Colombia Seizes 66 Pounds of Uranium from FARC
Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 8:59:55 am PDT
Earlier this month we noted a report that Colombian officials had discovered evidence that FARC terrorists had been trying to acquire uranium for use in a “dirty bomb.”
Now Colombia has seized at least 66 pounds of uranium from the terrorists: Colombia seizes uranium from leftist guerrillas.
BOGOTA, March 26 (Reuters) - Colombia said it seized at least 66 pounds (30 kg) of uranium from the country’s biggest left-wing rebel group on Wednesday, the first time radioactive material has been linked to the four-decade-old guerrilla war.
The uranium was found in a rural area long considered a Marxist guerrilla stronghold just south of the capital Bogota. It is being examined by government experts, the defense ministry said in a statement, although it did not say where the material came from or what it could be used for.
An expert on Colombia’s cocaine-fueled conflict said rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, do not have the facilities needed to make a bomb with uranium.
“This appears to have been part of a black market operation that the guerrillas were trying to use to make money,” said Pablo Casas, an analyst at Bogota think-tank Security and Democracy.
