(The CIA says that 95% of men under 40 in Saudi Arabia approve of Al Qaeda and consider Bin Laden a national hero, so I am sure they have unlimited funds at their disposal.)
Correction: the government of Saudi Arabia says that, based on public opinion polls. Source: "Imperial Hubris" (Brassey's, Inc., 2004).
The point is, not only does Al Qaeda have money, they have a huge reservoir of technical skill. There are probably hundreds of thousands of qualified but unemployed engineers and other university trained people, such as the 9/11 hijackers. It is a myth that modern terrorists are disenfranchised poor people, or that they are technically ignorant. The Japanese Aum sect attracted some of the most talented biochemists and engineers in Japan. They built a state-of-the-art sarin production facility. This was built right out in the open in Japan -- a country where government surveillance is intense, and the authorities have enormous leeway and detailed information on everyone. (In Japan, you have to register all members of your household and all domestic pets with the local police. If you forget to vaccinate your pooch a friendly policeman will come around to remind you. You also have to register all television sets and radios, and pay a tax on them. Students used to be adept at hiding television antennas.) It takes no great stretch of imagination to envision a 5-year secret project involving thousands of highly qualified people in Saudi Arabia (or some other state), in which experts make important advances in cold fusion and then fabricate 50,000 crude small motors for handheld devices. It would be *far* easier than hiding a conventional nuclear weapons program.
Grimer, my man! Is that scary enough?
- Jed
