20040321 We Have
Briefcase Nukes
al-Qaida No. 2: We Have
Briefcase Nukes
Mar 21, 10:02 AM (ET)
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Osama bin Laden's terror network
claims to have bought ready-made nuclear weapons on the
black market in central Asia, the biographer of al-Qaida's
No. 2 leader was quoted as telling an Australian
television station.
In an interview scheduled to be televised on Monday,
Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir said Ayman al-Zawahri
claimed that "smart briefcase bombs" were
available on the black market.
It was not clear when the interview between Mir and al-Zawahri
took place.
U.S. intelligence agencies have long believed that al-Qaida
attempted to acquire a nuclear device on the black market,
but say there is no evidence it was successful.
In the interview with Australian Broadcasting Corp.
television, parts of which were released Sunday, Mir
recalled telling al-Zawahri it was difficult to believe
that al-Qaida had nuclear weapons when the terror network
didn't have the equipment to maintain or use them.
"Dr Ayman al-Zawahri laughed and he said 'Mr. Mir, if
you have $30 million, go to the black market in central
Asia, contact any disgruntled Soviet scientist, and a lot
of ... smart briefcase bombs are available,'" Mir
said in the interview.
"They have contacted us, we sent our people to
Moscow, to Tashkent, to other central Asian states and
they negotiated, and we purchased some suitcase
bombs," Mir quoted al-Zawahri as saying.
Al-Qaida has never hidden its interest in acquiring
nuclear weapons.
The U.S. federal indictment of bin Laden charges that as
far back as 1992 he "and others known and unknown,
made efforts to obtain the components of nuclear
weapons."
Bin Laden, in a November 2001 interview with a Pakistani
journalist, boasted having hidden such components "as
a deterrent." And in 1998, a Russian nuclear weapons
design expert was investigated for allegedly working with
bin Laden's Taliban allies.
It was revealed last month that Pakistan's top nuclear
scientist had sold sensitive equipment and nuclear
technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, fueling fears
the information could have also fallen into the hands of
terrorists.
Earlier, Mir told Australian media that al-Zawahri also
claimed to have visited Australia to recruit militants and
collect funds.
"In those days, in early 1996, he was on a mission to
organize his network all over the world," Mir was
quoted as saying. "He told me he stopped for a while
in Darwin (in northern Australia), he was ... looking for
help and collecting funds."
Australia's Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said the
government could not rule out the possibility that al-Zawahri
visited Australia in the 1990s under a different name.
"Under his own name or any known alias he hasn't
traveled to Australia," Ruddock told reporters
Saturday. "That doesn't mean to say that he may not
have come under some other false documentation, or some
other alias that's not known to us."
Mir describe al-Zawahri as "the real brain behind
Osama bin Laden."
"He is the real strategist, Osama bin Laden is only a
front man," Mir was quoted as saying during the
interview. "I think he is more dangerous than bin
Laden."
Al-Zawahri - an Egyptian surgeon - is believed to be
hiding in the rugged region around the Pakistan-Afghan
border where U.S. and Pakistani troops are conducting a
major operation against Taliban and al-Qaida forces.
He is said to have played a leading role in orchestrating
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
PUBLIC DISCLOSURE: Tip on
Nuke Terror Was Kept From New Yorkers - 020304
A month
after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, senior Bush
administration officials received an intelligence report
that terrorists had obtained a 10-kiloton nuclear weapon
from the Russian arsenal and were planning to smuggle it
into New
York City, a government official said yesterday.
Confirming an account in today's issue of Time magazine,
the official said the highly classified intelligence
report had come from a source of questionable reliability
and had circulated among a relatively few tuspected
nuclear
op officials who
concluded, after weeks of investigation, that it was
false. The report was kept a tight secret Ñ
former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, the New York Police
Department and even senior Federal Bureau of
Investigation officials were not told Ñ so as not
to panic New Yorkers, Time said. It said a 10- kiloton
bomb detonated in Lower Manhattan would kill 100,000
people, sicken 700,000 with radiation and flatten
everything within a half-mile. (NY
Times)
The officials said the
man has declined to allow them to make public his name,
but they said he is a U.S. citizen who claimed he
overheard the alleged plot being discussed in a Las
Vegas casino three weeks after the attacks of September
11. ROTFLMAO (cnn)
What you need to
understand is that the Russians planned on having the
munitions pre-positioned around the nation.
