It seems that some Republican members of Congress believe it is necessary to build a wall along the U.S. /Mexico border because there is a possibility that some “bad hombres” could smuggle a nuclear bomb into the United States by hiding it in a bale of marijuana.
On Wednesday, U.S. Representative Trent Franks of Arizona told CNN that President Trump’s border wall was essential to keep the illicit drug trade from bringing weapons of mass destruction into the country.
“I can suggest to you that there are national security implications here for a porous border,” Franks said. “We sometimes used to make the point that if someone wanted to smuggle in a dangerous weapon — even a nuclear weapon — into America, how would they do it? And the suggestion was made, ‘Well, we'll simply hide it in a bale of marijuana.’ ”
This was not just a nervous statement made under the stumbling of the tongue. This wild scenario has been discussed for years.
In 2012, Representative Franks brought up the marijuana/nuclear bomb theory on the U.S. House floor.
“Specifically imagine for a moment, Mr. Speaker, the scenario of Hezbollah, one of Iran's terrorist proxies, gaining possession of just two nuclear warheads and bringing them across the border into the United States concealed, say, in bales of marijuana,” he said, “then transporting them into the heart of two different, crowded, unnamed cities. Then calling and telling the White House exactly when and where the first one will be detonated, and then following through 60 seconds later.”
But as the Washington Post reports, Franks is not the only Congressman who believes nukes are likely to come in from Mexico by way of drug mule. Back in 2007, Representative Brad Sherman, a Democrat from California, said, “since a nuclear bomb is about the size of a person, it could be smuggled into the United States inside a bale of marijuana.”
Earlier this month, Sherman resurrected this concern during a congressional hearing pertaining to North Korea. The lawmaker said, “Missile defense is okay politically, but remember you can smuggle a nuclear weapon inside a bale of marijuana.”
We know… all of this “hiding nuclear bombs inside a bale of marijuana” stuff sounds like a heaping pile of political drivel with a side order of Reagan-era propaganda, but there are actually a few supposed experts out there who have cosigned the argument – some of them jokingly, while others, not so much.
“I've often said, my preferred method for delivering a nuclear device is, I would hide it in a bale of marijuana, contract it out to the drug lords and move it,” said David Kay of the International Atomic Energy Agency during a 1996 interview with PBS. “Marijuana is a good shielder actually for radiation. The drug lords have a superb record for delivery. They're not Fed Ex, but they're awfully close to it. And contract it out and get it across the border.”
In 2007, Harvard professor Graham Allison told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that, “getting a suitcase-size nuclear weapon into the United States would be easy…They could always hide it in a bale of marijuana.”
But there is no way in hell the drug cartels would ever facilitate the smuggling of nuclear weapons into the U.S. After all, the American people spend in upwards of $100 billion a year on illegal drugs. To assist a terrorist group in annihilating their biggest customer would not exactly be the smartest approach to doing business.
In short, we’re here to tell you, the whole theory is just “fallout.” We mean far out!
