andyandy
25th July 2006, 07:09 AM
The most ridiculous terror trial to date.....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5176382.stm
Three men have been cleared of trying to procure the raw ingredients for a "dirty bomb" which the prosecution claimed could have devastated a British city if it fell into the hands of terrorists. But mystery surrounds the material at the centre of the plot. So what exactly is red mercury?
The most bizarre aspect of the trial of Abdurahman Kanyare and his two co-defendants was the fact that no-one in the court could be certain whether the terrifying substance on which the entire prosecution case was based actually existed.
The prosecutor, Mark Ellison, admitted the police had no idea if there even was such a thing as red mercury - supposedly the main ingredient for a "dirty bomb" which could have devastated London.
But he told the jury at the outset: "The Crown's position is that whether red mercury does or does not exist is irrelevant."
He warned the jury not to get "hung up" on whether red mercury actually existed at all.
The men were on trial for attempting to buy something which doesn't appear to exist - and of which there is no definition :)
The trial heard that when detectives checked Dominick Martins' computer after his arrest they found evidence that he had been scouring the internet trying to find out about red mercury.
He was particularly interested by an article, by Dr Anne Marie Helmenstine, which was posted on the About.com website.
The article aired the various theories about what red mercury is without confirming whether or not it really existed at all.
The five main theories are:
That red mercury is a reference to cinnabar, a naturally-occurring mercuric sulphide. The red pigment derived from cinnabar is known as vermillion.
That it is a reference to the alpha crystalline form of mercury iodide, which changes to a yellow colour at very high temperatures.
That it is simply referring to any mercury compound originating from the former Soviet Union. The 'red' tag would simply be a legacy of the Cold War era.
That it is a ballotechnic mercury compound which just happens to be red in colour. Ballotechnics are substances which react very energetically when subjected to shock compression at high pressure. They include mercury antimony oxide which, according to some reports, is a cherry red semi-liquid produced in Russian nuclear reactors. This theory contends that it is so explosive that a fusion reaction - a nuclear explosion - can be triggered even without fissionable material such as uranium.
That it is a military codeword for a new nuclear material, probably manufactured in Russia.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5176382.stm
Three men have been cleared of trying to procure the raw ingredients for a "dirty bomb" which the prosecution claimed could have devastated a British city if it fell into the hands of terrorists. But mystery surrounds the material at the centre of the plot. So what exactly is red mercury?
The most bizarre aspect of the trial of Abdurahman Kanyare and his two co-defendants was the fact that no-one in the court could be certain whether the terrifying substance on which the entire prosecution case was based actually existed.
The prosecutor, Mark Ellison, admitted the police had no idea if there even was such a thing as red mercury - supposedly the main ingredient for a "dirty bomb" which could have devastated London.
But he told the jury at the outset: "The Crown's position is that whether red mercury does or does not exist is irrelevant."
He warned the jury not to get "hung up" on whether red mercury actually existed at all.
The men were on trial for attempting to buy something which doesn't appear to exist - and of which there is no definition :)
The trial heard that when detectives checked Dominick Martins' computer after his arrest they found evidence that he had been scouring the internet trying to find out about red mercury.
He was particularly interested by an article, by Dr Anne Marie Helmenstine, which was posted on the About.com website.
The article aired the various theories about what red mercury is without confirming whether or not it really existed at all.
The five main theories are:
That red mercury is a reference to cinnabar, a naturally-occurring mercuric sulphide. The red pigment derived from cinnabar is known as vermillion.
That it is a reference to the alpha crystalline form of mercury iodide, which changes to a yellow colour at very high temperatures.
That it is simply referring to any mercury compound originating from the former Soviet Union. The 'red' tag would simply be a legacy of the Cold War era.
That it is a ballotechnic mercury compound which just happens to be red in colour. Ballotechnics are substances which react very energetically when subjected to shock compression at high pressure. They include mercury antimony oxide which, according to some reports, is a cherry red semi-liquid produced in Russian nuclear reactors. This theory contends that it is so explosive that a fusion reaction - a nuclear explosion - can be triggered even without fissionable material such as uranium.
That it is a military codeword for a new nuclear material, probably manufactured in Russia.