Border guards seize British 'dirty bomb' lorry heading for Iran

Border guards seized a British lorry on its way to make a delivery to the Iranian military - after discovering it was packed with radioactive material that could be used to build a dirty bomb.

On board they found ten lead-lined boxes addressed to the Iranian Ministry of Defence. Inside each box was a soil-testing device, containing highly dangerous quantities of radioactive caesium 137 and americium-beryllium.

The soil testers had been sent to Iran by a British firm with the apparent export approval of the Department of Trade and Industry.

In August last year there was a similar incident when a Turkish truck carrying a ton of zirconium silicate supplied by a British firm was stopped by Bulgarian customs at the Turkish border on its way to Tehran, after travelling from Britain, through Germany and Romania, without being stopped.

This is disturbing on so many levels. Is Iran seeking to make dirty bombs? Does someone in the British government want Iran to have dirty bombs? What should we think about the fact that possibly the only thing stopping Iran from having dirty bombs is Bulgarian Customs?