MEDIA FOCUS: Nuclear
sensors deployed around Washington D.C., at borders -
Delta Force on standby - 020303
Alarmed by growing hints
of al Qaeda's progress toward obtaining a nuclear or
radiological weapon, the Bush administration has
deployed hundreds of sophisticated sensors since
November to U.S. borders, overseas facilities and choke
points around Washington. It has placed the Delta Force,
the nation's elite commando unit, on a new standby alert
to seize control of nuclear materials that the sensors
may detect. ...the Delta Force has been assigned the
mission of killing or disabling anyone with a s
device and turning
it over to the scientists to be disarmed.
FBI
focusing on portable nuke threat - 011221
The U.S. backpack nuke
weighs 163 pounds and can be carried by one or two men.
One Russian naval arms compilation talks about small
portable nuclear weapons weighing from 59 pounds to 154
pounds. The yield, too, is hard to pin down. One former
American scientist who worked at the Department of Energy
labs said that the "Davy Crocket," which was the
small bomb later converted to special operations, had a
one-kiloton explosive power and would level the Capitol
Building and everything in a half mile radius. It also
would spread radioactive waste across a wide area of
Washington. The bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima was 15
kilotons. (Each kiloton has an explosive power equal to
1,000 tons of TNT.)
"According to
Soviet military plans, very well advanced, maybe a few
months, maybe a few weeks, of course, a few hours before
real war would be placed against his country (the U.S.),
Russian Special Operations Forces need to come here and
pick up weapons systems, because they will fly here as
tourists, businessmen. "According to their tasking,
in a few hours they need to physically destroy, eliminate
American military chains of command, President, Supreme
Commander in Chief, Vice President, Speaker of the House,
military commanders, especially to cut the head from the
American military chain of command," Lunev said. He
said that the Russians had a plan to sabotage industrial,
communications and power targets as well.
Muslim
Moderate Kabbani Firm on Terrorist Nuclear Threat - 011119
Newsmax archive
Part of that strident
alarm sounded by Kabbani in 1999: "We want to tell
people to be careful, that something major might hit
quickly because they [Islamic extremists] were able to buy
more than 20 atomic nuclear [war]heads from some of the
mafia in the ex-Soviet Union. ...
"Through the
universities, there will be the most danger. If the
nuclear atomic warheads reach these universities, you donÕt
know what these students are going to do, because their
way of thinking is brainwashed, limited and
narrow-minded."
Al-Qaeda Nukes May
Already Be In US
By Naveed Miraj
11-10-1
ISLAMABAD (PNS) -
Pakistani and American investigators converge that Osama bin
Laden's Al Qaeda network may have successfully transported
several nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons of mass
destruction to the United States.
Already on high alert,
United States security officials are having sleepless nights
that Al Qaeda can strike in New York again on the occasion
of United Nations General Assembly session.
Investigators from
Pakistan's ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) and American
FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) and CIA (Central
Intelligence Agency) are jointly probing into the
possibilities of Al Qaeda possessing nuclear, biological and
chemical weapons. They have reached a conclusion that at
least two briefcase nuclear weapons may have reached the US
shores, sources close to these investigators revealed to
this scribe.
The investigators have
been able to identify at least one briefcase weapon acquired
by Al Qaeda from Central Asian rogue groups. The weapon
identified is small 8-kilogram device that carries at least
2 kg of fissionable plutonium and uranium. The device, of
Russian make, carries a serial number 9999 and manufacturing
date October 1988.
The design of the
device is simple. The radioactive materials consist of
Uranium and Plutonium both kept in separate compartments. At
the top of the two compartments is placed the charging
mechanism. The charging mechanism can be activated through a
timer or even through a cell phone command.
Besides nuclear devices, a
chemical and a biological weapon have also been identified
to be in the hands of Al Qaeda activists. They are said to
be in possession of at least 70 capsules, also of Russian
origin, containing a very lethal biological agent.
Broken in a crowded place,
this capsule can cause deaths on a huge scale. It melts
human body meat to the bone. Another chemical agent in the
hands of Al Qaeda operators is called Vipera Lebentina
Venema. A derivative of snake poisons, this venom developed
in USSR attacks through skin.
