The Iron Fist of Tactical Nukes, Hidden in the Velvet Glove of Stories about Fuel-Air Bombs, Moabs and Bunker Busters

By George Paxinos submitted by Jeff Smith

From 2003

The USA has already used Nuclear Weapons in GWI and Afghanistan, and is duping us as it prepares to use them again in GWII

When, on July 16th, 1945, the first atomic bomb was tested at Alamogordo, New Mexico, the USA had a cover story ready to hide this fact: a “Munitions Train” had blown up, people spoke of seeing the flash and hearing the blast, it was all down pat.

In a day and age where information is given out to the public only when such information, or what the so-called “Authorities” tell us is such, serves only the purpose of increasing hegemonic corporate profits at the expense of the many disenfranchised peoples worldwide, it is good to scrutinise what comes down from the simple point of view of:

Who Benefits By This?

Now in 1991, a totally gratuitous piece of info was tossed out to the hoi-polloi — meaning us — that the USA was going to use newfangled “fuel-air bombs” in its invasion of the beachheads of Kuwait, along with the proviso, that all media reporting would be subject to a 24-hour news blackout while this went on.

At the time it struck me as odd, that a surface-blast weapon such as a fuel-air bomb, should be used against soldiers dug into deep bunkers, and, knowing something of fuel-air explosives and their limitations, also the fact that they do produce an oxidised hydrocarbon and particulate metal ash cloud like a small nuclear weapon, and may even, using fuel such as powdered aluminum and magnesium mixtures or alloys, produce both a blinding flash, and perhaps even an electromagnetic signature pulse, they would, to the uninitiated, be fairly indistinguishable from a small nuclear weapon.
Also, alas! — the other way round! — should news be given in advance about their use, one might put in small nukes, such as Neutron Bombs, and nobody who was not an expert and had actually witnessed both, could really tell the difference, at all.

EXCEPT that in contrast to true fuel-air explosives, neutron bombs WOULD do the dirty on those underground bunkers and their inhabitants, as the neutron-particle rain they produce WOULD be capable of penetrating many meters of earth.

As those soldiers who were in there at the time of the landings seem to have offered little resistance after the airbursts of whatever was used, and were forthwith bulldozed over and buried deep, some, I believe, to this day – nobody may ever know, will they?

But surely, the USA would not do a dirty trick like that, announce the one thing and then do the other, surely not Alamogordo again; and all to expedite a war and limit American casualties, which might incite antiwar protests at home? Surely not against human beings?

What does this mean, you ask?

Well, let me explain a little about fuel-air bombs, for not only have explosives been my passionate if irrational hobby since I was a kid, but it might even be that I actually met one of the inadvertent inventors of the very first fuel-air bomb ever used in combat, and that during the Second World War.

His name was Ivan Sapsford; in the South Africa of my birth and upbringing, as an older person, “Uncle” Ivan.

Wearing an eyepatch, he was a wizened combat veteran of the Ethiopian Campaign against the Italians in WWII; and some of his escapades were almost legendary in South Africa, especially those of his best-buddy and sidekick, South African flying ace, Oliver Carey.

My Dad and my uncle had a tea-room in the village where those two grew up, which is how I knew them; and the preamble to this essay, which I am about to relate, I heard at first hand from Uncle Ivan himself.

The Italians had a fort on a hill, with long-range guns which the South African forces could not match, so were held off in a stalemate. The South African infantry were chafing in the heat, one of whom was Uncle Ivan.

Then up from South Africa, back from leave returning to his North African squadron, came his best friend, fighter pilot and ace, Oliver Carey. Ivan explained the situation, and Oliver knew the answer: they were all men who had had experience in the mines in South Africa, and all had extensive knowledge of explosives and their use, so Oliver said: Hell, we’ll make a bomb, and drop it on them! It never crossed their minds that perhaps bombing had already been tried to no avail, no, they’d make their own bomb, they were after all pretty much rebels who would accept no authority, they could think for themselves.

