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NYDailyNews
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
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