For nostalgias' sake, from my scr & scrm archives (012)
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From nikst@xxxxxxxxxx Mon Nov 10 23:07:26 EST 1997
Date: Sun, 9 Nov 1997 20:11:25 CST
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From: "nikst" <nikst@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Suitcase N-bombs
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The Electronic Telegraph (UK)
9 November 1997
Russia loses its suitcase N-bombs
By Ivo Dawnay in Washington
THE nightmare scenario of terrorists acquiring Russian suitcase-sized
nuclear weapons took a dramatic turn last week when the Kremlin
implicitly admitted that the bombs exist - and some may be missing.
Until now, persistent rumours of the existence of the small, portable
bombs have been vehemently denied by Moscow, with even Premier Viktor
Chernomyrdin shrugging off the claims as an "absolute absurdity".
But The Telegraph has learnt that Prof Alexei Yablokov, who first
disclosed the existence of the sophisticated device, was quietly
co-opted by the Russian Defence Council last week to devise new
legislation to control the weapons.
On Thursday, he was secretly summoned to the Kremlin and ordered to help
to draft a presidential decree to co-ordinate the location of "compact
nuclear weapons", bring them under secure control, and arrange for their
speedy destruction.
The Yeltsin government's decision to bring in the professor is a tacit
admission that the suitcase bombs not only exist, but could be outside
secure control and represent a genuine international security risk.
It was Prof Yablokov, a distinguished ecologist, academician and former
special adviser to Boris Yeltsin, who first alerted the world to the
danger posed by the bombs - ideal portable terrorist weapons. In
October, he told a United States Congressional committee that he was
"absolutely certain" they had been built as he had met someone involved
in their construction.
This week he told The Telegraph that while there was "no certainty" that
any of the bombs were unaccounted for, there were indeed "some
suspicions". He said: "I won't say how many I think have gone missing -
you will publish it and scare the whole world," he said. "It is a
question of units, not dozens."
The Kremlin's decision to draft the professor represents a momentous
U-turn. Only a week earlier, Prof Yablokov had issued an ultimatum to
President Yeltsin, threatening to go public with technical details of
the bombs if action were not taken immediately.
The Kremlin's decision also represents a personal triumph for US
Congressman Curt Weldon. As chairman of the House of Representatives'
National Security, in May, he disclosed that Gen Alexander Lebed had
told him of his own concerns about suitcase nuclear weapons. Gen Lebed,
who in his brief six months in government was charged by President
Yeltsin to review nuclear security, said that only 48 out of 132 known
bombs had been adequately accounted for.
He suspected that some of the weapons may have been built for the KGB by
the Ministry of Atomic Energy without the knowledge of the Defence
Ministry. Yesterday Mr Weldon welcomed the news of Prof Yablokov's
appointment as vindicating his campaign. "We finally have full
confirmation of our suspicions that these devices have existed and do
exist," Mr Weldon said. "This is not a time to embarrass Russia, but to
come together to secure nuclear stability for people in Russia, the US
and the world."
Small, tactical nuclear devices have long been deployed on both sides of
the Cold War trenches. The US military is believed to have as many as
600 atomic demolition munitions (ADMs) - some of which are known to
troops as "satchel" bombs. The weapons were intended for special forces
to use behind enemy lines for blowing up key infrastructure like
airports and roads. Similar equipment is understood to have been issued
to Soviet Spetznaz units as part of some 25,000 tactical nuclear weapons
in the Red Army's armoury.
In 1995, rumours swirled round Moscow that two such bombs had been
acquired in Vilnius, Lithuania by Chechen rebels. According to the
Russian nationalist paper Zavtra, the weapons were bought for £600,000
and all those associated with the transaction were later murdered to
ensure secrecy. The correspondent who wrote the article was subsequently
abducted and threatened with death if he pursued the story - which was
later withdrawn by Zavtra.
Despite the "official" American acceptance of Russia's assurances that
there was no threat, US Intelligence agencies are believed to have been
probing claims of loose tactical nuclear weapons since 1995. According
to One Point Safe, a book by Leslie and Andrew Cockburn, two
Washington-based journalists, the US was approached by the Chechens
during their war of secession and threatened with nuclear blackmail.
"They told them that if Washington did not formally recognise the
Chechen state, they would sell the weapons to Gaddafi (the Libyan
dictator)," Andrew Cockburn claims. A subsequent clandestine CIA mission
to Chechenya - secretly agreed to by the Russians - failed to turn up
evidence of a bomb.
This and other stories of hoaxes and skulduggery, however, proved
sufficiently compelling to inspire the Cockburns to write the screenplay
for The Peacemaker, a fictionalised thriller bought by Steven Spielberg.
Professional analysts are not so much interested in whether the bombs
exist, but in where exactly they are located and whether they are under
Russia's secure control.
Now that Prof Yablokov has persuaded the Kremlin to take the issue
seriously, it may be easier to discover whether any bombs are missing.
But, given that the Russians have lied repeatedly about the very
existence of the weapons, it may be too much to expect them to report
honestly about when or whether they have this arsenal of terror under
firm control.
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