Al-Qaeda May Seek Hydrogen Bomb, Says Author
The Author of 'King of Bombs,' a new novel about a plot by Al-Qaeda involving nuclear terrorism, warns that the terrorist organization may attempt to acquire highly lethal thermonuclear weapons.
(PRWEB) July 25, 2005 -- The author of a new novel about a plot by Al-Qaeda
involving nuclear terrorism directed against the United States, Sheldon Filger,
indicated that the terrorist organization’s first use of a nuclear device may be
on a far more horrific scale than has been suggested by experts in public
testimony.
Filger’s book, “King of Bombs,” is based on the premise that
Al-Qaeda acquires hydrogen bombs, with a destructive power far in excess of the
atomic bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.
Prior
to publication of “King of Bombs,” acknowledged experts on terrorism and the
nuclear threat posed by these organizations have speculated on the possibility
of Al-Qaeda acquiring simple fission bombs, similar in design to the device that
destroyed Hiroshima. Sheldon Filger believes that those concerns, as sobering as
they are, may only be hinting at the chilling destructive power that terrorist
organizations may be able to attain in the next several years.
“A major
factor in the perceived threat of nuclear terrorism has been the largely
unmonitored proliferation in illicit nuclear materials and weapons technology,
and the emergence of a worldwide black market with a high level of
sophistication,” Filger said. “A significant driver in this process has been the
expanding alumni of experienced nuclear weapons experts, especially from the
former Soviet Union, currently underpaid or out of work and seeking sources of
lucrative income. It must be taken into account that the vast majority of
research and development work engaged in by these people involved far more
lethal thermonuclear weapons or hydrogen bombs, as opposed to simpler and
lower-yield atomic devices.”
Filger speculated that an organization such
as Al-Qaeda, which would seek a capability to inflict the highest degree of
destruction on its enemies, especially the United States of America, would find
a hydrogen bomb more attractive than an atomic weapon for its purposes.
As for the greater complexity involved in building a thermonuclear
weapon, Sheldon Filger offered words of warning: “It is already a matter of
public record that respected experts dealing with national security issues
believe it is a credible danger that Al-Qaeda may be able to build an atomic
bomb within the next several years. If we accept that premise, it is not an
illogical possibility that Al-Qaeda could also acquire the additional knowledge
and materials required for building a hydrogen bomb. It should be borne in mind
that the most difficult to acquire materials required for a hydrogen bomb are
exactly identical to what is used in the simplest atomic device, enriched
uranium or plutonium. The materials unique to a thermonuclear weapon, such as
tritium, deuterium and lithium, are either in wide use in the worldwide civilian
nuclear energy field, or are used in industrial applications unrelated to
nuclear weapons.”
“King of Bombs,” Mr. Filger’s novel, features a
conspiracy by Al-Qaeda to build an exact duplicate of the most powerful nuclear
bomb ever designed and tested, a Russian device code-named “Tsar Bomba” or “King
of Bombs.”
In the book, Al-Qaeda receives help from rogue states and the
illicit nuclear weapons black market in constructing a bomb able to inflict
devastation of biblical proportions. Although Mr. Filger’s novel is a fictional
account of an Al-Qaeda plot involving nuclear terrorism, the “King of Bombs”
nuclear weapon was real enough. The Soviet Union built only one example. When
the Russians tested it on October 23, 1961, it detonated with the power of
fifty-eight million tons of high explosives.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/7/prweb265072.htm