Most probable way of using
this agent is through mail as with Anthrax. US security
agencies are already on high alert and realise that Al Qaeda
can strike in New York again on the occasion of UN General
Assembly. Analysis of the recent statements released by
Osama bin Laden carried out by US agencies has shown that
the terrorist network can pick up an important occasion like
the UN General Assembly session to retaliate against US
strikes on Afghanistan.
http://www.paknews.com/main.php?id=17&date1=2001-11-10
-EOF-
[Soviet strategy called
for the prepositioning of these types of arms within the
United States prior to the outbreak of hostilities]
Suitcase Nuke Threat
Against US Raising More Concern
By Brian Ross
ABCNEWS.com
11-9-1
Could the next terrifying
attack on the nation fit into a suitcase?
The prospect that Osama
bin Laden's terrorists may have gotten their hands on small,
easily transportable "suitcase nukes" has some
people in Washington now truly concerned.
There's no evidence such a
device has been smuggled into the country. And even if it
had, experts say it would be extremely difficult for
terrorists to detonate. And a congressman who has been
studying the subject for years on the subject say there's no
doubt that such nuclear suitcases do exist.
"I can tell you
unequivocally we built these devices similar to this and so
did the Soviets during the Cold War," said Rep. Curt
Weldon, R-Pa. "The defense minister of Russia told me
to my face, 'Yes, congressman, we built these devices. Just
as your country built them during the Cold War.'"
In fact, the Department of
Defense made a training video in the l960s, demonstrating
how "small atomic demolition munitions" can be
stuffed into parachutes and attached to Navy commandos, who
then show how the weapons can be affixed to bridges and
ships underwater.
"These devices were
designed to be used to take out major infrastructure
facilities," said Weldon. "We destroyed ours. Now
the question is, do we know whether or not Russia has them
all accounted for and do we know that they destroyed them
all?"
Russia Defends Nuclear
Inventory
This week in Moscow,
Russian President Vladimir Putin told 20/20's Barbara
Walters none of the nuclear suitcases is missing.
"I don't really
believe this is true," Putin said. "These are just
legends. One can probably assume that somebody tried to sell
some nuclear secrets. But there is no documentary
confirmation of those developments."
But Weldon says he got a
much different answer four years ago when he went to talk to
with one of Russia's top generals.
The general, formerly
Russia's leading defense adviser, said 86 of 132 suitcase
bombs were unaccounted for.
Where were the missing
nukes?
"I have no
idea," Weldon recalled the general saying.
White House Sees Chilling
Threat
That's one of several
nuclear scenarios now causing great concern at the White
House, where President Bush this week sounded the alarm
about bin Laden's suspected efforts to go nuclear.
"They're seeking
chemical, biological and nuclear weapons," Bush told
leaders of formerly communist states Tuesday in Warsaw,
Poland. "Given the means, our enemies would be a threat
to every nation and eventually to civilization itself."
This week, the White House
called in the man who tracked missing nuclear weapons for
the last administration, Graham Allison, now director of the
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at
Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Allison says the threat is
very real, particularly given evidence that bin Laden and
his associates have tried to obtain nuclear weapons
material.
As for the nuclear
suitcases, Allison's advice is to assume several dozen
nuclear suitcases in Russia are missing.
"I think the
difficult thing for us all to come to grips with, that, my
God, would people really want to kill thousands or tens of
thousands of Americans," Allison said.
The Nuclear Bazaar
But Allison and most other
experts say the real concern is not the suitcase but a
thriving nuclear black market, in places such as Istanbul,
Turkey.
"There is a black
market in weapons-grade uranium. There is a black market for
weapons-grade plutonium. And there certainly is a market for
radioactive material in general," said Freidrich
Steinhausler of the University of Salzburg in Austria.
Steinhausler is one of the world's pre-eminent experts on
the illegal market in stolen nuclear materials.
"[Osama bin Laden's
terrorist network] Al Qaeda is trying actively to obtain
radioactive and or nuclear weapons grade material,"
said Steinhausler. "In terms of probability of threat,
I would put the nuclear bomb rather low. I would put the
radioactive dirty bomb, much, much higher."
A so-called dirty bomb, a
conventional weapon laced with radioactive material, would
make a scene like the attack on the World Trade Center even
worse, Steinhausler says.
"Picture the bucket
brigades that we saw in Ground Zero in a
radioactive-contaminated area. They couldn't operate
there," he said. "Picture the dust-caked office
worker who survived the World Trade Center attack. He would
not only be covered in dust from the detonation, he would
have inhaled radioactive stuff. His body would be
contaminated.
