"President Obama: Al Qaeda Is Seeking a Nuke -- and They Will Use It"

[Clio the Leo]

and the FIRST person who mentions the phrases "George Bush" and/or "yellow cake" in reply to this will receive a VERY mean and hateful look from me via the monitor ... SO THERE! :spank:

President Obama: Al Qaeda Is Seeking a Nuke -- and They Will Use It
Jake Tapper - April 11, 2010 8:15 PM

On the eve of his Nuclear Security Summit, President Obama issued a dire warning: terrorist groups are trying to obtain nuclear weapons -- and they will use it.

“We know that organizations like al Qaeda are in the process of trying to secure a nuclear weapon -- a weapon of mass destruction that they have no compunction at using," the president said.

Appearing alongside President Zuma of South Africa before a bilateral meeting, Mr. Obama said that "if there was ever a detonation in New York City, or London, or Johannesburg, the ramifications economically, politically, and from a security perspective would be devastating.”

Leaders from almost 50 nations are attending the two-day summit, aimed at shoring up efforts to obtain loose nuclear materials throughout the world so they don’t fall into the hands of terrorists or rogue nations. The summit is the third event in the last week in which President Obama is trying to demonstrate a commitment to denuclearization. Last week he issued a new policy on nuclear deterrence and signed a disarmament treaty with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev.

South Africa is the only nation in the world that once had a nuclear weapons program and subsequently dismantled the weapons.

"South Africa has special standing in being a moral leader on this issue," President Obama said.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/04/president-obama-al-qaeda-is-seeking-a-nuke-to-kill-innocents.html

and....

Secret mission marks Obama nuclear strategy
By MEG KINNARD AND MICHAEL WARREN

updated 3:17 p.m. ET, Sun., April 11, 2010
SANTIAGO, Chile - Deep inside the containment building of a nuclear reactor that Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet built for his army, an aging engineer in a white lab coat struggled with a common house key to unlock a closet door.

Opening a dusty wooden box he pulled from a shelf, he revealed an array of thin aluminum-coated plates, and lifted one out with his bare hands.

"This is it," said Hugo Torres, the reactor's operations manager.

"It" is highly enriched uranium 235, HEU for short. It's the material that most worries anti-terrorism experts. Just 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of it in a nuclear bomb could devastate an entire city, in the same way the United States destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.

President Barack Obama's major shift in U.S. nuclear strategy puts a new emphasis on securing this kind of weapons-grade nuclear material, recognizing that terrorists and rogue states pose a much more immediate threat than the old fears of a communist nation provoking nuclear Armageddon by attacking the U.S. or its allies.

"For the first time, preventing nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism is now at the top of America's nuclear agenda," Obama said before signing a new START treaty with Russia to sharply reduce the number of warheads each country has ready to fire.

Obama now hopes to enlist leaders of 47 other nations at a White House summit beginning Monday to help him keep an ambitious promise, made a year ago this week, to secure all the world's vulnerable nuclear material within four years.

Obama has proposed a 68 percent increase in the Global Threat Reduction Initiative's budget to $559 million next year, to recover more HEU and fight smuggling of nuclear material by strengthening border controls and port security.

But the U.S. needs extensive cooperation from other nations to get the job done — and Chile has become an example of how small countries can play a big part in the process.

Chile was among the first to agree to surrender its last HEU, 18 kilograms (40 pounds) it got from Britain and France for its two research reactors. A team of Americans finally shipped it out last month just after the country's massive earthquake, weaving a convoy of trucks around shattered highways in the middle of the night to reach a functioning port.

The Associated Press documented the transfer, agreeing to keep the details secret until the material arrived safely in the United States.

The mission will be the first of many if Obama is to keep his promise.

http://ow.ly/172DGQ

[ZombieHorde]

1. "George Bush" and/or "yellow cake"

Did I win?

[Clio the Leo]

2. I have always thought they should have called "yellow cake" something different...

... "infected broccoli" perhaps.

Because in MY world, yellow cake is a GOOD thing. I was ready to head on over to the Iraq and eat ALL the yella cake they had .... until I found out what it was ... and that they didn't have any.

[SwampG8r]

5. he could market them

like lil debbie

lil georges yellow cakes
mmmm mmmm good

[kristopher]

3. This should make you feel better...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x241236

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=241254&mesg_id=241254

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=241254&mesg_id=241271


I gave the post a rec but you're subzero for some reason...

[Clio the Leo]

4. Well, just as Bush and Cheney got Afghanistan confused with Iraq...

... some here occasionally get Iraq confused with Afghanistan. ;)

[jeanpalmer]

6. His effort is completely disingenuous

The only reason some groups would ever try to get a nuke to use against the US is because Obama and his military are over there fking with them. If he really wants to reduce the nuclear threat, he'll get his imperial army out of the Middle East, Africa, South America and everywhere else where his military is threatening, bombing, killing and generally making life tough for people. He's just full of it when he tries to portray others as the cause of the problem. It's just more campaign bs. Trying to get a nuke to use against the US is a desperate act of people who are powerless to rid themselves of the constant onslaught of the US war machine.

[quaker bill]

10. So let me get this straight

Because they are victims, we should just leave nuclear materials unsecured? Or would it just generally be a good idea to lock this stuff down, regardless of who wants it, for any reason?

Personally, I favor locking the stuff up, and if al-queda is the cause or excuse that gets it done, so be it.

People who would fly aircraft into tall buildings, would use a nuke if they could get one.

I agree with you on the need to end "gun boat diplomacy". However it is important to also understand that much of the damage has already been done and simply pulling the troops out is unlikely enough to undo it. Securing nuclear materials is simply rational, for almost any reason.

[doc03]

7. You don't think there are people in this world that would

use a nuke if they had one?

[boppers]

8. "Yellow cake" is desert dirt to me.

This would be one of those city/country divides, where dirt freaks out city folks.

[ShortnFiery]

9. Bullshit! Now he's giving his Administration the power to treat us all as Potential Terrorists.

I'm sick of this fear-mongering BULLSHIT!

It's even more disgusting when it's spewed from a democratic President. :puke:

[quaker bill]

11. Concerned about

whether you will ever be able to add that tactical nuke to your weapons collection? Or do you perhaps think it is a good idea to lock this stuff up, regardless of reason?

just curious

What is it to your mind about people who would strap on bombs and walk into crowds, or fly large aircraft into buildings, that would cause them to pause before hitting the detonate button on a nuke, given they could get one? (understand that not being able to get one is not a viable answer, because the policy only intends to make this less possible)

There simply is no good reason to have anything less than the maximum security for this stuff. It is rational, and not fear mongering, to want to have this stuff burried deep, and locked away, for almost any reason.

[ShortnFiery]

13. Back away from the fear-mongering. You're more likely to be struck by lightening ...

than being anywhere in the vicinity of a terrorist attack.

Back in 2002, I took our neighbors SUV to get gas. Some people were so afraid of the D.C. sniper that they huddled-down all afraid in their homes.

No, I'm not going to live like that nor am I going to give our GOVERNMENT an EASY OUT to deny us our "Bill of RIGHTS."

Go look under your bed for those "evil" terrorist who are seemingly EVERYWHERE, I'm going out and about in public without fear.

http://yorick.infinitejest.org:81/1/img/card-1984_instruction_manual.jpg http://yorick.infinitejest.org:81/1/img/card-bill_of_rights.jpg

[stray cat]

12. People who think Al Qaeda won't use it - should also think Tim Mcveigh was a good guy

so many progressives seem to like Al Qaeda and demonize right wing terrorists - why not be consistent?

[ShortnFiery]

14. No, it's just that some of us don't want to breath new life back into a TIPS program. eom

[Proud Liberal Dem]

15. Who said anything like that?

:shrug:

Saying that it's a good idea to secure nukes from unfriendly individuals (regardless of their reasoning/justification) is not the same as calling for a police state.

[ShortnFiery]

16. I have no problem with "securing our nukes" but claiming that al Qaeda is chomping at the bit

to use them is pure FEAR-MONGERING.

They can do substantial damage with a few armed men with machine guns in a shopping mall NOT unlike what happened with other terrorist units have done recently in India. Also, I just heard that the IRA may be back to it's old antics of targeted bombings.

But, all of a sudden, President Obama has al Qaeda carting in a suitcase NUKE to the USA.

Sorry, but this is a power grab. Al Qaeda can f**k us up in many other ways FIRST. Obama's use of this fear-mongering tactic is nothing less than opportunistic and vile. :thumbsdown:

IMO, he's positioning the USA to "turn the other way" while Israel bombs Iran's suspected nuke sites. That would be a large mistake - even with regard to geopolitics. Iran is not LAME, they will retaliate and it will usher in WWIII.

Our Nation has become far too ARROGANT. President Obama may be much more intelligent than George W. Bush, but he also SWAGGERS like him when it comes to a potential attack on Iran.

And yes, since al Qaeda is unlike our former boogiemen (Communists) is defined as ANYONE WHO CHALLENGES THIS ADMINISTRATION'S POWER, a "terrorist" can be anyone whom those *in power* identifies as such.

We should be more afraid of our government denying our civil rights and executing Americans abroad FIRST before some rag tag group gets their hands on a suitcase nuke.

http://yorick.infinitejest.org:81/1/img/card-panopticon_state.jpg http://yorick.infinitejest.org:81/1/img/card-liberty_officers.jpg

[Proud Liberal Dem]

17. PURE Fearmongering??? Really???

President Obama was just saying what should be common sense to most people and it is just as true under Obama as it was with Bush II, and even Clinton. Clearly, there are some groups like Al-Queda have made clear their desire to harm/kill Americans using whatever means available and any organization willing to crash planes into buildings is IMHO totally capable of wanting/using nuclear weapons (which, thankfully, they haven't been able to obtain so far as we know). WTF exactly do YOU think that they would do to it if they ever got a nuke/nuclear tech and how are you certain they don't want it??? If they got it, do you think that they'd use it to heat/power their caves? Dismantle it? Turn it back over to the proper authorities?
I haven't heard President Obama call for another invasion/occupation despite what should be an obvious concern for any world leader and, in regards to your concern that President Obama/SOS Hillary might be trying to distract us all from the possibility of Israel attacking Iran, if you've been paying attention to the news, President Obama hasn't exactly been acting like Israel's BFF since he's been in office- unlike Bush.

[dflprincess]

18. "There was a turtle by the name of Bert

and Bert the turtle was very alert;
when danger threatened him he never got hurt
he knew just what to do...
He'd duck!
And cover!
Duck!
And cover! (male) He did what we all must learn to do
(male) You (female) And you (male) And you (deeper male) And you!'
Duck, and cover!'"




I spent my childhood hearing the Russians were going to nuke us off the face of earth and yet the U.S. remains the only entity to have ever resorted to nuclear weapons. I'm all "feared out" and I don't think I'll lose a lot of sleep worrying about this.