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So-Called Al Qaeda Nuke Plans Are Net Joke

By HELEN KENNEDY Daily News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON he discovery by British war correspondents in a ruined Kabul house last week struck fear across the globe: Al Qaeda documents that appeared to describe how to make a nuclear bomb.

But it seems the documents may actually have been a 22-year-old parody downloaded from the Internet.

"How to build an Atomic Bomb in 10 Easy Steps" is part of a 1979 series in the Journal of Irreproducible Results, a parody of scientific journals.

The popular article, which is reproduced on hundreds of Web sites, purports to be part of a series that includes "Let's make a time machine!" "Let's make an anti-gravity machine!" and an article on "how to clone your neighbor's wife using only common kitchen utensils."

The sharp-eyed publisher of the rotten.com Web site first noted the correlation between language in the Kabul documents — which were shown in BBC footage and quoted in the London Times — and the parody.

In the papers shown on BBC, the viewer can read: "THEORY OF OPERATION — The device basically works [unreadable words] critical mass ..." The Times wrote that the documents included "notes on how the detonation of TNT compresses plutonium into a critical mass producing a nuclear chain reaction and eventually a thermonuclear reaction."

The 1979 spoof reads in part: "THEORY OF OPERATION — The device basically works when the detonated TNT compresses the plutonium into a critical mass. The critical mass then produces a nuclear chain reaction. ... The chain reaction then promptly produces a big thermonuclear reaction. And there you have it, a 10-megaton explosion!"

The instructions advise would-be bomb builders to use handy Play-Doh and Krazy Glue to bind the ingredients, and not to let the kids eat any leftover plutonium.

It ends, "Now you are the proud owner of a working thermonuclear device! It is a great ice-breaker at parties and, in a pinch, can be used for national defense."

Original Publication Date: 11/19/01

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2001

Answers

Even if it were legit, anyone can download anything from the Internet. To me, the papers indicated an interest, but not proof it had gone beyond that.

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2001