Yes, I had seen that one. Here's one from 1998...Suitcase Bombs...
Yes, WE ALL should have seen things coming....Lots on the web for the last 10 or more years....
Russia's "Lost" Luggage Could Be Deadly
by Eric Margolis
November 1, 1998
Call it the ultimate missing luggage story.
foreigncorrespondent.com
Last year, Gen. Alexander Lebed, Russia's former National Security Advisor,
claimed more than 100 suitcase-sized nuclear weapons had `disappeared.'
Another senior Russian security official, Alexei Yablokov, backed Lebed's
allegations.
Lebed, now a presidential candidate, asserted Russia's military had lost
track of the portable nuclear weapons, each of which can produce a 1 kiloton
explosion, equivalent to 1,000 tons of TNT. A single suitcase nuke, placed
in an urban area, could kill up to 100,000 people and cause enormous
physical damage.
Russian security officials scoffed at Lebed's claims, blaming poor record
keeping rather than theft or diversion. US officials claimed Libya, Iraq and
Iran were the real nuclear danger, not mini-nukes. In fact, these nations
pose a potential threat only to Israel. By contrast, Russia's missing nukes
are a very real menace to US security.
Two months ago, the highest ranking officer ever to defect from GRU,
Russia's military intelligence service, testified in closed hearings before
Congress. The former GRU colonel, who defected in 1992, said he had
personally identified locations in the US for suitcase nuclear devices that
would be used in case of war.
The colonel admitted he had no knowledge any devices had actually been
smuggled into the US, but said `it was possible,' because many of the
weapons had disappeared from Russia's inventory. Meaning the mini-nukes are
either missing - and possibly in the hands of terrorists - or secreted in
the United States, Canada, and Europe.
The Soviet mini-nukes, described as the size of a golf club bag, were
designed to destroy vital targets, such as military command and control
centers, air defense headquarters, missile bases, communications nodes,
power stations, bridges, dams, airports, and the St. Lawrence Seaway.
If one such weapon, hidden in the back of a delivery van, were detonated
outside the Pentagon, America's military leadership would be decapitated.
The GRU colonel explained the mini-nukes were to be smuggled into the US the
same way drugs were - by speedboat, light aircraft, or landed on the coast
by Soviet subs. Soviet special force `Spetsnaz' units would retrieve the
weapons and conceal them close to their intended targets. One key hiding
place was Northern Virginia's beautiful Shenandoah Valley, located a short
drive from Washington.
The colonel also revealed that during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, the
Soviets stockpiled suitcase nuclear weapons in Cuba without the knowledge of
Castro, ready for use by special forces troops.
KGB sources also recently told me that at the height of the crisis, Soviet
commanders in Cuba were authorized to launch intermediate range ballistic
missiles against the US and Canada if communications links with Moscow were
broken or jammed.
The US also developed a 1-kiloton nuclear suitcase bomb designed for the
same tactical demolition role as the Soviet version. If the Warsaw Pact
attacked westward, US Special Forces were tasked to employ the mini-nukes
for behind-the- lines sabotage of Soviet command, logistics and
communications. US Army field commanders were given release authority over
hundreds of tactical mini-nukes in Europe, independent of NATO.
Some House Republicans claim the Soviets may have actually hidden a number
of nuclear devices near Washington and New York City, where they remain.
Some could still be active. Such simple, pure-fission nuclear devices may
have a shelf- life of up to 8-10 years without refurbishing.
US security officials, who have been nonchalant about hidden suitcase nukes,
should bear in mind the stranger- than-fiction case of a GRU `sleeper' agent
who settled in Edmonton, Canada, the late 1940's as a supposed refugee from
Ukraine. A decade ago, he turned himself into the RCMP, and showed them a
large, trunk-bomb he had hidden in his basement. His orders: when a coded
signal comes in from GRU, transport the conventional bomb in his truck to a
main oil pumping station north of Edmonton, and destroy it. He had been
waiting nearly 40 years.
How many other such sleepers are out there? How many have nuclear devices?
This is pretty scary stuff. Not just for North America, either. Rumors have
circulated for years that Israeli agents may have hidden suitcase nukes in
Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Odessa, Sevastapol, and Kharkov, not to
mention Arab capitols, Tehran, even Pakistan.
The danger of terrorists getting their hands on a suitcase bomb is real, but
lower. Arming the mini-nukes takes 30 minutes, the colonel revealed, and can
only be done by trained specialists. The weapons are designed to self-
destruct if improperly opened.
Unless, of course, terrorists or the Russian mafia manage to buy a nuclear
specialist, or open the weapon's locks.A suitcase nuke attached to a drum of
anthrax or botulism would be a hellish terror weapon, ideal for political
fanatics or blackmailers. Defenses against such weapons are currently
minimal, though the US is trying to develop senors that will detect hidden
nuclear weapons.
We shouldn't panic about reds under our beds with suitcase nukes, but we
shouldn't ignore this very real threat, either. Given the number of Soviet
suitcase nukes still hidden, or unaccounted for, it seems probable at least
one will eventually be used somewhere.
Copyright Margolis, November 1998 |
