NYT's nuclear forensic team story a veiled warning to Neocons?

[MakeItSo]

The Times reported yesterday that a new, secret team within the DOD will be able to identify the source of detonated nuclear devices based on sophisticated forensic analysis. This could discourage "enemies from within" from trying to use a staged domestic nuclear hit. Dick Cheney has reportedly told military brass to be prepared to launch an immediate nuclear strike on Iran if a nuclear attack occurs on US soil.


New Team Plans to Identify Nuclear Attackers

The Pentagon has formed a team of nuclear experts to analyze the fallout from a terrorist nuclear attack on American soil in an effort to identify the attackers, officials have said.

The team, which can draw on hundreds of federal experts, uses such tools as robots that gather radioactive debris and sensitive gear to detect the origins of a device, whether a true atomic weapon or a so-called dirty bomb, that uses ordinary explosives to spew radioactivity.

The objective is to determine quickly who exploded the device and where it came from, in part to clarify the options to strike back, the officials said. The government also hopes that terrorists will be less likely to use a nuclear device if they know that it can be traced.


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/02/politics/02nuke.html?_r=1&oref=login

[The Magistrate]

1. Dick Cheney's Stated Plan, Sir?

You have evidence he has stated he intends to stage a nuclear attack in the U.S. at some point in the near future?

[MakeItSo]

3. His plan, reportedly, is to attack Iran with nukes & conventional weapons

This according to "The American Conservative" of all places, from last July:

The Pentagon, acting under instructions from Vice President Dick Cheney's office, has tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing up a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States. The plan includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons. Within Iran there are more than 450 major strategic targets, including numerous suspected nuclear-weapons-program development sites. Many of the targets are hardened or are deep underground and could not be taken out by conventional weapons, hence the nuclear option.

Linking to Dailykos because I couldn't find the original article in the AC:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/7/22/164841/163

[The Magistrate]

7. That Has Certainly Been Discussed, Sir

And any nuclear attack on the U.S. traceable to Iran would doubtless be responded to in that manner, and with the enthusiastic support of virtually all our citizenry. Your phrasing, however, in your opening comment, seemed to convey the meaning it was his plan to secure such a nuclear within the United States himself. This rather piqued my interest....

[MakeItSo]

8. I have edited to clarify, not "stated" but "reported" n/t

[Vincardog]

2. The trouble with the NeoConvict terrorists is they are too lazy to read

the warning

[Dhalgren]

4. And why assume that the group set up by the DoD won't

simply be a source of vindication for the Neo-Cons? I don't place any undue confidence in the impartiality of any DoD organ...

[MakeItSo]

6. Most people are not truly evil, even in the DoD

There are good people within the government trying to do the right thing all the time. They just don't happen to be giving the orders these days.

[bullimiami]

5. within the pentagon. what a joke.

[formercia]

9. The analysis doesn't take very long

I've seen it done in a few minutes with the proper equipment.

[MakeItSo]

10. I believe tracing isotopes back to their specific source

is quite a bit more complicated.

[formercia]

11. Every producer of weapons

have their own variations in manufacturing that provide a good indicator as to the source. A terrorist organization would have to be supplied with a weapon or material from a known or suspected producer.

The bete noir would be an organization that had this information and produced a weapon that was a copy cat. Very few people have access to this kind of information and it would be a production nightmare to make a weapon that worked without testing.