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Red mercury
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=== Nuclear "sting" operations === Red mercury is thought by some to be the invention of an intelligence agency or criminal gang for the purpose of deceiving terrorists and rogue states who were trying to acquire nuclear technology on the black market.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZzlNgS70OHAC&pg=RA1-PA313 |page=313 |first1=Eric |last1=Croddy |first2=James J. |last2=Wirtz |title=Weapons of Mass Destruction: An Encyclopedia of Worldwide Policy, Technology, and History |volume=2 |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-85109-490-5 |publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]}}</ref> One televised report indicated that the [[Soviet Union]] encouraged the [[KGB]] and [[Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye|GRU]] to arrange [[sting operation]]s for the detection of those seeking to deal in nuclear materials. The Soviet intelligence services allegedly created a myth of the necessity of "red mercury" for the sorts of nuclear devices that [[terrorism|terrorists]] and rogue governments might seek.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2019-09-11 |title='Red mercury': Why does this strange myth persist? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-49641369 |access-date=2024-06-13 |language=en-GB}}</ref> Political entities that already had nuclear weapons did nothing to debunk the myth. In 1999 ''Jane's Intelligence Review'' suggested that victims of red mercury scams may have included [[Osama bin Laden]].<ref name=doomsday/>
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