"The technology
required is really high school level. You don't have even to
be an engineer to fabricate that. If you can make your
conventional explosive, to lace it with radioactivity is
really child's play."
Over-flights by special
surveillance aircraft of the bin Laden training camps in
Afghanistan have not picked up the presence of any
radioactive materials. But bin Laden, when asked by ABCNEWS
on Christmas Eve of 1998 whether he had acquired nuclear
weapons, gave a troubling answer.
"I would state that
to acquire weapons in defense of Muslims is a religious
duty," he said.
And given that kind of
talk, American authorities say the many nuclear scenarios,
including the nuclear suitcase, simply cannot be ruled out.
"Up until now we had
a built-in safety barrier, where we said well if the
radioactive material, it would kill or threaten the carrier,
that's a method that's not going to be used,"
Steinhausler said. "But ever since Sept. 11 we know
that's no longer valid. We now know the carrier, the agent,
the terrorist himself is ready to die. And if he dies
crashing an aircraft into a building or if he's ready to die
carrying highly radioactive material, there's not much
difference."
-EOF-
Bush Worried About bin
Laden Nuclear Bombs
By Richard Sale UPI
Terrorism Correspondent 10-30-01
The Bush administration is
concerned that the al Qaida network of accused terrorist
mastermind Osama bin Laden might try to use a small nuclear
weapon in a super-spectacular strike to decapitate the U.S.
political leadership, according to a half dozen serving and
former U.S. government and intelligence officials.
"They believe it's a
real possibility," said one former senior U.S.
government official, adding that secret plans for protecting
the U.S. president and his successors in the event of a
nuclear attack were in place...
[This was the old Soviet
plan to decapitate the U.S. political leadership, but the
plan anticipated prepositioned devices]
Israel Finds Radiological
Backpack Bomb
RICHARD SALE, UPI
Terrorism Correspondent, United Press International, October
14, 2001
WASHINGTON, Oct 14, 2001
(United Press International via COMTEX) -- Israeli security
last month arrested a man linked to suspected terrorist
mastermind Osama bin Laden armed with a radiological
backpack bomb, as he attempted to enter Israel from the
Palestinian Territories via a border checkpoint at Ramallah,
according to U.S. government officials.
The arrest took place
during the last week of September, according to one
knowledgeable official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
He declined to give the exact date of arrest. Two other
sources interviewed by UPI confirmed the incident, but also
declined to give further details.
"People know how to
walk a dog back," one said, meaning that relating too
exact an account could lead to the identification of the
source of the information.
Regarding the arrest, a
U.S. government official said: "There was only one
individual involved. He was from Pakistan."
Another source said U.S.
officials believed that the suspect had probably gotten to
the territories via Lebanon.
Information on the arrest
went immediately to U.S. President Bush and a close circle
of advisors, another U.S. official said. He described the
appearance and character of the top-secret report circulated
among the Cabinet members and signed by each official
present.
Former Pentagon terrorism
expert, Peter Probst, described a radiological bomb as a
device with a small explosive core that is encased in
radioactive material. "It would not kill a great many
people, but it would contaminate a considerable area with
radiation," he said.
A U.S. government expert
said that the weapon captured by Israel was a backpack
device that CIA officials learned about through Russian
intelligence agents in place in 1995.
He emphasized it was not a
so-called nuclear suitcase bomb.
The CIA had intelligence
reports from senior Arab intelligence officials alleging
that in October 1998 bin Laden had obtained one or two
nuclear suitcase weapons from a Central Asian republic in
return for $30 million in cash and two tons of heroin worth
$70 million - a deal brokered by the Chechen mafia.
Russian Gen. Aleksandr
Ivanovich Lebed, a former national security advisor to
then-President Yeltsin acknowledged publicly in 1997 that
several nuclear suitcase bombs had disappeared from Russia's
arsenal.
But former CIA
counter-terrorism official Vince Cannistraro has no patience
with such accounts: "All talk of bin Laden having a
nuclear suitcase bomb is crap," he said.
Cannistraro could not be
reached for comment about the backpack device.
Nuclear suitcase bombs
were designed for Soviet Speznatz or special operations
troops to assault and destroy NATO command and control
bunkers in Europe in the event of a NATO-Soviet war. The
devices could not be detonated without matching codes held
in strictest security by Moscow, a former CIA official said.
