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The Terrorist with a nuclear bomb in his suitcase
 
As the United States military move slowly towards the start of a ground war in Afghanistan,  Intelligence analysts are warning of the considerable efforts made by Al Qaida to obtain nuclear as well as chemical & biological warfare technology. The fear that terrorists might one day possess small nuclear weapons packing enough explosive power to devastate a city are well founded. There is little doubt that Osama Bin-Laden and the Al Qaida network have planned to attack the United States and its facilities abroad as hard and as often as they can."You can speak about a 100 percent chance" one US intelligence official told the Reuters news service recently "The probability is high that there will be more terrorist attacks, regardless of any retaliatory action on the part of the United States".
 
However much security is ratcheted up the United States, its military personnel, diplomats and tourists are horrendously vulnerable and indeed its citizens are now voting with their feet and increasing numbers are simply refusing to travel abroad, but the fear of the terrorist with a 'suitcase-nuclear bomb' will transcend anything so far faced by the West.

Cold War developments

Small nuclear devices were developed by both the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War with enough explosive power to destroy the White House in Washington DC or the Houses of Parliament in London, spreading destruction and radioactive fallout over a wide area.  The United States produced so-called atomic demolition munitions, or atomic land mines from the late 1950's until such weapons were phased out because of arms-control agreements in the 1980's. One such device in particular, known as the SADM or Special Atomic Demolition Munitions, actually came housed in a suitcase and weighed less than 80kgs
 

The Soviet Union also made small nuclear devices which were to be used by the Spetsnaz in attacks mainly on Western Europe.  In a meeting with a US Congressional delegation in May 1997, and again in an interview broadcast on 60 Minutes on 7 September 1997, General Aleksandr Lebed claimed that the Soviet Union created around one hundred and fifteen atomic demolition munitions (ADMs). These low-yield, one kiloton devices were to be used by special forces for wartime sabotage and were small, portable, and worryingly were not equipped with the necessary safety devices to prevent unauthorized detonation.

According to Lebed, some of the ADMs were deployed in the former Soviet Republics, and might not have been returned to Russia after the Soviet Union's collapse, other reports suggested that as many as 13 were unaccounted for. During his short tenure as Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Lebed started an investigation into the whereabouts of these weapons, but was fired by President Yeltsin before the investigation was completed. Even though many contradictory reports have since been published and that a simple accounting error may be responsible for the 'missing' 10-13 nuclear devices, the knowledge and technology needed to create a workable, if crude device may well be available from dissident Russian scientists, particularly those working in poverty at former Soviet facilities in the Central Asian Republics

Can the terrorist 'go-nuclear'?

Since the terrorist outrages of September 11th there has been much media speculation about 'suitcase-sized' nuclear bombs and it is known that associates of Al Qaida reportedly first tried to acquire nuclear material as long ago as the mid-1990s. Small nuclear devices are a real terrorist threat. Former FBI investigator Oliver Revell commented that "Osama Bin-Laden has been in contact with various sources, including Russian Mafia groups, in an attempt to obtain radiological materials, perhaps tactical nuclear weapons"

As Revell added "It doesn't necessarily have to be in... a suitcase or a backpack, and it is very unlikely to be that way -     much more likely is a bomb that's in a car, or a truck, or in the hold of a ship, or in the cargo section of an airplane"  Indeed, any such nuclear device created using known Russian technology would not be a true suitcase-bomb, the weight of between 120-150kg would preclude this, but it would be possible to transport this weapon in a typical large family car or providing the greatest threat of all, detonated a few hundred feet above a major city in a light aircraft flown from a small country airfield where there would have been absolutely no security precautions. The effects of blast and the wide spread of radiation from these 'dirty' bombs - large amounts of radiation for a relatively small 'bang', could devastate the life of a city for many years to come.

The international terrorist movements, whether Al Qaida, Hezbollah or for that matter the Real IRA given the opportunity, will use Anthrax, Smallpox, Sarin, VX or small Nuclear Bombs with little or no compunction. This is the real face of tomorrows amoral, ruthless and dedicated terrorist killers. Nothing, nobody and nowhere can be considered safe now and those who believe that the world fundamentally changed for the worse on September the 11th, 2001 are perfectly and unfortunately, correct.

Richard M. Bennett
 
 
 

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