Although American intelligence and government sources are maintaining a strictly observed silence, the same does not apply to the Russians and so it is that we learn the real story of the MV Iran Deyanat. She was an enormous floating dirty bomb, intended to detonate after exiting the Suez Canal at the eastern end of the Mediterranean and in proximity to the coastal cities of Israel. The entire cargo of radioactive sand, obtained by Iran from China (the latter buys desperately needed oil from the former) and sealed in containers which, when the charges on the ship are set off after the crew took to the boats, will be blasted high into the air where prevailing winds will push the highly dangerous and radioactive cloud ashore.
I don’t know if I buy this, but the news blackout regarding this ship is starting to make me paranoid.
Edit: This comment makes more sense to me given what has been reported…..
“Radioactive sand?” This sounds like a load of monazite of which China has plenty. Monazite ‘sand’ is a source of rare earth metals, and was probably being shipped to Iran for processing there into F.C.C., fluid cracking catalyst, which is necessary for converting heavy crudes to fluid oil. The load may even have been one of rare earth oxide (REO) concentrates produced from monazite sands. In either case the sand or the concentrates made from it could and most likely would contain radioactive thorium, which is always found associated with the rare earths in monazite. Interestingly enough thorium is now being researched in China, India, Russia, and Norway for use as a nonproliferative nuclear fuel. Perhaps the Iranians were going to extract it also for such research?
The truth is usually boring.