So they got a 55-gallon petrol (gasoline) drum, put in as much military explosive as they could scrounge through the larger of its two screwcapped openings, set a stick of explosive with detonator and length of dynamite-fuse into the last piece, filled what was left with as much small-arms ammunition as they could round up, and as there was still plenty of room left, topped it all up with petrol. They were lucky that it went off at all, that the fluid component did not contaminate the fuse and detonator, but they must somehow have thought of that, most of them being mining engineers, and taken precautions against it.

How to deliver it?

There was a small, single-engine mail plane that came by daily and stayed overnight, so they simply and illegally appropriated that for the job.

By this time, and, I believe, all not quite sober, it was almost dawn, and a bunch of men heaved the filled and very heavy drum into the plane’s door lengthwise, then stood it up inside and lashed it with ropes for takeoff. Oliver sat as pilot, and Ivan and another friend sat with the drum.

As they approached the fort, Oliver gave word, and as his friend unlashed the drum, Ivan lit the fuse. Oliver circled the fort, and they threw open the door and tried to shove out the drum. Unfortunately, it was too high for the door.

They tried to lay it over, the way it had been loaded in, but it was too heavy for them together to lay it on its side.

From the heat discoloration of the outside if the wrapped dynamite fuse, it had already burnt down into the drum, so only seconds were left. They shouted for help, and Oliver left the controls and ran in to assist them.

With no-one at the controls, the plane went into a descending spiral spin, directly above the fort.

Oliver saw what was happening, grabbed the plane’s fire-axe, hacked out the upper doorframe, and they shoved the thing out. By this time they were just a couple hundred feet above the fort.

Oliver fought his way back behind the controls, and by his considerable pilot’s skills, managed to pull the plane out of its dive. Ivan and the other man, hanging on for dear life, had a final, frightening view of the drum going down toward the upturned, curious faces of the entire around 300-strong fort garrison at their morning parade, staring wonderingly upward at what was to them basically a civilian aircraft in an uncontrolled downspin.

Then their bomb exploded, a hundred feet or less above the assembled garrison, and killed them all down to the last man.

That night, the Italian military broadcast a communique to all units that “The South Africans had a new Secret Weapon”.

I heard this story from Uncle Ivan personally, and I am ashamed to say I did not believe it.

To me, there was no way that anything but an individual shrapnel hit by some of that small-arms ammo could have done this, and that was just too much coincidence for me to swallow, even as a kid or around 19.

I only believed it after I had heard of the fuel-air bombs used by the former USSR in Afghanistan, which generated an overpressure-wave which killed people hundreds of yards away. Then I understood what Oliver and Ivan had done: The initial blast dispersed a cloud of fuel, and the small-arms ammo, disintegrating and exploding like a giant sparkler firework, had ignited that cloud, and the friendly “Whump!” which you get when you are foolish enough to throw a match at the tiniest pool of flammable liquid was magnified many thousandfold, and the overpressure thump killed them all.

That is the principle of the fuel-air bomb.

It was used by the USSR many, many times in Afghanistan.

It is nothing new to anybody there, it is basically old-hat.

So then, why should the USA suddenly publicly announce in 2001 and 2002 its intention to use this sort of weapon against the Taliban hiding out in caves, and make such a big deal about the matter, and all that in advance, when in war, you do not usually go out and broadcast your intentions far and wide, let alone to your enemy?

Otto von Bismarck once said: “Never believe anything in politics, until it has been officially denied.”

What was this official pre-event announcement, like that before the Kuwaiti landings in 1991, denying, that we all should be kept in the dark about?

Did it have any connective precedent in the other announcement of intent to use fuel-air bombs in Kuwait, against underground bunkers, while the air-blast is mainly only effective on the surface? Did they both find their roots in the precedent of Alamogordo?

