Granted this is the FBI's press release, but it sounds a lot like similar terrorism cases:
During a 14-month investigation, the Albany FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force learned that Crawford was attempting to solicit funds to purchase, and then weaponize, a commercially-available industrial-grade X-ray device so that it could be used to injure or kill others by exposing them to lethal doses of radiation.
During the investigation, Crawford, with help from accomplice Eric J. Feight, took steps to design, acquire the parts for, build and test a remote initiation device that could have activated the radiation machine, and acquired (from an undercover FBI Agent) the X-ray device that he planned to modify into a weapon of mass destruction. The X-ray device that he planned to use had been modified so that Crawford could not have used it to hurt anyone.
* * *
With undercover agents, Crawford discussed placing the radiological device within a van or truck, parking the vehicle near the entrance to the target location, and then remotely activating the device so that it would direct lethal doses of radiation at people coming in and out of the target location.
A central feature of Crawford’s completed X-ray device was that its targets would be exposed to dangerous and lethal doses of X-ray radiation without being aware of the exposure, the harmful effects of which would likely not be immediately apparent.
How can it be a weapon of mass destruction; the victims would have to be very close?
A ray gun at any frequency on the electromagnetic spectrum is simply not a practical weapon due to the attenuation of radiated power. To have any effect it would require a very cooperative target that would be willing to stand very close to the device for a considerable period of time.
A laser weapon would be a more workable idea, but even then the power requirement would be great.
Soon, I’ll post my farewell message. The end is starting to get close. There are many misconceptions about me, and before I go, to live with my ancestors on the steppes, I want to set the record straight.
Yeah, those are just the sort of questions I have about this "device". I haven't seen any real answers yet. (It does appear that this was NOT a "dirty bomb" as some sources erroneously reported.) Maybe we'll just have to wait and see what happens in the appeal, as Big RR said.
P.S. If this thing is something that would actually work, why isn't the military using it?
People who are wrong are just as sure they're right as people who are right. The only difference is, they're wrong.
— God@The Tweet of God
LR--that's a lot m ore information than we had before, but I still question how viable the idea was; perhaps he had a better idea of how to build and use such a device than we know, but even with an x-ray tube and a remote activator, you do need a significant power source (to generate highly energetic radiation, and I'm not even certain such a tube could generate that) and a way to place it where it could do damage and not be detected easily. without this, all you might be able to build is one of those devices I used to see in shoe stores when I was a kid--you put your feet in and saw and x-ray image on a screen; they were on continuously, and no one was hurt, although the many salesmen exposed to it day after day for years did develop radiation linked diseases like cancer. Not exactly a WMD.
And as for the x-ray tube, I would like to know who brought it up--dud he say I'd like something that could generate harmful radiation and the informant suggested an x-ray tube (in which case I think it could be entrapment), or did he have some knowledge of how they were generated, what the power requirements were, etc.
