Radiological Weapons:  Pirates Raid Radioactive Materials

Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups are behind an increase of piracy against ships transporting radioactive materials through the Malacca Straits between Indonesia and Malaysia, the Bangkok Post reported today.

According to Panithan Watthanayakorn of Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, the organizations are trying to obtain enough radioactive material to construct a dirty bomb — a conventional explosive laced with the radioactive substances (see GSN, July 1).

“The straits are very narrow and there are no patrol vessels, so it is easy for terrorist groups to attack ships,” Panithan said.  The pirates usually know the ship’s route and trap it by mooring a vessel on each side, he said.

Panithan has studied information from the International Maritime Bureau, which listed 649 cases of piracy in the straits last year.  He said Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers group is another group trying to obtain radioactive materials through piracy.  Panithan called on Southeast Asian countries to increase cooperation to end piracy and called on countries around the world to fight the piracy threat (Anucha Charoenpo, Bangkok Post, July 22).

U.S. Team Practices Dirty Bomb Response

Meanwhile, a U.S. national emergency team plans to practice responding to a dirty bomb threat this week in Albuquerque, N.M., the Albuquerque Journal reported Saturday (see GSN, July 15).

In the exercise, the team’s responders will begin searching the city after receiving an intelligence report that terrorists are planning a radiological attack.  They will then receive a report of an explosion with orders to determine whether any radioactive material is mixed in with the debris and how far it has spread (see GSN, July 11).

The exercise will involve no actual explosions or radioactive materials, coordinator Jim Straka said.  Team members will use computers to set off responders’ radiation detectors.

The team has practiced responding to radiological accidents in the past, but the upcoming exercise will be the first time they have practiced responding to a dirty bomb, Straka said (John Fleck, Albuquerque Journal, July 20).

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