Backpack bombs have no
such codes, but they were also designed for Spetznetz forces
and have such an intricate and complex system of activation
that the ability of a terrorist to detonate one "would
be incredibly limited," according to one U.S.
government official.
"There is such a
complicated sequence you have to perform that some terrorist
isn't going to be able to get it to work. You have to be
very highly trained," an intelligence official agreed,
describing the chances that the device could have been
activated as "practically miniscule."
Probst is nevertheless
convinced that radiological bombs are still a danger for New
York City. "Bin Laden is fascinated by Wall Street. My
fear is that he will attempt to smuggle in some
"dirty" bomb that wouldn't kill many people but
would dangerously contaminate the area," he said.
Copyright 2001 by United Press International.
Bin Laden Said To Have
Several Nuclear Suitcases Back In 1999
Reproduced from the
Jerusalem Report: October 25th, 1999
http://www.cdn-friends-icej.ca/isreport/septoct99/binladen.html
9-24-1
Master terrorist Ossame
Bin Laden has acquired portable nuclear devices, a
U.S.-based expert on non-conventional terror believes. The
only real question now is whether BinLaden has "a
few," as Russian intelligence seems to think, or
"over 20," a figure cited by intelligence services
of moderate Arab regimes. "There is no longer much
doubt that Bin Laden has finally succeeded in his quest for
nuclear suitcase bombs," says Yossef Bodansky, head of
the Congressional Task Force on Non-Conventional Terrorism
in Washington. In a recent book, Bodansky reports that Bin
Laden's associates acquired the devices through Chechnya,
paying the Chechens $30 million in cash and two tons of
Afghan heroin, worth about $70 million in Afghanistan and
about 10 times that on the street in Western cities.
Bodansky's statements
corroborate 1998 testimony by former Russian security chief
Alexander Lebed to the U.S. House of Representatives. Lebed
said that 43 nuclear suitcases from the former Soviet
arsenal, developed for the KGB in the 1970s, have vanished
since the collapse of the former Soviet Union a decade ago.
Lebed said one person could detonate such a bomb by himself,
and kill 100,000 people.
Among the others who
recognize the threat is Ben Venzke, director of Tempest
Publishing. The U.S. firm plans to release a detailed
technical handbook on dealing with nuclear terror next year.
The danger, says Venzke, is quite real ? and is not confined
to stolen Russian weapons. "It is really quite
simple," he says, "to acquire radioactive material
and combine it with an explosive or so-called dirty
device." Yael Haran
US Nuclear retaliation....
extract.
US Nuclear Doctrine,
Nonstate Actors, and WMD Under US nuclear doctrine, the 20
August 1998 attacks on Afghanistan and Sudan could have been
carried out with nuclear weapons. US doctrine allows strikes
against terrorist groups armed with weapons of mass
destruction (WMD). In Doctrine for Joint Theater Nuclear
Operation, a Joint Chiefs of Staff publication, "likely
targets" for US nuclear weapons include "nonstate
actors (facilities and operation centers) that possess
WMD". "Nonstate actors" refers to terrorist
organizations like the one US officials claim is headed by
Osama bin Laden.
At the same time,
statements from Pentagon officials are openly contradictory.
In response to a media query on the above US doctrine, a
Department of Defense spokesperson said the policy referred
to situations "in which the U.S., or allies or our
forces have been attacked with chemical or biological
weapons." However, even that statement included a
caveat, that the US "does not rule out in advance any
capability available to us." As US nuclear doctrine has
evolved since the end of the Cold War, it has increasingly
focused on the perceived threat of weapons of mass
destruction, including arsenals held by "nonstate
actors". As the following documents demonstrate,
however, this policy is ineffective, contradictory, and
actually increases the risk of further nuclear
proliferation.
* Nuclear Weapons Against
Terrorism By Hans M. Kristensen Research Associate, Nautilus
Institute 28 August 1998. Highlights the contradictions in
US policy.
* US Targets Nuclear
Weapons at "Nonstate Actors", BASIC Press Release,
Do Palestinians Possess 3
Suitcase Nukes?
By Chris Todd
GREENSBORO, NC, August 19,
2000 (WebToday)--Chilling new allegations of nuclear
blackmail now surround the, as yet, fruitless negotiations
over the final status of Jerusalem.
