Food writer's online guide to building an H-bomb...the 'evidence' that put this man in Guantanamo

[kpete]

Source: Daily Mail

Food writer's online guide to building an H-bomb...the 'evidence' that put this man in Guantanamo
By Jason Lewis

Last updated at 12:07 AM on 08th February 2009

A British ‘resident’ held at Guantanamo Bay was identified as a terrorist after confessing he had visited a ‘joke’ website on how to build a nuclear weapon, it was revealed last night.

Binyam Mohamed, a former UK asylum seeker, admitted to having read the ‘instructions’ after allegedly being beaten, hung up by his wrists for a week and having a gun held to his head in a Pakistani jail.

It was this confession that apparently convinced the CIA that they were holding a top
Al Qaeda terrorist.

But The Mail on Sunday can reveal that the offending article – called How To Build An H-Bomb – was first published in a US satirical magazine and later placed on a series of websites.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1138845/Food-writers-online-guide-building-H-bomb--evidence-man-Guantanamo.html

[maddezmom]

1. frightening considering how many sites I've visited from links on DU

that I'd never have gone to, looked up or had interest in until they were linked here. :scared:

[ret5hd]

2. Maybe exactly the reaction that was hoped for.

edit: reworded

[maddezmom]

18. well I'm not changing my habits

:hi:

[ConcernedCanuk]

3. USAmericans have screwed around with so many nations they are paranoid of everybody

.
.
.

USA needs to get their troops home, take care of business in their OWN country,

Ya know, roads, bridges, homes, food - silly stuff like that.

BUT

Like George Carlin said - -

"We can't stand it not to be fucking with somebody"!!

Let the other countries sort out their battles for awhile

And take care of USAmericans . . .

Is that too hard to do??

The World can use the break from USAmerican dominance

We will survive ya know . . .

[L0oniX]

4. Absolutely stupid! Any physics major could build a H bomb ...hell ...I could if I had the materials.

[unblock]

6. there's more to it than just the physics

not all physics majors understand the engineering aspects.

the classic problem is that as soon as a nuclear reaction starts, it blows apart the material before a really big boom can happen. the engineering problem of keeping everything contained long enough is not at all trivial.

[L0oniX]

8. True ..they might not have machine shop expertise to build a compression chamber but...

they would know that you need to create a density.

[conspirator]

40. Keep going... I am taking notes :) nt

[L0oniX]

43. Here's some more DIY atom bomb info for ya...

http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/neutronics/todd/nuc.bomb.html

http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-To-Make-An-Atomic-Bomb-53392.shtml

[TheBigotBasher]

10. That is why dirt bombs are a myth

They simply can not be made by a bunch of bods at home.

However they do make for good scare stories.



The problem is of course in order to recognise "dirty bombs" as scare stories you need a very very basic understanding of science. Enouhg to know why the irradiated metal on the credits of the Simpsons would not actually be fine dropping through the back of Homer.

How do you explain that concept to a Rethug that thinks Earth is only 7000 years old?

[Downwinder]

14. Dirty bombs are fakes

According to DOD, DOE, and DOH radiation is not a hazard. They told everybody that 37 kiloton "Dirty Harry" detonated in 1953 was not hazardous. As far as I can determine this is still their official position. No wonder they avoid trying anybody on a dirty bomb charge. I think the only ones who accept it are the MSM. In '53 they were all out there watching.

[xocet]

13. Project Mjöllnir

As far as the engineering is concerned, it is trivial. In the article, the major engineering problem is the 6 ft rope. One should clearly choke up on the rope for better control, so one could swing it faster around.

:sarcasm:

[dothemath]

23. bon voyage'

Holy crap! Send us a postcard from Gitmo. You have just earned yourself 8 years in Club Med - the Cheney/Bush version.

[unblock]

31. what - for propagandizing about how hard it is, to deter would-be terrists from trying to make them?

:hi:

i'll send you a post card....

[cannabis_flower]

37. Law enforcement have always been ridiculous...

I had a friend who was arrested back in the 80's for conspiracy to manufacture LSD after someone who was trying to make it told them that my friend had told them how to make it. Actually what had happened was he showed him where to find the instructions in the public library. He was let go and the charges dropped after 12 days in the Harris County Jail. What a joke!! Unless it happens to you!!

[cannabis_flower]

38. dupe

dupe

[cannabis_flower]

39. dupe

dupe

[Warren DeMontague]

30. Actually, I think a true fusion device is pretty fuckin' hard to do.

Even a fission bomb, or A-Bomb is a pretty significant challenge, as I understand it, from a purely engineering stdpt., even if the concept isn't that complicated.

It's worth remembering that it took the massive Manhattan project, with all the concomitant infrastructure, investment, time & energy, to build the bombs near the end of WWII.

And an H Bomb is a whole 'nother kettle of fish. I don't think anyone is going to be building one of those things in a cave or a garage any time soon.

[Thor_MN]

33. I'm pretty sure that getting maximum yield is very difficult

but a squib explosion is probably not difficult. Getting the materials, and not killing yourself in the process is tough. Slam two sufficiently sized pieces of weapons grade material together with enough force and you will get an explosion. How big is in the engineering, which can be difficult.

A fusion (H) bomb? Forget it. You need a fission (A) bomb to initiate it and the best that the common group of people could do would be low yielding squib.

[knitter4democracy]

42. Keeping the material apart's the trick.

Well, it's not the only tricky part, but keeping it apart until the second you want it together is apparently the hard part. My dad taught me that.

