US analysts say that an analysis of radioactive substances seized in Afghanistan unveiled no signs that Osama bin Laden acquired nuclear materials for a bomb, say reports.
The analysis of suspicious canisters, computer discs and documents conducted and documents conducted by the government suggest that bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network may have been duped by black-market weapons swindlers selling crude containers hand painted with skulls and crossbones.
More than 110 government buildings, military compounds, safe houses, camps and caves in Afghanistan have been searched for clues about al-Qaeda’s plans to develop weapons of terror.
Three suspicious container found by US intelligence officers and shipped back for detailed analysis were proven to have no significant amount of radioactive material in the containers, two of which seized in Kabul and one Kandahar.
"We did not find any type of serious radiological material," one Pentagon official was quoted as saying. "The stuff we found in Afghanistan was not the real (nuclear) stuff. They (al-Qaeda) were swindled, like a lot of other people."
Another administration official said of the weapons found in Afghanistan "their value for a weapon was zero."
Despite the analysis and al-Qaeda’s rout from Afghanistan, the group has the desire, resources and global network of operatives to seek and, perhaps someday, acquire nuclear materials, or chemical or biological ones that can be used in a terror attack, according to officials, cited by the Kuwaiti official news agency (KUNA).
The search for weapons of mass destruction in Afghanistan provided evidence of how hard it is to acquire sufficient fissionable materials for a small atomic weapon, or even enough radioactive material for a "dirty bomb" in which laboratory waste or civilian nuclear fuel rods would be wrapped around a conventional explosive and detonated, spreading poison and contamination. (Albawaba.com)
