But they were also pretty certain that Israel (which has never explicitly acknowledged having nuclear weapons) would not drop the bomb except as a very last resort.
Neither the police nor prosecutors have specifically identified the objects other than to say that they are all the components necessary to make a bomb except the explosive material.
Pyotr V. Novikov kept trying to explain that it was his usual train, that he would have been on it when it was bombed, except that on this morning, "I lay around, and here I am".
In time this led to the adoption of self-sealing fuel tanks, armour protection for crews, and even heavier defensive armament, but the British responded immediately by abandoning daylight bombing except under special circumstances.
On the highway, he said, they passed a Ryder truck, and Mr. McVeigh told him that was the kind of truck he was considering for the bombing, except that he wanted one that was a size larger.
Sharif Waked, a Palestinian artist, adopts a familiar format of the kind of haunting personal videos used by terrorists to cite their last will and testament before a suicide bombing, except that Mr. Waked substitutes a reading of an excerpt of "One Thousand and One Nights," confounding expectations and assumptions by essentially playing the role of Scheherazade.
Even if Saddam Hussein lifts his new bans on inspection imposed three months ago, Iraq and its friends at the U.N. have so eviscerated the system that there is no realistic hope it can be revived, with or without bombing, except as a thin facade.
The bomb, except for the uranium payload, was ready at the beginning of May 1945.
The Little Boy bomb, except for the uranium payload, was ready at the beginning of May 1945.
Somehow, you know all these things about this bomb except for where it's planted.