Speaking to a crowd of
Bible prophecy students in Greensboro, this week, Messianic
Rabbi Michael Rood quoted an intelligence source close to
the peace process who claims Yassir Arafat's Palestinian
forces have purchased three Russian nuclear "suitcase
bombs" on the black market.
The source, who was not
identified, told Rood that all three weapons of mass
destruction have been concealed in Jewish neighborhoods
within Israel.
Rood, who runs New Moon
Publishing of Two Harbors, Minnesota, believes the devices
are being used as part of a high-stakes gamble intended to
coerce Israel into ceding a portion of Jerusalem to the
Palestinians. So far, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and
his negotiating team have held out against Arafats demands.
Both Barak and Arafat face
intense political pressure from their constituencies, which
could limit their ability to compromise on the issue.
Arafat had publicly stated
the Palestinians might unilaterally declare an independent
state on September 13th if a final peace deal with Israel
cannot be reached by that date. However, in his most recent
comments, Arafat indicated a willingness to consider
delaying such a declaration in order to achieve a negotiated
settlement.
Rood indicated his belief
that Arafat may end up detonating one or more of the nuclear
devices in Israel this fall, prompting a swift and decisive
retaliatory strike by the Jewish State against surrounding
Arab capitals.
!!!!!
[6] As confirmed as to
contents, by the FBI/CIA/intelligence agencies surveillance
of Timothy McVeigh in the company of his Iraqi military
officer handlers, McVeigh and his handlers carried around
several suit cases. Some of them contained highly effective
C-4 explosives. One suit case contained a lower level
sub-atomic device, known as "RedMercury". The
suitcase nuke had been developed by the Soviets and
madeavailable to their client-state, Iraq. The shearing off
of the steelpillars of the Murrah Building was NOT done by a
fertilizer truck-bombfrom in front of the building. Rather,
by devices in the parking sectionof the basement.As reported
by a researcher, "Jane Graham,a sixty year old
FederalHousing Services employee, was on the ninth floor of
the Murrah Building when she saw, heard and felt the rolling
tremor of the building accompanied by a slow rumbling
explosion. About 6 to 8 second slater, she was struck by a
much more powerful and sudden explosion thatlifted the
floors of the building straight up. About 3 hours after
theexplosions took place she saw and later obtained video
recordings of the federals pouring wet concrete into the 25
foot crater in the basement ofthe Murrah Building. Even
though she demanded to testify before theGrand Jury she was
not allowed to do so. Nor was she allowed to testify at all
concerning any of the proceedings surrounding the Oklahoma
CityMassacre. Many other witnesses report similar
experiences. Mostwitnesses are too fearful to speak
out." As sent to us by e-mail from Reinhold Sommerstedt
wealthassure@earthlink.net, 6/8/01.Independent persons, with
radiation gauges, called Geiger Counters,tried to measure
the radiation after the explosions, but were not permitted
to get that close. In the past, I have been heckled for my
exclusive stories that nuclear-type radiation residue, from
tritium, was found and secretly measured by government
operatives in the bombsite. Luckily or otherwise, what was
discovered were left-overs of tritium. Unlike plutonium,
tritium does not have a hundred-year or more"half-life",
the period during which it can still greatly harm. Some
contend the half-life of tritium is as little as thirty
days. Critical of the fertilizer truck-bomb theory, author
David Hoffman inhis book did state:
=================================================
Subject: THE SECRETS OF
TIMOTHY McVEIGH by Sherman H. SkolnickDate: Thu, 14 Jun 2001
19:06:58 -0500From: "Sherman H. Skolnick" skolnick@ameritech.netÊ
To: skolnick@ameritech.net (continued) An article in The
Nashville Tennessean insists SaddamHussein has been
developing 220 pounds of Lithium 6 a year. Lithium 6can be
converted to TRITIUM, an essential ingredient in the
rmonuclear reactions." (Emphasis added.) And in a
footnote " 'Iraq Also Worked on Hydrogen Bomb',
Associated Press, quoted in The Nashville
Tennessean,10/9/91, as quoted in Charles T. Harrison, 'Hell
in a Hand Basket: TheThreat of Portable Nuclear Weapons',
Military Review, May, 1993." TheOklahoma City Bombing
and the Politics of Terror, Feral House, original1998
Edition, page 14.
!!!!!
