Re: [Marxism] The FARC's "dirty bomb"

[Duroyan Fertl <dfertl@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Looks litk the penny's dropped. Now apparently the FARC were going to collect 
the uranium, in tiny, 50kg portions, before selling it on to foreign 
governments.

Even the Americans appear unimpressed with the originality of their puppets.

Duroyan

http://www.eltiempo.com/politica/2008-03-04/ARTICULO-WEB-NOTA_INTERIOR-3984953.html
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/444112.html



Joaquin Bustelo <jbustelo@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: One problem that the U.S. is having 
with its Colombian sock puppet is that
Uribe and his gang are so stupid they don't know when to stop lying. 

The tales coming out of the supposedly captured rebel computer are so
ridiculous and absurd on the face of it that they discredit themselves.

According to the Colombian government, members of the FARC secretariat
communicated with each other in writing about details of their relations
with Hugo Chavez and members of the Ecuadorian government without even using
code names. They kept detailed records of drug running and giant financial
transactions going all the way back to supposedly having sent Chavez I
forget exactly, I think the number was 100 million pesos, while Chavez was
in prison for the coup attempt 15 years ago. All by proper names, no code
names.

And then, of course, there's the "dirty bomb." Supposedly for this purpose
FARC was trying to get 50 kilograms of URANIUM. 

Except you CAN'T make a "dirty bomb" with Uranium. It's not nearly
radioactive enough. You might as well blow up 110 lbs of lead. 
`
OK you say, but maybe the FARC just didn't know Uranium wouldn't work.
That's simply not credible. Google "dirty bomb" and "uranium". The very
first hit is "Scientists Say Uranium 'Dirty Bomb' Would Be a Dud." OK, but
that's from newsmax.com, maybe the FARC knows that's not too reputable a
news source. So let's go down a few hits to "Oh, No! Not another ?Uranium
Dirty Bomb? Story!"

That one is from the Federation of American Scientists Strategic Security
Blog. A table linked from the blog entry makes the point that to get enough
radioactivity out of Uranium to devastate, say, Manhattan, it would take
1,460 tons of the stuff. The GOOD stuff, enriched Uranium for nuclear power
plants. You'd need a nuclear bomb just to blow it up. That's compared to a
few pounds of Radium, or the real deal, Cobalt 60, of which you'd need
basically a pinch, a TINY pinch, 3.2 grams, or Celsium-137, for which you'd
need 40 grams. That's less than one and a half ounces, for the metrically
challenged.

That's leaving aside a group like the FARC even having a USE for a dirty
bomb. Remember, they're fighting to TAKE OVER their OWN country, not
depopulate it.

This is as convincing a proof as one could possibly hope for that the stuff
about Chávez or about the Ecuadorian government that Colombia attributed to
the files in the computer is bullshit, for there can't be the slightest
doubt that the dirty bomb story if a stupid police fabrication, exposing the
whole fable about the incriminating computer to be a pack of lies.

It also shows the venality of even the most prestigious bourgeois news
outlets. From the way the NYTimes words its story, it is quite CLEAR that
the editors realize it's bullshit, saying the dirty bomb charge represents
"a sharp verbal escalation." But they neglect to tell their readers what
anyone who knows anything about physics knows -- that a Uranium dirty bomb
is impossible, and that this fact would be known to anyone with the
slightest interest in making real dirty bombs because the same exact lying
fabrication was used against José Padilla four years ago and then later in
another case in Europe leading to many articles and comments about the
impossibility of such a device that can be found all over the internet.
Hence the claim that FARC was negotiating with unnamed sources for a useless
50 kilos of Uranium is simply not credible. They might as well claim that
the FARC was negotiating for admission of some of their cadre to Hogwarts so
they could win the war by magic.

Joaquín



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