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NothingMan,

LINK With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

For the story behind the story...

Sunday, Nov. 11, 2001 12:23 a.m. EST

Report: Probers Suspect Bin Laden Shipped Nukes to U.S.

A day after Osama bin Laden told a Pakistani newspaper that he had obtained nuclear weapons and is willing to use them against the U.S., another Pakistani paper claims investigators suspect he has pre-positioned the weapons inside America.

"Pakistani and American investigators believe 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," The Frontier Post reported Saturday.

A source with knowledge of the bin Laden nuke probe told the Post that the FBI, the CIA and Pakistani intelligence now believe that at least two briefcase-sized nuclear weapons may have reached U.S. shores.

Investigators have traced at least one of the weapons to bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terror network.

"The weapon identified is small 8-kilogram device that carries at least 2 kg of fissionable plutonium and uranium," the Post said. "The device, of Russian make, carries a serial number 9999 and manufacturing date October 1988."

The charging mechanism can reportedly be activated through a timer or even through a cell phone command.

In September, Rep. Christopher Shay, R-Conn., who has chaired 18 hearings on terrorism since 1998 as head of the House subcommittee on National Security, warned the bin Laden "suitcase nuke" scenario should be taken seriously.

"We've known for years that the host countries have developed nuclear and biological agents and that they haven't been reluctant to share them with the terrorists," Shays told WABC Radio's Sean Hannity. "And frankly, the race we have right now is to make sure that [terrorists] don't get a nuclear device."

Shays said an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin had initially admitted to his committee that "out of 140 of [their tactical nukes], the Russians could only account for about 80 of them.

" "Now the Russians are denying that, and we don't really have a straight answer from our own government," he added. On Saturday, Putin discounted the bin Laden nuke threat, saying he doubted Al-Qaeda had obtained a nuclear device from Russian sources.

The White House echoed the Russian president, saying the U.S. had no evidence suggesting bin Laden had obtained nukes.

In 1992, former Soviet intelligence agent Stanislav Lunev first outlined the threat posed by Russia's suitcase nukes in his book "Through the Eyes of the Enemy." Lunev is the highest-ranking Soviet military spy ever to defect to the U.S.

To find out what Lunev told the CIA about Soviet suitcase nukes inside the U.S., get a copy of his exclusive interview with NewsMax.com, CIA Files.