Addressing the Unthinkable, U.S. Revives Study of Fallout

[kskiska]

To cope with the possibility that terrorists might someday detonate a nuclear bomb on American soil, the federal government is reviving a scientific art that was lost after the cold war: fallout analysis.

The goal, officials and weapons experts both inside and outside the government say, is to figure out quickly who exploded such a bomb and where the nuclear material came from. That would clarify the options for striking back. Officials also hope that if terrorists know a bomb can be traced, they will be less likely to try to use one.

In a secretive effort that began five years ago but whose outlines are just now becoming known, the government's network of weapons laboratories is hiring new experts, calling in old-timers, dusting off data and holding drills to sharpen its ability to do what is euphemistically known as nuclear attribution or post-event forensics.

It is also building robots that would go into an affected area and take radioactive samples, as well as field stations that would dilute dangerous material for safe shipment to national laboratories.

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/19/national/19NUKE.html?hp

[Media_Lies_Daily]

1. The NeoCons are actually trying to revive the Cold War atmosphere...

...with different opponents.

[bobthedrummer]

9. More like they never left the Cold War, anti-communist mind-set

and have waited for the tech to develop to dominate ala PNAC-they are really full of the spirit of capital that Marx warned, correctly, about-in my loyal to America opinion.

They are a new form of FASCISM, kids. Traitors IMO. Rebels.
Traitors to OUR Constitution, the neo-conservative coup cabal!
ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!

[seventhson]

2. Hell, Bush Halliburton and the Nuclear industry is dosing us ALL already

go to radiation.org for details

[shanti]

17. with the outrageous cancer levels here

you may be right...who doesn't know someone who has suffered from some sort of cancer?

[stevebreeze]

3. why is it I always feel the Bush mis administration is always lying?

My first impression is this may have more to do with the "usable" nukes the war party wants to make and test. you know just small Hiroshima size bombs.

[Kool Kitty]

6. Maybe because they ARE always lying.

[Nevernose]

4. This is what pisses me off

My daughter was born in 1996, when Clinton was beginning his second term. I mentioned to my then-wife that I was so glad she was growing up in a world without nuclear weapons, and a world without nightmares of a nuclear holocaust (as a child, growing up in the seventies and eighties, I actually had nightmares about nuclear annihilation, as I'm certain that many DUers older than I did -- my parents tell me stories of "duck and cover" drills).

I honestly thought that she would grow up in a world without fear. Man, was I naive. It wasn't naive to think that there could be a world without nuclear war, or even to think that there could be a world without war at all.

It was naive to think that my daughter might come up in a world without allegedly-conservative war-hawks, hell bent on destroying whomever "they" are before "they" destroy us.

Tell me: should I be angry or depressed when news like this comes out?

[MrSoundAndVision]

5. It ain't just the Bush administration boys and girls...

It's the NYTimes itself. It was an indispensible tool of the march to war in Iraq, and it will be an indispensible tool in the march to war with the invisible, arbitrary enemy. That's means you're suspect. I'm suspect. Any enemy of profit COULD be an enemy under those guidelines.

Remember that the NYTimes is the supposed liberal pillar of society and realize that they marched us into illegal war with their lies just like FOX News did with the Republican constituency. These people are not what they seem to be.

[teryang]

7. Are suicide bombers worried about...

...getting away with it? Deterrence? Revenge? On who?

I have no objection to the development of scientific technique, but the idea that there will be deterrence is odd.

The administration rejected deterrence as a strategy and adopted a first strike policy. I'd suggest developing human assets who know something about intelligent foreign policy and foreign cultures. This technological approach which of course lines the pockets of defense contractors does zero for national defense. The fascist jerks who promulgate foreign policy today for a lucrative alliance of oil companies, defense contractors, Israeli lobbyists, and Christian fundies are catering to a demogougic agenda which has little in common with national security. Their policies place the nation in greater danger every day.

If a nuclear bomb goes off, your national security has failed. In fact, it doesn't even exist. Forensic identification of mushroom clouds, an idiots solution to a foreign policy in total failure.

[Sugarbleus]

8. This is pretty unsettling..... I'm not feeling real

"secure" these days with all thats been happening. It's like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop........

[Oreegone]

10. OH NO

They will probably update those films where we hide under our desks.

[Kool Kitty]

12. Damn-remember "Bert the Turtle"?

He always knew to "Duck and Cover"!!!

[SoCalDem]

14. Duck and cover video..(slightly updated)

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/dac.shtml

[Kool Kitty]

16. Thanks!

Veerryyy funny!

[Rex]

11. These assholes miss the 50s

They pine for the yesterdays of Great White America.

[abracadabra]

13. THE ATOMIC CAFE--anyone seen it?--it's a great cult film

soundtrack is cool too--all songs about nuclear bombs, etc.,

Shows the u.s. military sending troops marching into an atomic blast in Nevada wearing these cute little cards to detect and measure the radiation they were absorbing...poor soldiers they interviewed didn't live very long after the filming-
Yeah !!the good ol U.S. Army!!
They knew damn well that sending troops toward the blast area would kill them.

Can't wait for the new generation of tests--
Maybe this time they wouldn't even mind testing on a major U.S. city
(if they could blame it on Al what's his name K eye duh--

[lostnfound]

18. yes, 20 years ago!! It was very funny.. nt

[PsychoDad]

15. Interesting bit of Info here....

National Department for Enhancing the Crusade
In co-operation with the Department of Energy

Info fact #11 Identifying the Terrorist Bomb.

The Terrorist nuke is easily distingushable by the headscarf it wears, or in technical terms, it's Hy-Jab.
The Terrorist bomb may say, "made in a former soviet republic", but never, "made in Pakistan or Israel", as these are always friendly bombs sanctioned by your friendly government.

Trust Us.