This Will Turn Your Blood to Ice . . . For a Moment, Anyway.

From Protein Wisdom:

Appearing on “DaySide” just now was Paul L. Williams [link], PhD, author of the forthcoming Osama’s Revenge. According to Mr. Williams, a former FBI consultant and adjunct professor of Humanities at the University of Scranton, al Qaeda and bin Laden have been actively seeking nuclear weapons since 1992, and that, with the help of the AQ Khan research laboratories, have been successful is acquiring them—having already, in fact, managed to forward deploy from Karachi many such weapons into the United States in preparation for what they call the “American Hiroshima.”

According to Williams, the poppy yield in Afghanistan has doubled since Operation Enduring Freedom—and a good deal of the proceeds from heroin sales are going to fund the nuclear operation. . . .

Tom Tancredo was one of the Congressmen Williams met with in his attempt to get an investigation going. Jeff Goldstein of Protein Wisdom suspects that meeting was behind Tancredo's much criticized remarks about nuking Muslim holy sites. (Hat tip: The Glittering Eye.)

Here's more from the website of the David Allen show, which interviewed Williams:

Are there terrorists currently in the United States with nuclear weapons?

Although the media have reported on some of these threatening developments and government insiders have acknowledged the threat of nuclear attack, until now no one has put all the pieces together in a coherent, no nonsense way. Williams makes a persuasive case that bin Laden and his deputies have the motive and the means and are just waiting for the opportunity to launch an apocalyptic attack on the "Great Satan" of America.

Williams claims that al-Qaida has been planning a spectacular nuclear attack using six or seven suitcase nuclear bombs that would be detonated simultaneously in U.S. cities.

In 'The Al-Qaeda Connection', Williams presents clear evidence showing that, in the chaos following the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Chechen Mafia got its hands on portable Russian nuclear weapons. Between 1996 and 2001, mafia members negotiated the sale of twenty nuclear "suitcase bombs" to representatives of Osama bin Laden.

Far worse than so-called "dirty bombs," each suitcase bomb is capable of killing millions of Americans while exposing millions more to deadly radioactive fallout.

According to Williams, reliable sources indicate that these bombs may already be in the possession of al Qaeda operatives in such major cities as New York, Washington, Miami, Chicago, Las Vegas, Houston, and Los Angeles.

In addition, bin Laden has recruited former Soviet scientists and technicians to maintain these weapons and recharge their nuclear cores so that they may be deployed immediately on his command. In 2001 he issued a statement boasting of his intent to have America experience a "Hiroshima."

My immediate reaction to this is split between utter hopelessness and a certain skepticism.

On the one hand, if what Williams says is true, and it could be at least partially true -- one or two bombs would suffice for an "American Hiroshima (and Nagasaki)" -- those of us living in America's biggest cities might as well bend over and kiss our asses goodbye.

On the other hand, Williams' claim is so over-the-top sensational and terrifying that it sounds like . . . a thriller. One wonders if his claims are prescient and well-informed . . . or cynical and mercenary.

One commenter at Protein Wisdom says:

The fact that he’s been flogging his book on World Net Daily and the Art Bell and Michael Savage shows are also reason for skepticism.

Another adds:

A cursory googling does leave me with the impression that Williams may be a bit of a crackpot, or at least more alarmist than the facts necessarily warrant, at a time oddly coincident with his having a book to sell.

Yet another links to a Tech Central Station story on how easy it isn't to make, maintain, and deploy a portable nuclear weapon. This story, by Ralph Kinney Bennett, is somewhat reassuring -- until the last paragraph:

Those who now seek to terrorize the West and particularly the United States are hate-filled killers who have glorified suicide as a virtue and are bending every effort to secure and use "the bomb," be it in a suitcase, a packing crate, a car or whatever* will surreptitiously deliver it to target. "If" is not the question. Where and when are.

*(A private power boat's just the thing, says this commenter.)

