I believe you are correct there. What had me concerned, way before 9/11, was the reports of all the unpaid (but still working) Russian nuke plant workers and nuke scientists. Some of them hadn't been paid for months. Supposedly they were desperate enough to sell anything they could siphon off to anyone just to get the money. Lots of nefarious angles there for the bad guys to get their hands on a whole array of stuff.
Yes ... but also lots of nefarious angles for the bad guys to wind up getting cheated :->
I've heard stories about weapons buyers from al-Qaeda thinking they've bought nuclear weapons only to find out that they're some kind of mock-up with a little bit of radioactive material included so that it seems to be what it claims to be. I'd guess that they weren't pleased at being hoodwinked - but of course, from the point of view of some of the desperate Russians during that period, it makes perfect sense: You get some badly-needed cash and get to swindle al-Qaeda who had (along with the Taleban) made the Afganistan adventure a miserable failure for the Soviet Union. Poetic justice if you ask me.
Let's hope that all of the "nukes" that they've gotten their hands on fall in this category!