What is effective underground? Well, a neutron-rain from a neutron-bomb is … and neutron-bombs, basically mini-nukes, were originally designed with parameters allowing their relatively tiny air-burst, of equivalent only between a few and a few dozen tons’ of TNT equivalent, to be used in even urban environments, with people only a few miles away remaining unaware that the airblast they heard had sent down a neutron-rain killing everything outdoors, indoors, even underground for considerable depth, just some blocks down the road, while leaving the surface infrastructure of buildings and weaponry intact, as was also one of the clever reasons for their design.

To the uninitiated, such a blast is indistinguishable, apart from the surface temperature of its fireball, from that of a fuel-air bomb.

Then why should there be a pre-announcement, AND a 24-hour news blackout in Kuwait, AND another pre-announcement of intent in Afghanistan, AND now, suddenly, an intense propaganda effort to clue us up in advance that the MOAB, the Massive Ordnance Air Burst Weapon, or, unofficially, the Mother Of All Bombs, produces a fireball and a mushroom-cloud almost indistinguishable from that of a small tactical nuclear weapon, and an ineptly overdone cover-story for something officially pre-denied?

CNN carried this story: http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/11/sprj.irq.moab/index.html

in which is stated:

“The National Earthquake Information Center said it found no seismic activity as a result of the explosion, as some in the military had indicated might occur. A 10,000-foot cloud had been expected and local residents had been warned of possible loud noise.

Kathy Fite, a waitress at the International House of Pancakes in Fort Walton Beach, about 20 miles from the test site, said she heard the explosion, but it did not rattle the restaurant’s windows or shake the ground.

She described the explosion as loud, but “not real loud.” Fite said the blast was comparable to the sound of warships that sometimes test fire in the area.

Pentagon officials said they were examining results of the test to determine whether it worked as designed.”

Doesn’t this remind somewhat too distinctly of the story out of Alamogordo, New Mexico, about an exploding “munitions train”, and local residents reporting seeing and feeling effects, etc — which covered the Trinity Test?

If this is another Air-Blast weapon, then why should CNN’s story (official line) go on to state that it is effective not only ABOVE GROUND, but also against deep targets? [My emphasis added]:

“As originally conceived, the MOAB was to be used against large formations of troops and equipment or hardened above-ground bunkers. The target set has also been expanded to include deeply buried targets.” [ibid]

Doesn’t this sound like one of the design parameters for a neutron bomb instead?

And why should Iraqi soldiers “mistake” this bomb for a small nuclear blast, if not that the official pre-denial means just that, and any voices raised in query of the official story versus those of soldiers on the ground be silenced well in advance? —

“But military officials tell CNN that the MOAB is mainly conceived as a weapon employed for “psychological operations.” Military officials say they hope the MOAB will create such a huge blast that it will rattle Iraq troops and pressure them into surrendering or not even fighting. Officials suggest perhaps the Iraqis might even mistake a MOAB blast for a nuclear detonation.”

Unfortunately — I have news for all of you — MOAB is NOT the “Mother of All Bombs”.

THIS IS A COVER-STORY — WE ARE BEING PREPARED FOR THE PRE-EMPTIVE USE OF TACTICAL NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

How do I know?

Well it is simple physics and chemistry — the statement in the following article from Open Democracy, stating [excerpt and emphasis added]:

<http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-2-88-1028.jsp>

Transports of death

“Both the MOAB and the BLU-82 have been incorrectly reported to be fuel-air explosive (FAE) weapons, where a cloud of a hydrocarbon-based aerosol is created that is then detonated. Because such an explosive uses the oxygen in the atmosphere as the oxidant, it is more Œefficient¹ than many high explosives, but it also requires relatively calm weather conditions and is difficult to use in quantities of more than a ton. Even so, a modern FAE is a very dangerous and damaging weapon, especially when used against buildings. There are unconfirmed reports that the Israelis used such weapons during the siege of Beirut in 1982. In that conflict, some 20,000 people died in and around the city.