Ongoing Speculation about
missing Russian 'Suitcase Nukes'
Disarmament Diplomacy --
Issue No 19
In late September,
Alexander Lebed, Russia's former chief of national security,
repeated his assertion, first made earlier in the month,
that Russia may have 'lost' up to 100 1-kiloton
'suitcase-sized' nuclear bombs. Speaking in Tokyo on 22
September, Lebed said that despite unequivocal denials of
his claim by the authorities, "the problem still
exists." "Unfortunately," he added,
"some people chose to protect their name or laugh off
the issue." He repeated his view of the gravity of the
situation: "These are ideal weapons to conduct nuclear
terrorism... We must seriously look for them or else
humankind cannot rest in peace."
Lebed revealed that he was
investigating the matter when he was dismissed by President
Yeltsin (October 1996). This was corroborated by another
former official, Vladimir Denisov, who told the Interfax
news agency on 22 September that he had headed an
investigation team. According to Denisov, no missing weapons
had been reported, but the investigation was incomplete - in
particular, not having yet covered the Baltic States,
Ukraine or Georgia - when it was terminated.
Also on 22 September,
Alexander Yablokov, former advisor to the President on
environmental issues, made clear that the weapons Lebed
referred to had been produced - though he did not say he
agreed that some might be missing. Speaking on the NTV
television channel, Yablokov stated: "I talked to those
who did those bombs. And I know that they exist."
Yablokov had earlier made this claim in a letter, dated 9
September, in the weekly newspaper Novaya Gazeta: "The
statement by Alexander Lebed concerning suitcases with
nuclear bombs is definitely not groundless."
In Washington on 3
October, Yaklokov again insisted that the suitcase-sized
bombs did exist. Addressing the US House of Representatives'
Military Research and Development Subcommittee, Yaklokov
referred to the weapons as "atomic demolition
munitions" (see below). "I am absolutely sure that
they have been made," he said. He went on to make the
startling claim that they had been developed not by the
Defence Ministry but by the KGB - and that their development
was kept secret from the Defence Ministry: "It was the
KGB, not the Ministry of Defence, that ordered it [the
production]. They were never included in the official list
of Soviet stockpiles."
Yaklokov's testimony was
curtly dismissed by State Department spokesperson James
Rubin (3 October): "there is no evidence other than
hearsay to support such claims; therefore, we give such
claims little credibility... We have no information or
evidence suggesting that nuclear weapons were ever developed
for or put under the control of the KGB." Rubin added:
"[Russia] continues
to assure us that it retains adequate command and control
[of nuclear weapons] and that appropriate physical security
arrangements exist for these weapons and facilities... We
have no reason or evidence to doubt these assurances."
Russian officials were
indeed kept busy refuting the allegations. On 23 September,
a government spokesperson, Igor Shabdurasulov, stated:
"All speculation about the existence of such devices
does not correspond with reality." The same day,
Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev told NTV television:
"Nuclear weapons are under constant control. And today
I, as a Defence Minister, have no fears."
On 26 September, Igor
Valynkin, a senior Defence Ministry official, averred that
"nuclear suitcases have never been produced and are not
now being produced." However, on 2 October, US
Department of Defense spokesperson Captain Mike Doubleday
observed: "I think we are aware that the Russian
nuclear arsenal contained atomic demolition munitions which
some people define or characterize as suitcase bombs. They
are not really suitcase bombs since it requires two people
to carry them, and they are not flat, so that they don't fit
in suitcases." Doubleday added: "We had munitions
that were small like that, also. They were tactical nuclear
weapons."
Reports: Ecologist -
Russia had suitcase bomb, Associated Press, 22 September;
Lebed insists nuclear bombs are missing, Reuters, 22
September; Russia may have 'lost' nuclear bombs, Reuters, 22
September; Expert - Russia may have lost suitcase nukes,
Reuters, 23 September; Moscow denies suitcase bombs,
Associated Press, 23 September; Official - Russia has no
atom briefcase bombs, Reuters, 24 September; Russia says it
never produced nuclear suitcases, Reuters, 26 September;
Department of Defense Briefing, 2 October; US sees no KGB
role in Russia's nuclear arms, Reuters, 3 October; State
Department Briefing, 3 October; Russian scientist backs
claim of 'suitcase nukes,' Reuters, 3 October.
© 1998 The Acronym
Institute.
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