Is A "Dirty Bomb" Headed to the U.S.?

Wednesday, April 24, 2002

This is a partial transcript from The O'Reilly Factor, April 19 , 2002.

JOHN KASICH, GUEST HOST:   In the Unresolved Problems segment tonight, is Bin Laden's terror group close to building a dirty bomb?  A top al Qaeda commander in U.S. custody recently told interrogators that the terror network is trying to build a crude bomb that can spread a lot of radioactivity inside the United States. 

Joining us from Washington D.C. is Bob Bevelacqua, he is our Fox News military analyst, former Green Beret.  Bob, let's start, first of all, explain to the people what is a dirty bomb. 

BOB BEVELACQUA, FOX MILITARY ANALYST:  A dirty bomb is a device that's used to disburse radioactive material, chemicals, contaminated water.  It's actually a very simple device.  All you need is an explosion, and what you wrap around that explosion is contaminated material that's radioactive.  You spread that out into a highly populated area. 

The most difficult thing about building that device is getting your hands on the nuclear waste. 

KASICH:  OK.  Let's talk about the difference between a dirty bomb -- and I mean, it's amazing here that we're having to even go through this, but people want to know, because it's hard to believe we're dealing with this here in the 21st century.  You got a dirty bomb, but then you have a suitcase nuclear bomb.  Distinguish between the two.  Which is more likely to come first? 

BEVELACQUA:  Well, let's talk about the worst one.  The worst one would be the suitcase nuke.  Now, that is an actual device that creates a nuclear explosion.  The special forces teams, about 15 years ago used to carry them.  They called them a Saddam device.  They weigh about 110 pounds.  It's not actually a suitcase, but it's made portable.  When it blows up you biskly get Hiroshima, Nagasaki where it blows up.  That's totally different from a dirty bomb. 

KASICH:  Now we believe, bob, in terms of the suitcase nuclear bomb, we don't believe that these terrorists are anywhere near to be being able to have that.  Correct? 

BEVELACQUA:  I wouldn't say that.  I would say there are rumors that at least 70 are missing, 15 more realistically confirmed. 

KASICH:  Right, but without the codes, though, they're really not very effective.  I mean, you can't set them off unless you have the codes, correct?  So let's not scare people. 

BEVELACQUA:  No. I would say that's a fairly accurate statement, John, but I would follow it up that anything in this world is for sale.  If you need the information bad enough and you happen to be a multimillionaire, could you probably get your hands on that information. 

KASICH:  OK, let's go back to the dirty bombs.  So you want to wrap something around this bomb, so it might be some kind of radioactive waste from a spent fuel rod at a nuclear plant?  Could it be waste from a hospital from a medical site? 

BEVELACQUA:  Yes.  Yes.  You are -- John, you are describing it all.  You are right on the money. 

KASICH:  And you could do it right here in America right now, couldn't you? 

BEVELACQUA:  Yes.  This isn't something that you have to import into the country, although that's really easy because we really have no security for that either.  This is what I did.  Before I came on the show tonight, I sat down, yahoo.com, I typed in radioactive waste.  This is what I found out.  The Pantex plant, I won't name its location, stores plutonium pits.  The reason it stores plutonium pits is because the facility up the road that manufactured these went out of business, so they had to move them.  So they moved these pits to this location, and that's where they're stored. 

What's the security at the plant?  I don't know, but I have a feeling it's not the best in the world.  I also went to a Web site that talked about three mile island.  In 1993 there was a probe penetration in the Three Mile island by an individual that wasn't supposed to be there.  Do you know what they have on the Web site?  They have the map to how he got in with all the flaws in the security system, and where he breached all the security and got into the plant, and then they describe in detail the 30 security flaws that existed.  It's all on the Web. 

KASICH:  Well, Bob, obviously a serious problem, but here is the really crucial question.  It seems to me the way to stop this?  good intelligence.  And good intelligence just doesn't mean FBI, CIA here.  It means human intelligence inside of al Qaeda.  How long will it take us after we decimated our intelligence agencies to get human intelligence inside of al Qaeda who can tip us off to these people so that we can catch them before any of this can happen? 

BEVELACQUA:  That, John, is the 64,000 question, and you are definitely right on target.  It will take a long time.  Those types of individuals that had that trade craft, if you will, are not manufactured overnight.  They are home grown.  They have to be in the institution for a long time in the field doing those types of low-level sorts of operations. 

It takes a decade to stand up, individuals that have the capability of that, unless you go out and grab the guys that did this for a living and bring back the Larry Johnsons and the Bill Cowens (ph) and those kind of guys.  It's a very difficult thing to do. 

KASICH:  Well, Bob, I want to tell that thank goodness the whole country is united behind rebuilding our intelligence capability.  That is really where we have to go in a seriousness across the board about this issue, because it's a real problem out there.  I want to thank you for being with us again. 

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