Are We Ready to Smoke bin Laden Out with Thermobaric Bombs?

YOWUSA.COM, 03-October-01
Marshall Masters

No matter what bunker or cave Osama bin Laden is hiding in right now, we can assume that he is dug in deeper than a tick in a hound dog's ear.  He's likely to be surrounded by women, children and thousands of kamikaze terrorists and we also know that smoking him out, dead or alive, will be a bloody task.  If we are not ready for the pictures of the burnt and shattered bodies of women and children, we need to be. Especially if the decision is made to use thermobaric weapons, also known as fuel-air explosives (FAE). 

The London Times, October 3, 2001
Satellite 'picks out bin Laden caves'

OSAMA BIN LADEN may be hiding in caves near a former Russian base in the Pamir mountains close to the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan, according to reports in Pakistan.  

The Pamir mountains, known as the "roof of the world", are a highly treacherous range, 20,000ft to 25,000ft high, which would make it difficult to find the exiled Saudi terrorist. The nearby former Russian military base at Wakhan, near Kunduz, was built by the Soviet Union during its occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

The Pamir range is being watched by American spy satellites because of reports a few years ago that bin Laden had constructed a command and control centre in a natural cave system in Kunduz, near Tajikistan.

Most of the recent reports have suggested bin Laden has taken refuge inside a deep cave in southern Afghanistan.

Short of weapons of mass destruction such as low-yield tactical nuclear weapons, the most powerful tools available to us are thermobaric weapons for smoking terrorists out of heavily fortified bunkers or mountain caves.   

An Old Weapon to Fight New Terror

It seems like the corporate news media has focused on everything but the weapons we will use to prosecute our new War on Terror.  What they do not tell us is that FAE weapons can weigh just a few pounds and are be produced in quantity by America, Russia, China and India.  England is working on a new FAE design intended for use.  Iraq is rumored to have a developed an FAE, which of course would be countered by an Israeli FAE. 

Does America have such weapons? Yes — we invented them!

CND, January 11, 2001
Thermobaric Warfare 

Fuel-air explosives (FAE) bombs were initially developed in the 1960s and used by the United States in Vietnam to destroy Vietcong tunnels and clear forest for helicopter landing sites. In the Gulf War the US dropped FAE bombs from B52s and A-6Es on mine fields and troops in trenches.

The Soviets developed their own varieties which they first used in Afghanistan.  Russian forces currently field a wide array of third generation FAEs and used them in the wars against Chechnya in 1994-96 and 2000.

China and India also have a variety of these weapons in their arsenals. Bulgaria has developed a portable rocket launcher with an FAE warhead with a range of 200 meters. 

FAEs can be launched from aircraft, helicopters or ground vehicles. 

A typical FAE device consists of a container of volatile gases, liquids or finely powdered explosives and two separate explosive charges. The first charge bursts open the container at a predetermined height and scatters the contents forming an aerosol cloud. The second charge then detonates the cloud causing a searing fireball followed by a massive blast wave. 

A 1993 US Defence Intelligence Agency report says that even if the cloud fails to detonate properly, "victims will be severely burned and will probably also inhale the burning fuel. Since the most common FAE fuels, ethylene oxide and propylene oxide, are highly toxic, undetonated FAE should prove as lethal to personnel caught within the cloud as most chemical agents." 

FAE detonations create three zones of injury. The first is the central zone where most will die immediately from blast and fire. Casualties in the second zone will survive the initial blast and burns, but will have extensive burns and massive internal injuries and in reality can only be given pain relief before they die. In the third zone people will have had some protection from flying debris but not from the blast effect. Injuries to the extremities and eyes will be common, as will burns.

We've seen the horribly destructive force of the jet fuel carried aboard a Boeing 767 that was released as it impacted the World Trade Center in New York on September 11. 2001.   The Boeing 767 was not designed as a weapon, but the same kind of destructive power can be squeezed into a much smaller FAE weapon.  

The Guardian, January  18, 2001
Deadly blast from the past

A thermobaric bomb could be five to 10 times as powerful as a standard one of the same weight, even before the added effects of a fuel-air blast are taken into account.

A thermobaric weapon may be able to break through a brick wall. It may not need to: the cloud from a fuel-air weapon will permeate open windows and doors, and the blast inside a closed space is greatly magnified. The only real defense is a hermetically sealed bunker.  

The injuries caused by blast are as unpleasant as anything on the battlefield. Most damage is caused when the shockwave passes from tissue to fluid or air, resulting in collapsed lungs and multiple internal hemorrhages. Anyone inside the cloud when it is detonated will probably be killed instantly.

Does Osama bin Laden know about the power of thermobaric weapons?  Absolutely!  His organization supports the terrorists operating out of the Chechen capital city of Grozny, a city torn to shreds by Russian troops using FAE weapons.