This is the sort of news item that is all too often buried on a back page and then overlooked. The fact that two kilograms of any isotope of uranium were being stored in the garage of former police officer in one of the former Soviet states is very troubling. We’ve heard how lax nuclear material security is in the former USSR. This is yet more proof.
“3 arrested in Moldova in uranium smuggling plot
By CORNELIU RUSNAC
The Associated Press
Wednesday, August 25, 2010; 3:31 PM
CHISINAU, Moldova -- Two former policemen and another person were arrested in Moldova on suspicion of trying to sell four pounds (nearly two kilograms) of uranium on the black market, authorities said Wednesday, although the amount was too small to be used in a nuclear warhead or a "dirty bomb."
Officials identified the material as uranium-238 and said it had a value of euro9 million ($11.35 million).
Uranium-238 can be enriched into the fissile material of nuclear warheads or converted into plutonium, also used to arm nuclear missiles. Both processes are complex and need much more of the material than the amount reported seized, which also was much too little to be used for a "dirty bomb."
Interior Ministry officials said the traffickers were trying to sell the uranium, which was kept in the garage of a former policeman, to people from unspecified countries.
U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner congratulated Moldova's government for the break up of what he called a uranium smuggling ring and said an FBI team had assisted Moldovan authorities with "technical analysis."
Moldovan authorities have sent the uranium to a German atomic center to establish the percentage of enrichment and country of origin.
The International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna declined immediate comment on the case. “
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/25/AR2010082501220.html
Demagogue Glenn Beck will try to co-opt the Civil Rights movement of the 1950’s and 60’s today. He will cloak his money grubbing in the guise of raising money for the children of SpecOps troops KIA. Beck is another of the flag-waving pseudo-patriots that will be happy to fight any war to the last drop of someone else’s blood while he stays home and becomes richer selling bigotry and hatred of non-WASPs on a GOP house-organ “news network.”
Beck is another in the long line of hate mongers and liars who have chosen to ally with the GOP to benefit the ultra-wealthy and do away with the middle and working class in this nation.
I have my doubts that the scholarship fund will receive much money from Beck. The rally expenses will be “greater than expected.” So will Beck’s share. I imagine that the empty-headed former governor of Alaska will recite her ghost-written speech for her usual fee and leave without ever understanding what a charlatan she has become. The team of Beck and Palin celebrates the unholy high school reunion of a home-coming queen and a self-aggrandizing alcoholic. The damage they can wreak on others is of no concern to them. They simply can’t stand to leave the limelight of the money to be made selling lies and innuendo. Palin, like Beck, will send the troops out to die for corporate ventures and never understand why she is wrong at every possible angle.
Where will Glenn Beck rally money go?
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 27, 2010; 3:09 PM
Glenn Beck has billed his "Restoring Honor" rally at the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday in part as an opportunity to focus attention on those who have served in the military.
I recall the 1963 event as well as I can for having heard and seen it by television rather than at the actual event. Sharpton’s comments below seem to me to be exactly correct. King spoke about social justice, about ending war, about the equality of human kind in this nation. Beck profits from dividing our population into the bigoted state that it was prior to the Civil Rights movement and laws. Sharpton calls for peace and equality, Beck champions greed, hatred, and lies. I know whom I have to support and whom I will never support.
Glenn Beck and Al Sharpton: The rallies of 8/28
“Sharpton, who as a teenager worked with some of King's lieutenants, plans to lead a march that is to end near the site of the Beck rally. His event is part of an annual commemoration of King's iconic speech, and Sharpton intends to issue a call to reform education and "reclaim" the dream, which he said Beck is trying to "hijack."
King "came to ask for a strong federal government," Sharpton said. "If some of these folk read the speech, they may understand that they don't want to celebrate a dream they haven't really read."
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