Dec 09 2006
UK Preparing For Dirty Bomb Attack
I don’t need to underline what could possibly have pushed the UK to scramble and prepare their police forces for a possible dirty bomb attack:
POLICE forces have been told to buy anti-radiation masks for their 100,000 frontline officers to protect them in the event of a “dirty bomb†terrorist attack.
The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has told all forces they should look to purchase specially designed chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear (CBRN) hoods as soon as possible.
Senior officers are concerned that, with only 1,000 thought to have been distributed, their ability to deal with any radiation threat will be severely hampered.
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The urgency that is being placed on the purchase of the hoods reflects the level of concern over the likelihood of a “dirty bomb†attack, where radioactive material, packed around a conventional explosive, is detonated and spreads radiation over a wide area.
The threat has been highlighted by the use of radioactive polonium-210 to kill Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian defector.
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An ACPO spokesman said: “All UK police forces have been made aware of the availability of escape hoods. They have been advised by ACPO that individual forces should consider acquiring sufficient hoods to equip all patrolling officers at times of heightened threat.â€
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The current “threat level†of a terrorist strike in Britain is judged by MI5 and the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre to be “severeâ€, meaning that an attack is highly likely.
It would seem that there is heightened concern out there. And in a clear case of closing the barn door after all the horses are out the US and others are pondering whether to tighten controls on Polonium-210. I will attempt to help them shorten the process. The answer is: Hell yes!
Press Conference in GErmany: 95% certainty that the radioactivity was from PO. and according to a number of sites a car was torn virtually apart and tested for polonium
The world should demand Russia secure all their nuclear material. They have enough money from oil to do it. If there is a dirty bomb attack in London with Russian polonium,etc they should be made to compensate all victims.
Good Doctor,
Russia and the US with do control the nuclear materials. The source, in my opinion, is Iran. There is a well uses smuggling path from the ME through Russia and into Germany and other European states. It is the path (and resources one would presume) that used to smuggle nuclear materials out of Russia. It would seem the flow might have reversed direction.
AJStrata
All these convoluted theories wherein A depends on B working and C depends on D working are just not what these people do. They keep their plans simple and don’t depend on various factors. They tell the truth but not all the truth. Lies are so hard to remember. They think up a story and stick with it. They actually live this story and in some weird way it becomes part of them or they become part of it.
Bringing in the maybes like Scaramella showing up at a precise time leaves too much to chance. That an assassin has the opportunity and instantly reacts to it and succeeds is also not what these people do. What, do these assassination theorists think that the assassin carried the polonium around with him all day or several days in the hope of finding an opportunity? He would have to be remarkably stupid. They have a plan and they stick with it. If it had been an assassination by the Russians they would have scouted Litvinenko’s movements for weeks and picked a place where he was on a regular basis and do the hit there. They would not depend on luck. They also would not have picked a method where it took 3 weeks to die and the subject could talk his head off in the interim. All this did was call attention to Russia and the methods this country has used in the past.
To be an assassination this would have to be the sloppiest one ever known. The idea that Putin would send bumblers of this category into the a country somewhat allied with Russia and take a chance on causing this much havoc and publicity is unreal. He might have wanted to send a message but not on this scale. This could cause extremely bad and unco-operative relations between Russia and UK that might never be healed. But there is an adage “divide and conquer” and if the media have their way this will succeed. The media is running with Bereszovsky’s PR spin trying to fit the facts to a preconceived verdict. The mere fact that both UK and US are now on high alert for dirty bombs is an indication that the intelligence of these countries have information we don’t have.
As far as Lugovoi goes I imagine the Russians are questioning him on their own right now and have not gotten all the answers they want. They probably have already questioned Kovtun and wrung him dry. Lugovoi is the key to the smuggling. He is the one who collected the polonium and brought it into the UK. The Russians probably know this and want to find his sources. Kovtun had to be in on it to get the contaminatin he received. The only way I would believe Lugovoi was not involved is if he has extremely low levels of contamination and then it would have to be Kovtun. But Lugovoi was the one who was once a close associate of Bereszovsky in Lucos Oil and was a friend of Litvinenko. I think Lugovoi was the prime source and Kovtun was along for the money. Although I’m sure Lugovoi was in it for the money also. I’ll bet the Germans will find that Kovtun tracked polonium to Germany on Oct ly and 25 also.
Barabara, that sounds very credible – that the Russians are hanging on to Lugovoi in order to clean up this mess in private. Or perhaps they are communicating the results of the investigation on an international level with the British already. Surely, if he would have information suggesting strongly that there was a terrorist attack underway the police would leave the dealings with this up to the Russian government, who if they’re not involved, would be interested in commuicating these findings to the British.
Aj ,
If Iran is the source would this finally unite the West to destroy their facilities? All this week we have been hearing nothing but appeacement towards Iran and Syria. I can beleive what Baker is saying in all these talk shows. He is sabotaging all the Bush initiatives and Bush doesn’t respond. It was Lieberman who called their bluff off.
Lost, the Brits have made it clear that they are not happy with the degree of cooperation they are getting from the Russians. And not happy with the provocative conduct against their Ambassador or the mysterious blocking of BBC reports from Moscow when Litinenko was discussed.
The notion that they are giving them info we don’t know about seems farfetched.