“The BLU-82 and the MOAB are, in fact, much larger and more powerful weapons even than an FAE. They are based on a mix of ammonium nitrate and powdered aluminium in an aqueous suspension or slurry, with a binding agent to hold the materials together before detonation. The effect of the BLU-82 is astonishing, and rare film shows a detonation, shock wave and subsequent mushroom cloud very similar to a small nuclear weapon, even if it is actually a conventional bomb.”

that:

“They are based on a mix of ammonium nitrate and powdered aluminium in an aqueous suspension or slurry, with a binding agent to hold the materials together before detonation” is, even by the standards of school-grade chemistry, FALSE, A DELIBERATE DECEPTION, no matter whom Open Democracy was quoting, because, namely,

“a mix of ammonium nitrate and powdered aluminium in an aqueous suspension or slurry”

is not even classified as a high explosive in any explosives handbook you may care to consult — it is used in QUARRYING, and is known as a “Blasting Agent” — meaning, it does not have the rapidity of detonation propagation or “Brisance” as have even relatively standard explosives such as C4 (phlegmatised Cyclo-Trimethylene-Trinitramine or RDX, in German “Hexogen”), rather that slurry HEAVES, rather than splits and smashes: its detonation velocity is little more than around 13’000 feet per second, whereas RDX can push 26-27’000 fps, depending on confinement and normally tested for such, phlegmatised or plasticised, in tubes of some standard diametre of around a half-inch or so at some standard packing density of around Specific Gravity 1.6-1.7.

Where Open Democracy got this information, I do not know, but it sounds like it was accepted in good faith, and its source we may guess at, given all the lies the governments have been telling us to cover atrocities we ourselves would never condone.

After sending these musings to some friends, and people on my lists, one of them wrote me back saying:

“Hi,

My brother is an ex-Marine (I know – no such thing). He told me months ago (rather casually, I’m afraid) – when we were arguing over the phone about Bush possibly using nukes on Iraq – that these were just low-grade depleted uranium nukes they were talking about using – NOT the mushroom-cloud generating nukes that we traditionally think of when we talk about nukes – e.g., the ones that were used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki… Besides, he told me – the US had ALREADY used many of these low-grade depleted uranium nukes in Iraq, during the FIRST Persian Gulf war, back in the early 90’s. He seemed to believe that this was common knowledge amongst the military, and most ex-military personnel. He said the only difference between Bush I and Bush II was that Bush II was being straight up front about the use of these weapons (as if that was something to commend him for…!!!).

So – I’m very inclined to believe this piece of scoop.”

To which I replied:

“Thank you for sharing with us this insight of a man on the spot.
Please thank your brother too.
I am quite certain that your brother has had solid information that nuclear weapons were used, especially in the landings on the Kuwaiti shore, see below.

“However, I believe your brother was referring to a LOW-YIELD Nuclear Weapon, rather than a LOW-GRADE weapon?

“It is almost impossible to get a fission reaction going with U-238 except under immense neutron flux, it being, under normal conditions, a FISSIONABLE material, but NOT a FISSILE material, the latter class being capable of spontaneous fission under certain quantitative and kinetic material density increases and other considerations, as is possible with the traditional U-235 and Plutonium-239.

“However, U-238 or so-called “Depleted Uranium”, i.e., U-238 fairly leached of its fissile U-235 content, IS fissionable under heavy neutron flux, which jumps it up into Plutonium 239 when it is deliberately used for the casing on the FUSION aggregate of a thermonuclear weapon (Hydrogen Bomb).

