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Brussels Bombers Filmed Nuclear Researchers, Hoped To Build A "Dirty Bomb," Expert Says (nbcnews.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the threat-to-world-peace dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from NBC News: The brothers behind this week's Brussels bombings also spied on a top nuclear researcher and hoped to build a so-called "dirty bomb," an expert involved in a probe into ISIS threats told NBC News on Thursday. Khalid and Ibrahim El Bakraoui were responsible for planting a hidden camera outside the Belgian researcher's house, according to Claude Moniquet, a French former intelligence official who was hired to investigate potential plots targeting Europe's nuclear sector. This camera produced more than 10 hours of film showing the comings and goings of senior researcher at a Belgian nuclear center and his family. "The terrorist cell ... naively believed they could use him to penetrate a lab to obtain nuclear material to make a dirty bomb," Moniquet, CEO of the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center privacy consultancy said. The researcher worked at a center which stored a "significant portion of the world's supply of radioisotopes," according to the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C. These isotopes are used in hospitals and factories around the world but can also be used to make a so-called "dirty bomb" -- a device that could spread radioactive material across a wide area.

3 of 230 comments (clear)

  1. Re:It's not forever a pipe dream by khasim · · Score: 5, Informative

    That troubling part is that as incompetent as they may be, they're still quite highly effective.

    But they aren't. In the USofA, you are more likely to be killed while moving furniture than by a terrorist.

    If someone kills you tomorrow, it will probably be someone you know (friend or family) or a traffic accident.

    I used to work for an insurance company. You could get a "terrorism" rider on your policy at additional cost. That cost? $1. And it was pure profit for the company.

    The problem is that our news agencies and politicians are SELLING the idea of a terrorism threat for their own benefit.

  2. Re:Naively? by matbury · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you believe that that primary intention of acts of terror is to cause harm, then yes, that sounds reasonable. However, as far as I understand it, the main point of acts of terror is usually to make people irrationally afraid (cars, dogs, and swimming pools are more dangerous). For that purpose, dirty bombs and the way they've been hyped in movies and the media, as you've stated, are perfect for terror attacks.

  3. Here comes the apologist ... by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Every single time we bring up the issue of the terrorists being of a certain faith there sure come up people apologizing for them ... and as always, they will bring up "Christianity being the most evil of all and/or issue regarding the "Crusades", and so on ...
     
    Can't you guys be truthful, for just a second, folks?

    TODAY the bombers are not Christians

    TODAY those who are killing people in Paris, in Belgium, in Madrid, in Mumbai, in London, in New York City, in San Bernardino, are not Christians !!

    Get on with REALITY, folks !

    Stop apologizing for those who are carrying out the terrorist acts !!

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !