches down 50 miles away; you'll be vaporized before the fork hits the ground. That's unbelievable.. 3 or 4 of those well placed in cities around the world would bring about an armageddon society.
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yea but those are about 15 megatons. i believe the hiroshima ones were 10 kilotons (1000 kilotons=1 megaton)
if a terrorist had a small nuke it would be like 1-5 kiltons, still enough to do extreme damage.
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O.K. Re-Read what I said. Whilst you do that, think about a couple of things for me.
1. Did I say anywhere that I was talking about the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima & Nagasaki?
2. Did I say anywhere that the terrorists had these bombs?
3. Didn't I say specifically that terrorists WOULDN'T have bombs that powerful?
Think about those three things, then write a 1 page essay on your thoughts... you have 3 days.
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O.K. Re-Read what I said. Whilst you do that, think about a couple of things for me.
1. Did I say anywhere that I was talking about the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima & Nagasaki?
2. Did I say anywhere that the terrorists had these bombs?
3. Didn't I say specifically that terrorists WOULDN'T have bombs that powerful?
Think about those three things, then write a 1 page essay on your thoughts... you have 3 days.
no my post had nothing to do with yours, i was just adding some tidbits to it.
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thanks for telling us that Trauma. That really is shocking, how can man even think aboiut making such a deadly device