Replies

I can think of three reasons why this report is false.

The US has been the world leader in warhead miniaturization for fifty years, and the smallest American Atomic Demolition Munition would not fit in a briefcase or even a suitcase. (This particular device was discontinued by the USA in the mid-1980s and all were dismantled).
If al-Qaeda has had such a weapon, they have shown uncharacteristic restraint in not employing it. That makes no sense. If Zawahiri got his grubby, goat-caressing hands on a nuke. it would be hotter than hot and every day they held it in inventory would be a very great risk of losing it. They would lose no time in employing this weapon. That they haven't is to me conclusive proof that they don't have such a weapon.
Such reports always suggest that the weapons are ex-Soviet in origin. Sometimes authors point to Russian and former Soviet republics' abandonment of nuclear delivery systems such as subs and bombers as proof of poor inventory control of these weapons. But the warheads were never handled by the military: they were under the control of the KGB. That organization came through both Russia's democratic revolution and the ongoing totalitarian counterrevolution of Putin without significant disruption.

I don't know that Mr Hamid Mir is necessarily spinning here. I think that he has been spun by al-Z. But, of course, both of them stand to gain by this report.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

I agree... this is disinformation. A) they can't build one; B) none of the suitcase bombs that the Soviets built, if in fact they could build them, could realistically survive in usable shape; and C) unless there's a breakthrough in nuclear miniaturization we don't know about, that briefcase is going to be very suspiciously large.

I don't know that Mr Hamid Mir is necessarily spinning here. I think that he has been spun by al-Z. But, of course, both of them stand to gain by this report.

Same mistake as Saddam Hussein?

"We have lots of WMD:s! We are not destroying them! All your bases are ours!"

ZOT!!

Lebed told us about this 8 years ago. in the pre-Putin era.

"On 7 September 1997, the CBS newsmagazine Sixty Minutes broadcast an alarming story in which former Russian National Security Adviser Aleksandr Lebed claimed that the Russian military had lost track of more than 100 suitcase-sized nuclear bombs"

Alexander Lebed and Suitcase Nukes

General Lebed conveniently dies in a helo crash shortly after these revelations.

The big question seems to be maintainence of these devices, not if they were sold on the black market.

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."