Al-Qaeda May Seek Hydrogen Bomb, Says Author

The Author of 'King of Bombs,' a new novel about a plot by Al-Qaeda involving nuclear terrorism, warns that the terrorist organization may attempt to acquire highly lethal thermonuclear weapons.

(PRWEB) July 25, 2005 -- The author of a new novel about a plot by Al-Qaeda involving nuclear terrorism directed against the United States, Sheldon Filger, indicated that the terrorist organizations first use of a nuclear device may be on a far more horrific scale than has been suggested by experts in public testimony.

Filgers book, King of Bombs,” is based on the premise that Al-Qaeda acquires hydrogen bombs, with a destructive power far in excess of the atomic bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.

Prior to publication of King of Bombs,” acknowledged experts on terrorism and the nuclear threat posed by these organizations have speculated on the possibility of Al-Qaeda acquiring simple fission bombs, similar in design to the device that destroyed Hiroshima. Sheldon Filger believes that those concerns, as sobering as they are, may only be hinting at the chilling destructive power that terrorist organizations may be able to attain in the next several years.

A major factor in the perceived threat of nuclear terrorism has been the largely unmonitored proliferation in illicit nuclear materials and weapons technology, and the emergence of a worldwide black market with a high level of sophistication,” Filger said. A significant driver in this process has been the expanding alumni of experienced nuclear weapons experts, especially from the former Soviet Union, currently underpaid or out of work and seeking sources of lucrative income. It must be taken into account that the vast majority of research and development work engaged in by these people involved far more lethal thermonuclear weapons or hydrogen bombs, as opposed to simpler and lower-yield atomic devices.”

Filger speculated that an organization such as Al-Qaeda, which would seek a capability to inflict the highest degree of destruction on its enemies, especially the United States of America, would find a hydrogen bomb more attractive than an atomic weapon for its purposes.

As for the greater complexity involved in building a thermonuclear weapon, Sheldon Filger offered words of warning: It is already a matter of public record that respected experts dealing with national security issues believe it is a credible danger that Al-Qaeda may be able to build an atomic bomb within the next several years. If we accept that premise, it is not an illogical possibility that Al-Qaeda could also acquire the additional knowledge and materials required for building a hydrogen bomb. It should be borne in mind that the most difficult to acquire materials required for a hydrogen bomb are exactly identical to what is used in the simplest atomic device, enriched uranium or plutonium. The materials unique to a thermonuclear weapon, such as tritium, deuterium and lithium, are either in wide use in the worldwide civilian nuclear energy field, or are used in industrial applications unrelated to nuclear weapons.”

King of Bombs,” Mr. Filgers novel, features a conspiracy by Al-Qaeda to build an exact duplicate of the most powerful nuclear bomb ever designed and tested, a Russian device code-named Tsar Bomba” or King of Bombs.”

In the book, Al-Qaeda receives help from rogue states and the illicit nuclear weapons black market in constructing a bomb able to inflict devastation of biblical proportions. Although Mr. Filgers novel is a fictional account of an Al-Qaeda plot involving nuclear terrorism, the King of Bombs” nuclear weapon was real enough. The Soviet Union built only one example. When the Russians tested it on October 23, 1961, it detonated with the power of fifty-eight million tons of high explosives.

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