http://www.exportlawblog.com/archives/88 Latest News on DDTC, BIS, OFAC, and other export law matters Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:06:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 http://www.exportlawblog.com/archives/88/comment-page-1#comment-1197 ExportLawBlog » How Not to Make a Dirty Bomb Fri, 09 Mar 2007 14:13:00 +0000 http://www.exportlawblog.com/archives/88#comment-1197 [...] In an earlier post about Nuclear Regulatory Commission controls on the export of americium-241, the isotope used in smoke alarms, we discussed a group of competency-challenged terrorists who were planning on building a dirty bomb from smoke alarms. In an excellent article in this week’s New Yorker, Stephen Coll provides more details on the not-so-alarming plot: Charles Ferguson. . ., a former nuclear submarine officer trained in physics, . . . co-wrote an unclassified report titled “Commercial Radioactive Sources: Surveying the Security Risks.” About two years later, F.B.I. agents . . . asked to meet with him. They brought a document showing that some of his report had been downloaded onto the computer of a British citizen named Dhiren Barot, a Hindu who had converted to Islam. Barot, it turned out, had been communicating with Al Qaeda about a plan to detonate a dirty bomb in Britain, and he had used a highlighting pen on a printout of Ferguson’s study while conducting his research. [...] [...] In an earlier post about Nuclear Regulatory Commission controls on the export of americium-241, the isotope used in smoke alarms, we discussed a group of competency-challenged terrorists who were planning on building a dirty bomb from smoke alarms. In an excellent article in this week’s New Yorker, Stephen Coll provides more details on the not-so-alarming plot: Charles Ferguson. . ., a former nuclear submarine officer trained in physics, . . . co-wrote an unclassified report titled “Commercial Radioactive Sources: Surveying the Security Risks.” About two years later, F.B.I. agents . . . asked to meet with him. They brought a document showing that some of his report had been downloaded onto the computer of a British citizen named Dhiren Barot, a Hindu who had converted to Islam. Barot, it turned out, had been communicating with Al Qaeda about a plan to detonate a dirty bomb in Britain, and he had used a highlighting pen on a printout of Ferguson’s study while conducting his research. [...]

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