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Britain
Dirty bomb fears as 'several kg of URANIUM' found in cargo at Heathrow: Package 'shipped from Pakistan to UK-based Iranians' at centre of Met Police anti-terror probe after being discovered when airport alarms triggered
2023-01-11
[Daily Mail]
  • Shipment of uranium has been seized at Heathrow airport, sparking terror fears

  • The undeclared material was discovered on December 29 on a passenger flight

  • It was destined for an Iranian business with a premises in the UK, sources say

  • The package originated from Pakistan and arrived on a flight via Oman
Sources said the uranium was ‘not weapons-grade’ - and so could not be used to manufacture a thermo-nuclear weapon.

But the security services are understood to be investigating whether the undeclared package could have been destined for an improvised nuclear device, known as a ‘dirty bomb’.

Such a device - which has long been a nightmare scenario for counter-terror experts - combines conventional explosives with nuclear material to disperse a lethal radioactive plume.

In 2004 British security services arrested Dhiren Barot, a Muslim convert who planned to assemble and use dirty bombs in the UK and the US to kill members of the public.
Mr. Barot aka Issa al-Hindi headed a Lashkar e-Taiba jihadi cell in the UK that planned a series of attacks against major targets in Britain and the Greater NYC area. His manual for jihad was published in a large enough run that copies could still be found in bookshops six years later.
He was jailed for 30 years.
Related:
Heathrow: 2022-12-11 Suspect in 1988 Pan Am 103 explosion that killed 270 people taken into custody by US
Heathrow: 2022-06-29 UK’s Prince Charles reportedly accepted bags with millions in cash from Qatari PM
Heathrow: 2022-03-16 Pentagon prosecutors working on deal to SAVE 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his accomplices from death penalty before his Guantanamo Bay trial
Related:
Dhiren Barot: 2013-04-19 Timeline of Islamicist attacks for New York, 2001 to date
Dhiren Barot: 2010-10-06 A View From London: Preventing the Next Mumbai
Dhiren Barot: 2010-04-22 Senior official quits Amnesty International
Posted by:Waldemar the Limber5043

#11  I need to take my cans to the curb for tomorrow’s trash helicopter.
Posted by: Super Hose   2023-01-11 20:44  

#10  Like when does this stuff just happen?
Posted by: Procopius2k   2023-01-11 18:39  

#9  The FAA shutdown and this story seem coincidental in time, and yet, if the UK event was determined as a test of sensor systems, such info relayed to the US might have been a trigger?
Posted by: NoMoreBS   2023-01-11 12:03  

#8  Not just by plane, but by passenger plane.

Thank you for that perspective, Frank G — I rely on y’all to provide the real-world knowledge that I lack. 24 Hour Rule, but malevolent testing sounds more probable, Or perhaps the machines at the airport that respond to radiation need to be recalibrated?
Posted by: trailing wife   2023-01-11 11:44  

#7  shipping scrap metal by plane doesn't make much economic sense, so Ima call Bullshit
Posted by: Frank G   2023-01-11 11:30  

#6  Not several kilos of uranium, according to The Times of Israel:

The uranium was found in a shipment of scrap metal and investigators were looking into whether it was the result of “poor handling” in Pakistan, the BBC reported.

“I want to reassure the public that the amount of contaminated material was extremely small and has been assessed by experts as posing no threat to the public,” police commander Richard Smith said in a statement to British media.

“Although our investigation remains ongoing, from our inquiries so far, it does not appear to be linked to any direct threat,” Smith said.

No arrests have been made so far. According to The Sun, police are thought to be focusing on an Iran-based firm that has premises in the UK where the package was supposed to be delivered.

Still, let’s wait for more information before moving it to Page 2: WoT Background/Politics. It could be someone testing the system, and it definitely shows the English response to such a concern.
Posted by: trailing wife   2023-01-11 10:27  

#5  Given now becoming General Public Media Info.

The US FAA cover story is the Airline Traffic control system is having massive issues and many flights have been grounded.
Posted by: NN2N1   2023-01-11 09:09  

#4  The establishment's wet dream, Besoeker.
Posted by: DarthVader   2023-01-11 08:36  

#3  Could require declaration of a National Emergency, suspension of the Constitution, Martial Law.... that sort of thing.
Posted by: Besoeker   2023-01-11 07:04  

#2  This is a "not if, but when" scenario...
Posted by: M. Murcek   2023-01-11 07:00  

#1  
Kinda makes you wonder with our Wide Open Southern Borders, IF any of this has made its way into the USA sealed in small sensor-proof containers?

Yet the Far Left still lives for and promotes the idea that we can be a happy, unified world population with No Borders?
Posted by: NN2N1   2023-01-11 06:47  

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