Sensation from The Times: Osama Bin Laden has a draft of the A-bomb

As The Times wrote on its front page, its correspondent found documents, partially damaged with fire, in one of Kabul’s quarters. The documents were written in the Arabic, Urdu, German, and English languages, and they contained a description of the technology needed to produce an A-bomb. These documents resemble the drafts of the American bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki in 1945.

All the world media distributed this information today, giving the headlines, one scarier than another. In addition, there many postings on the PRAVDA.Ru forum in which the people say that Osama bin Laden has an A-bomb. So far, our readers believe that the panic in the world media is nothing but a “fashionable” subject to write about.

A scientific observer of The Times commented on this news, and it seems that he has the same opinion in this respect. His article is written inside the newspaper, but the readers did not pay much attention to it. The observer of the newspaper said that the experts were rather sceptical towards the engineering, constructional, and technical possibilities of the terrorist organization. The construction of an A-bomb similar to the one dropped on Nagasaki is rather simple and described in detail, but it is very hard to make such a bomb. Al-Qaeda would have to acquire no less than 8 kilos of plutonium and find first-class scientists more qualified than those who wrote those documents in Kabul.

In addition, the production of an A-bomb needs high-precision equipment, and this equipment cannot be found in Afghanistan. The majority of specialists in the nuclear field believe that it is impossible to make an A-bomb without support from a state. Even Saddam Hussein, who has serious scientists and the equipment delivered from a western company, failed to produce it.

Anton Ponomarev PRAVDA.Ru

Reuters photo: Osama bin Laden (L) sits with his adviser Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian linked to the al Qaeda network, during an interview with Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir (not pictured)