One thing seems very likely to me:

The reason there hasn't been another terrorist attack in the U.S. (apart from whatever cells may have been disrupted or plots foiled by law enforcement) is that Osama is waiting till he can do something bigger than 9/11. No anticlimaxes for him.

But then:

Why hasn't he done it already?

The answer has to be because he can't.

Yet.

- amba

UPDATE: Wecome Donklephant, Winds of Change, and Between Hope and Fear readers.

Comments

[Spud]

Wait a minute. I thought we were fighting them there so we didn't have to fight them here.

[Tom Strong]

Or he's waiting for the right numerological sign...

[amba]

Spud: Heh.

Tom: Aggh.

[Tom Strong]

Well, to be clear, I don't see much reason to worry about this. If it were to happen, there's really precious little I could do. It's like trying to avoid being struck by lightning.

That said -- maybe it's time to remind our fearless, swiftly tanking leader of that age-old question:

"Hey GW -- where's Osama?"

[amba]

Tom --

Continuing to live in New York, and epecially in lower Manhattan, close enough to the financial center which is the most obvious target (again) for someone wanting to cripple the U.S., probably qualifies us for a Darwin Award. I have given some thought to what a nuclear attack would be like. There's no way to prepare for it (I have bottled water and potassium iodide, but I would never have a chance to get to them), or probably to survive it, except to get out of town.

[amba]

Before it happens, I mean.

[Rick Heller]

Skepticism.

There is no way that Al Qaeda would wait if it successfully smuggled a nuke into the US. The chances of one of their operatives being discovered is significant.

This guy sounds like he's doing massive speculation from a few shreds of evidence.

[Tom Strong]

It often amazes me, actually, that Atlanta is rarely included on the lists of likely terror targets. Having CDC here makes us very vulnerable to even conventional weapons.

So I've probably got a Darwin award too, even though I left NYC to come here.

[Tom Strong]

Incidentally, this conversation reminds me of one of my favorite short stories, by the incomparable Robert Louis Stevenson.

[sleipner]

Amba - you can rest assured that you do not qualify for a Darwin award, because a prerequisite to receive one is that it would prevent you from reproducing. However, (if I recall), your having already matured past that stage would disqualify from consideration ;)

I do believe this story is total hyperbole, but I don't doubt that Osama would if he could. It is even conceivable that he might have gotten his hands on one or two small bombs, but I doubt it.

[amba]

Sleipner --

That did occur to me about the Darwin award. I've already flunked!

[amba]

Tom --

What a great and apposite story.

[Jeremiah]

Yes, it's rather disturbing, isn't it?

You may be interested in a few blog articles I've written about arms proliferation and paramilitary gang activity on the Mexican border. The Nuevo Laredo situation is interesting in light of the US sweep netting over 600 suspected members of the gang MS-13, founders of which were members of the guerrilla army in El Salvador in the 1980s. They also have connections with Al Qaeda.

http://organicwarfare.blogspot.com

[Baba]

They want the biggest bang and disruption they can get, so 9/11 tells us that was the limit of their ability 4 years ago. If they could have nuked then they would have, more reliable than trusting that the ragtag 9/11ers would succeed in such a reckless enterprise as they sadly did.

Next line I doubt is 'they have recruited Soviet techies to maintain the bombs'. Not likely, it was Soviet's basic decency by which MAD WWIII was partly avoided. Only religious extremists would assist, Pakistanis perhaps, but this would *not* be easy to conceal since 9/11.

[John Farren]

How do we know Chechens did NOT get hold of any nukes?
Becuase Moscow is not a smoking pile of rubble.

Osama nuking the US may be Osama's dream; but if the Chechen Islamists got hands on a nuke and al Qaeda Arabs asked for it, they'd tell bin Laden to go f*** himself. It's Russia they'd use it on.

That, and Putin being ex-KGB, makes me suspect that the only munition a would be nuke purchaser would buy himself in Russia these days is a 9mm bullet, delivery courtesy of FSB.

[amba]

Thanks, John, I feel a little better.