[Oak2004]

44. Part of what made it so difficult for the Manhattan Project

is that they were working from scratch. When the first started working with plutonium, for example, they weren't even sure of its chemistry.

Those same obstacles aren't around anymore. Certainly a solo physics student couldn't make one in his basement, but even dysfunctional impoverished governments like Pakistan and North Korea can do it, and a well organized, well funded, non-state actor could pull it off too.

[MasonJar]

5. This is madness. Another proof that torture does NOT work.

[creeksneakers2]

7. Shocking!

Bush imprisoned 1000s of innocents just to make it look like he caught lots of terrorists. Its hard to believe so many willfully carried out his insane orders.

I hope things will change with Obama. Unfortunately, Obama made an unwise choice when he suspended the unfair trials at Guantanamo. Even unfair trials can expose injustices like this and free at least some people. Obama has no replacement for the unfair trials so all those people will be stuck in prison longer. A bad trial is better than no trial at all. They can always retry those still incarcerated later in a fairer format.

[peacetalksforall]

9. Employees of The Onion are at risk.

[ooglymoogly]

11. McCarthyism has been rampant these last 8 years....and we thought it was dead.

We must finally come to the conclusion that GOP = McCarthyism, torture and kangaroo courts to fill their fabulously profitable prisons.

[MrModerate]

12. What's scary about this -- one of the many things that are scary --

Is how it represents the dumbing-down of Western intelligence services as a result of the zealotry and toleration of incompetence that are the defining characteristics ob the Bush-Blair era.

Amateurs and chumps, when handed more power than they know what to do with, will screw the pooch just about every time. We saw it everywhere from 2000 onward: pre-9/11, post-9/11, Iraq, Katrina, Guantanamo, Afghanistan, the SEC, the FCC, NASA, CDC, Air Force Academy, and on and on and on.

That's another reason to fear the sleeper cells of Bushian dittoheads scattered throughout the "professional" bureaucracy. Sure as shootin', these third-rate moles are going to continue to get Obama in trouble until they can be outed and fired for cause.

[bonito]

15. THE NEOCONS ARE PARANOID

Hot dam, for what it's worth.

[Xipe Totec]

16. I feel so much safer knowing that Janitors are being tortured for reading satire

:eyes:

[iconicgnom]

17. This couldn't happen, of course, if there was due process.

So this is tangible evidence for impeachment of the lawbreakers.
There's more than enough tangible evidence for a conviction.

What I hear instead is BS about how Rove can tangle up the legal system for a decade, by citing "executive privilege" and taking it through all the hearings and courts. I say: so fucking what! Directly impeach the ex-president and vice-president. Call on their people to testify at trial, and put them immediately in jail if they refuse. Do the right thing. The whole world is watching.

[PM Martin]

19. We are so much safer because this man was brutally beaten.

:sarcasm:

[trthnd4jstc]

20. This is why Torture should be eliminated. No Innocent should suffer. There is no such thing as

necessary evil. It is the belief that there is a necessity that evil is allowed to happen. We do not have to torture. When the innocent is wronged by our government or any other government, when is that considered a war crime?

[NM Independent]

21. So THIS is where the whole "dirty bomb 'scare'" came from?

Seriously?

You have got to be fucking kidding me. That whole round of BS came from some guy looking at a satirical article, AND we tortured the shit out of him?

This is proof absolutely positive that the * Admin was full of paranoid sociopaths. Especially Cheney, that damn maniacal sadist.

[leveymg]

29. The dirty bomb scare came from the same group of scientists who built them along with anthrax for

the US and UK Governments in an effort to frame Saddam's Iraq. This same group has had a frighteningly high mortality rate. See,

Daily Kos: Bruce Ivins: A Dead Scientist and The Great Anthrax Monoploy
Aug 5, 2008 ... Recommended by: leveymg. Where does Ivins specifically fit into this picture? The government's anthrax vaccine program was doing research ...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/5/171348/5311/310/563110 - 44k - Cached - Similar pages

[ekwhite]

22. This would be absurd, if it weren't so horrible

That a man can be imprisoned and tortured in the supposed "free world" for reading a joke piece on a website is horrifying.

[chollybocker]

24. I have a chili recipe that many people describe as 'nuclear.'

Should I change my phone number?

[ColbertWatcher]

25. Satarists are being targeted by the NSA?

No wonder they didn't like Dr. Colbert!

[rhett o rick]

26. So someone tell me that Obama, er sorry President Obama is going to

prosecute these bastards. There is no going forward until we prosecute these bastard criminals.

[Amonester]

27. I wish I could but... I won't hold my breath... n/t

[pnorman]

28. This appears to be the original article:

http://www.nic.fi/~perttij/Page35.html

pnorman

[pam4water]

32. OMG I read the death by chocolate recipe they're coming for me.

[deepplaya]

34. A never-ending vacume of competence is criminal behavior

"just doing my job mam"

[EnviroBat]

35. Wait wait...

I always though you just take a hunk of uranium and smack it with a hammer... You mean there's more to it than that? You mean I paid $25.99 for the instructions, and "introductory chunk of Uranium", plus postage and handling? And they're WRONG!

SON-OF-A-BITCH!

[Kablooie]

36. Where's the "Anarchist's Cookbook" when you really need it?

[knitter4democracy]

41. Heck, my dad taught us how to do that one night at dinner.

He used to be at Berkley and Livermore. He turned over the paper placemat one night when he took my brothers and me out to Big Boy and drew it all out, explaining his idea on how to keep the two halves apart. He made sure not to get too specific, especially on stuff that was national security and all, but I'm sure I could figure it out if I wanted to.

So, what, are they going to pick all of us up?