Reply #2: I think this is what they're after [View All]

[Whoa_Nelly]

...and,IMHO,I think Rummy thinks the BFEE War Machine will still be in full and active mode after November 2004.

Posted on Tue, Apr. 22, 2003

Administration moves ahead on nuclear `bunker busters'
By Dan Stober
Mercury News


Demonstrating a significant shift in America's nuclear strategy, the Bush administration intends to produce -- not just research -- a thermonuclear bunker-busting bomb to destroy hardened, deeply buried targets, the Pentagon has acknowledged for the first time.

The weapon -- known as the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator -- would be a full-power hydrogen bomb that would throw up enormous clouds of radioactive dust while wreaking large-scale damage and death if used in an urban area. It would be thousands of times more powerful than the conventional ``bunker busters'' dropped on Baghdad in an attempt to kill former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Federal officials signed documents in Washington this week to launch a preliminary design contest between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Because of the lead time needed for congressional funding, officials at the National Nuclear Security Administration say, they might seek additional money for the next phase of development even before the preliminary work is completed in 2005 or 2006.

more...
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/5695249.htm