“What I believe your brother meant, are LOW-YIELD nuclear weapons, i.e., of (relatively) low energy output, (between a few tons’ and a few hundred tons’ TNT-equivalent) which, due to clever design, such as the use of Red Mercury or Mercuric-Stibic Heptoxide (Hg2Sb2O7) as carrier and tamper for Pu-239 incorporated into its crystalline structure, combined with electromagnetic implosion using heavy fields generated by FCGs (Flux-Compression (explosive) Generators), can make even relatively miniscule amounts of Pu-239 fission, and are also much more efficient in the percentage of fissile material they manage to fission when they are initiated, so fallout is low, and the “Neutron Bomb” which is something like a very small nuke, produces a high-density neutron flux which can penetrate armor and also underground facilities and killed, most likely, the Iraqi soldiers in their dugouts in Kuwait, before they were bulldozed over.

“THAT IS WHY THE USA HUNG A 24-HOUR NEWS BLACKOUT OF THE KUWAITI LANDINGS WHEN THEY WENT IN.

“IT IS ALSO WHY THEY ANNOUNCED, FAR IN ADVANCE, THAT THEY WOULD BE DROPPING “FUEL-AIR BOMBS”.

“As a real fuel-air bomb, not the baloney of an NH4NO3/Al slurry mentioned in the article I quoted, makes a fireball dissimilar mainly in temperature from a nuclear weapon, giving this sort of cover-story makes it easy for, say, reporters, to believe they have witnessed a fuel-air explosion, when in fact it was a very small, LOW-YIELD, nuclear weapon and very likely a Neutron Bomb, whose original parameters, by the way, were to be applicable almost in selective urban environments (!), the air-blast being of very limited strength and relying on the neutron rain to kill living organisms while leaving the physical infrastructure of weapons and buildings intact.

“Thanks for your information, and I must hope that someone will take up this theme — or are all the good sites and news-services either afraid of the governments, or even on their side?

George”

It is further possible to roughly delineate the many new ways in physics in which such micro-fission/fusion might be achieved:

As to creating a micro-fission reaction, I think it can be done with Hg2Sb207 whose crystalline lattices have been drifted full of Pu-239.

But then again, perhaps a microfusion reaction might be got from something like this?: (I do believe cold fusion had had to be killed off as an idea, because it were all too easy to make hot fusion out of it?)

I say this because a neutron source within the old-style fission bombs was apparently a small container with a 50/50 mix of deuterium and tritium, which was compressed by the implosion — and yielded very small but significant amounts of individual fusion reactions, and sufficient neutrons to boost the rate of fission (!). And this from a mere chemical implosion driver of very low comparative velocity.

In high-density physics, a Flux-Compression Generator (FCG), as in the e-bomb — is used to implode a hollow canister and achieve the highest possible densities, as you no doubt already pointed out.

So take a thin ping-pong ball made of Palladium, electrolytically saturate its metal with a deuterium /tritium mix to 1’000- 3’000 times the metal volume, implode that with an FCG — and you have likely sufficient velocity and kinetic energy, along with momentum and high inertia of the lattice, to contain and sustain the densities and the time period for significant direct fusion, and reflective heavy nuclei to keep neutrons within the aggregate as the many conversions and cross-reactions to lithium occur?

Perhaps a suspended Pu-239 pellet at the centre, the cavity filled with Deuterium/Tritium mix, so the neutron flux fissions it as it is struck by the imploding shell?

Or use a heavy-metal Beryllium coated ping-pong ball lined inside with Red Mercury, Hg2Sb2O7, the crystalline lattice of which has been drifted full of Pu239 in the interstices and you have a fission micronuke using the FCG.

Or use the fusion variant, saturated palladium shell on the outside, Red Mercury lining inside that, beryllium tamper coating overall on the outer shell? I am long out of physics, so asked around with these ideas, to which a physicist friend answered me:

o Try an eletroplated on the inside shell Am242 coating …

> at the centre, the cavity filled with
> Deuterium/Tritium mix, so the neutron flux fissions it as it is struck by
> the imploding shell?

o Do you imagine the Shell and Cavity as Spherical, as Ordinarily Portrained, or a Prolate Ellipsoid of Revolution … think Foci, NOT Centers!

