WP: Dirty Bomb Rockets Vanish – feared sold to terrorists

[kskiska]

Arms Made in Caucasus Feared Sold to Terrorists

TIRASPOL, Moldova -- In the ethnic conflicts that surrounded the collapse of the Soviet Union, fighters in several countries seized upon an unlikely new weapon: a small, thin rocket known as the Alazan. Originally built for weather experiments, the Alazan was transformed into a terror weapon, packed with explosives and lobbed into cities. Military records show that at least 38 Alazan warheads were modified to carry radioactive material, effectively creating the world's first surface-to-surface dirty bomb.

The warheads are not known to have been used. But now, according to experts and officials, they have disappeared.

The last known repository was here, in a tiny separatist enclave known as Transdniester, which broke away from Moldova 12 years ago. The Transdniester Moldovan Republic is a sliver of land no bigger than Rhode Island located along Moldova's eastern border with Ukraine. Its government is recognized by no other nation. But its weapons stocks -- new, used and modified -- have attracted the attention of black-market arms dealers worldwide. And they're for sale, according to U.S. and Moldovan officials and weapons experts.

When the Soviet army withdrew from this corner of Eastern Europe, the weapons were deposited into an arsenal of stupefying proportions. In fortified bunkers are stored 50,000 tons of aging artillery shells, mines and rockets, enough to fill 2,500 boxcars.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41921-2003Dec6.html

[mikehiggins]

1. Yeah, but we can't be bothered with that. There's no oil there. n/t

[mhr]

2. Looks Like George Finally Found The WMDs, Too Bad They Belong To Others

eom

[Elidor]

3. holy bloody fuck!

38 surface-to-surface nukes missing?!! If this is Dubya's idea of security, I gotta wonder what the hell we spend so many billions on intelligence for. We yelled like hell to rape Iraq and now this?

[BiggJawn]

4. I'd be more afraid of a "Dirty Sanchez Bomb"...

Dirty bomb goes off, scatters radioactive material around. no fission, no chain reaction, no "Earth-Shattering Ka-BOOM". It was invented in the fetid minds of the BFEE/PNAC hacks.

I'd be more afraid of a bomb that had airborn disease vectors mixed in with it, like Hantavirus, or Hystoplasmosis or the like.Unless you actually get the debris from the dirty bomb ON you and don't wash it off, then you might be in trouble.

But a Dirty Sanchez Bomb, that puts the nasty stuff right under your nose!

[xchrom]

5. it's all nasty

stuff like that doesn't have to cause a bunch of casualties -- just the knowledge they were used will be a big enough rock in the pond. people will freak.

[pw]

8. Spreading the hysteria

"Modified to carry" means that they have an empty space capable of carrying radioactives and explosives to disperse them, or anything else. Doesn't mean they're actually carrying the stuff.

It's a little like saying my car was modified to carry a radiological weapon because I took out the full-size spare tire to get more room in the trunk.

[dbt]

6. How long until some of these beauties

Show up in Iraq Nam, do you suppose?

:freak:
dbt

[UpInArms]

7. non-proliferation of weapons

was big on everyone's agenda prior to *Co taking over our capitol - but then war became the agenda and peace and freedoms became endangered.

For a politician to be running on the mantra of "security", I would say this thing is an abject failure.

[teryang]

9. I'm highly skeptical of this article

...and the evidence that purportedly supports the existence of these radiological weapons. In fact, since these short range rockets have been sold and used already in various rebellions, this is a great legend to create to support the later use of these weapons by paid state supported terrorists. The reason for the creation of such warheads in the first place or who made them is not even given.

Therefore, any group or state intelligence agency could manufacture such warheads now (say CIA or Mossad) or have fabricated them recently and hide them somewhere (in the middle east, southeast Asia or Iraq) or have some group use one or more somewhere. This would be so politically convenient.

It is unlikely that the Soviets or their troops would manufacture such a warhead. Tactically it makes no sense. While rebel buyers might like to use the cheap rocket as a ballistic weapon to "terrorize" target populations with a conventional warhead, such a weapon is militarily speaking of low utility. In terms of securing conventional military control of an area, why would one radiologically contaminate it when you don't have the means to clean it up? In effect the user is denying himself the use of the target area with little hope of rehabilitation. Obviously the impracticality of the weapon is such that none has ever been found or used in the nine years of their alleged existence in spite of the fact that the conventional versions have been put to wide use in the obscure rebellions of southwest Asia.

In the current political atmosphere of lies within lies, such a weapon may have to materialize to satisfy the Anglo-American-Israeli domestic political agenda which is in a shambles.