Jul 12 2007

Speaking Of How To Obtain Polonium-210

Want to know how hard it is to gain a license to handle Po-210 in the US? Not hard at all:

Using a post office box at Mail Boxes Etc., a telephone, and a fax machine, the undercover men from the GAO obtained the license “without ever leaving their desks,” the report said.

After counterfeiting copies of the license, the GAO undercover agents ordered portable moisture-density gauges, which contain radioactive americium-241 and cesium-137 and are commonly used at construction sites to analyze the properties of soil, water, and pavement.

“We altered the license so that it appeared our bogus company could purchase an unrestricted quantity” of radioactive material, the report said. A dirty bomb uses conventional explosives to cause immediate injury to people nearby and creates a lasting threat by contaminating a wider area with radioactive material.

The GAO undertook the sting at the request of Senator Norm Coleman, Republican of Minnesota, the top minority member of the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations, which since 2003 has been examining security gaps at the NRC and other federal agencies that could leave the country vulnerable to biological or nuclear attack.

So once you have this license all you need is a few million to spare to buy the material from Russian producers. Now who do we know in London with that kind of money and assets living here in the US? Boris…. somebody.

7 responses so far

7 Responses to “Speaking Of How To Obtain Polonium-210”

  1. Snapple says:

    You are really not looking at the evidence and history behind Litvinenko’s murder. You are giving the Russian propaganda:

    Look at this:

    “Since the Crown Prosecution Service charged Mr Lugovoi with murder in May, Kremlin officials have encouraged the Russian media to blame Mr Litvinenko’s death on the exiled Russian former oligarch Boris Berezovsky and MI6. Television channels have also run lengthy interviews with a Russian who claimed that MI6 tried to hire him, and that Mr Litvinenko poisoned himself. In a surreal press conference in Moscow, Mr Lugovoi blamed the murder on Tony Blair, Mr Berezovsky, and the Georgian mafia.”

    http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,,2124164,00.html

  2. Snapple says:

    The article you cite says nothing about polonium 210.

  3. Terrye says:

    do we really need to be giving these guys instructions on how to do this stuff?

  4. crosspatch says:

    Terrye,

    If a bunch of us average folks can sit around and dream this stuff up off the cuff, someone truly determined probably already thought of it months, if not years, ago.

    And exposing these things allows holes to be plugged. There are a few things I have dreamed up though that I would never post because they are so bloody simple, cheap, and impossible to stop that I would never want to see anyone do them. THOSE are the kids of things that shouldn’t be posted. Things like this can be corrected and it would literally take millions to pull off, unlike 9/11 which probably cost well under one million to do.

  5. MerlinOS2 says:

    CP

    I am with you on this.

    All of us who know how little it takes to make bad things happen just sit on the edge waiting.

    Sure the bad guys would love to create a beyond 9/11 mission, but they also have the political calculation of if I can’t do it bad enough to bring them to their knees, am I just gonna pi$$ them off enough to really get their $hit together and join hands and kick my a$$.

    Any thing less and the left will say GWB knew and let it happen to shore up support, after all they have said video releases have been timed to support GWB from his boy Bin Laden.

    They have gone to the well to support this premise more times than Al Gore has beat the global warming drum.

    Boxer is out today playing Pelosi’s alter ego encouraging impeachment (to give points to the netroots but never mentioning the specific reasons for the charges).

    All the political gamesmanship shooting blanks just for political advantage is by now for most so transparent for those who think.

    The surrender bill passed today is just a cookie cutter dust up of the last one with just a little more shine to the chrome that was vetoed before, but the netroots will love it and sing it’s praises of the heroes of the cause marching on in their anointed path to victory.

  6. Terrye says:

    Well sure, I for one have wondered why it is that someone pretending to be confined to a wheelchair has not turned himself into a bomb. As far as that is concerned, he could roll into a bathroom and walk out leaving the chair there.

    And Merlin, if people on the right would stop calling Bush a traitor over immigration it might help.

  7. crosspatch says:

    This just in! Non-illegal non-immigrant confesses to series of murders:

    http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/14/trucker.slayings.ap/index.html

    Time to deport all truckers!

    The thing about the “impeachment” issue is that some people are under the impression that it is like a recall election or something. As if the Senate can just vote to remove a President because they don’t like him. Most people don’t understand that impeachment is a CRIMINAL trial and that there are 100 judges and it takes 66 of them to convict.

    First you need charges, then you need to have hearings, then you need to have a vote. So far I have not seen anyone propose a criminal charge, only people belching out political moves the President has made that they don’t like.