I laid out my case in a letter to an international socialist website, urging them to address this issue:

“Dear Editor,

I recently received an unconfirmable report of weapons used by the USA in Afghanistan, which melted rifles in the hands of dead soldiers:

Perpetual Death From America
By Mohammed Daud Miraki, MA, MA, PhD  (Miraki is a contributing editor at VT)
Afghan-American Freelance Academic
Mdmiraki@ameritech.net
2-24-3

http://www.rense.com/general35/perp.htm

Many survivors died within a short time thereafter.

Having once been interested in these sorts of things, I know the duration and energy output of a fuel-air or “thermobaric” bomb produces far too low an energy density for this phenomenon to occur.

As America’s intention to use thermobaric bombs was announced some days in advance of their actual application, I pondered at the time if this were not a cover-story, much as the cover-story to the first Alamogordo test, to explain away in advance actual testing of tactical nuclear bunker-busters in Afghanistan.

Since the reports of melted weapons have surfaced, I urge you please, to push this theme, as, if it were exposed as being a fact, the adverse publicity would discredit the United States and Britain, and also prevent further usage of these weapons, should the war against the hapless population of Iraq go ahead.

Thank you for your attention,
George Paxinos”

I did not even receive a reply.

Whereas, if we go to the above-mentioned article by Dr Miraki, we find [emphasis added]:

‘Dr. Wazir continued:
“These are only three examples. There have been other cases where we suspect chemical weapons have been used. Most of the victims have had respiratory problems and internal bleeding for which there is no apparent cause.” (Khalifa.com, October 30, 2001)
“At the fighting front north of Kabul, where Taliban forces were pounded night and day, many dead Taliban soldiers had no visible injuries except blood flowing out of their mouths, internal bleeding consistent with uranium based and chemical weapons. Furthermore, many dead Taliban soldiers had severe discoloration of the skin, orange, without being burned, while others had their rifles melted in their hands. This aroused suspicion among Taliban and others that weapons used by the US-UK military were not conventional weapons. Many Taliban soldiers that survived the bombing in the north have died after returning to their native villages in the south and southeast of the country. They had no physical injury upon their death, however, died from internal bleeding and other bizarre symptoms including uncontrolled vomiting, diarrhea, and blood loss in urine and stool. Their families were shocked with disbelieves.

“Another bizarre, yet tragic scene was reported near Rish-Khor military base in Kabul. Multiple witnesses reported seeing dead birds on tree branches with blood coming out of their mouths. As one witness put it:

“‘We were amazed to see all these birds sitting quietly on [tree] branches; but when we shook the tree the birds fell down and we saw blood coming out of their mouths. Then we climbed the trees to see those that were still stuck on tree branches, all of them had bled from their mouths. Two of the birds appeared to be partly melted into the trees branches’.”

Friends, since when has a fuel-air bomb suddenly developed the energy-density of temperature AND duration, to cause effects like these?

Facit is, if we do not react, and that soon, to stop this madness of the pre-emptive use of tactical nuclear weapons in unilateral genocide-for-corporate-profit, disguised, well in advance, by corrupt media parroting disinformative blatherings about stuff most of us do not have the background to understand, we are deservedly all doomed to take what is coming down at us in a mad rush, our enslavement to corporate killers, to whom no life is sacrosanct, but only a cipher to corporate profit ends.

And moreso to our everlasting shame as a species, when that genocide is carried out against a population in which over 50% are children under the age of 15 years, and the rest mainly women and the aged, all sick from the first round of Uranium 238 pollution that has poisoned their countryside and corrupted their genes, all done by the only superpower left on this planet, with the most-devastating weapons of mass destruction ever conceived by Man, at the behest of power-insane politicians with extant corporate ties, already doling out lucrative contracts to their buddies in advance of their intended slaughter, and carried out by macho military men with deep-rooted psychic hangups in a ghastly overblown Thelma-and-Louise parody that is so sick, it could never even be shown to the public as satirical horror-movie in open cinemas.

George Paxinos