FBI focusing on portable nuke threat

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- The leading congressional expert on Russia's small portable nuclear weapons told United Press International that the FBI has stepped up its investigation of whether al Qaida or other terrorist groups have acquired these deadly devices from Russian stockpiles.

Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., chairman of the Research and Development Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee, said Tuesday that he was briefed by the FBI late last week and that the investigation of whether terrorist groups have weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear devices, is now a top priority at the bureau after years of indifference.

"Now they're looking at everything and following up on every lead," Weldon said. It was Weldon, through his R&D subcommittee, who produced over past three years some of the most exhaustive and startling information about the Russian stockpile of weapons that could be an advantage to Osama bin Laden, his al Qaida network or other terrorist groups.

"The question is whether or not bin Laden has had access to nuclear material," Weldon said. "I think it is better than a 50-50 chance that he does."

"Do I think he has a small atomic demolition munitions, which were built by the Soviets in the Cold War? Probably doubtful," Weldon said. But he added that after Sept. 11 the FBI could not avoid running every lead to ground.

In 1997, Weldon brought former Russian security chief Gen. Alexander Lebed before his committee. Lebed testified that perhaps 100 small nuclear devices were missing from inventories under his control. Lebed said the devices were a "perfect terrorist weapon," made to look like suitcases, "and could be detonated by one person with less than 30 minutes of preparation," according to committee documents.

The Russian government immediately tried to discredit Lebed's testimony, but Weldon's committee brought a prominent Russian weapons scientist, Aleksey Yablokov, before the committee in 1998 who reported that he knew the Russians produced small nuclear weapons for combat use.

Yablokov was vilified when he returned to Moscow as a "traitor" for his testimony. Yablokov sued one major Russian magazine over this vilification, Weldon said, and won a 30,000-ruble judgment against the publication.

Perhaps the most startling testimony came from a defector from the Russian military intelligence service, the GRU, who testified in 1998 that the Russians secretly pre-positioned weapons, including small nuclear devices, in the U.S. and other countries around the world to be used for sabotage by its agents in time of war.

This witness said it was his job while working undercover in Washington from 1988 to 1992 as a correspondent for the Russian news agency Tass to locate places where these weapons could be hidden both around Washington and in other parts of the country.

Weldon has described the weapons in this testimony as "small nuclear weapons that can fit into a knapsack or a briefcase or suitcase and are designed to be delivered and detonated by one or two people."

He created a mock-up of one in a suitcase form that he uses in speeches and Congressional hearings based on descriptions from Russian sources. He keeps the mock-up in his office.

A Federation of American Scientists compilation, titled Soviet Weapons, notes that there is very little information in the public venue about the size and destructive power of the small weapons. The U.S. backpack nuke weighs 163 pounds and can be carried by one or two men. One Russian naval arms compilation talks about small portable nuclear weapons weighing from 59 pounds to 154 pounds.

The yield, too, is hard to pin down. One former American scientist who worked at the Department of Energy labs said that the "Davy Crocket," which was the small bomb later converted to special operations, had a one-kiloton explosive power and would level the Capitol Building and everything in a half mile radius. It also would spread radioactive waste across a wide area of Washington. The bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima was 15 kilotons. (Each kiloton has an explosive power equal to 1,000 pounds of TNT.)

The GRU witness, who testified using a pseudonym, Col. Stanislaw Lunez, said that even after the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Russians continued to frame war plans against a range of Western nations including the U.S.

"According to Soviet military plans, very well advanced, maybe a few months, maybe a few weeks, of course, a few hours before real war would be placed against his country (the U.S.), Russian Special Operations Forces need to come here and pick up weapons systems, because they will fly here as tourists, businessmen.

"According to their tasking, in a few hours they need to physically destroy, eliminate American military chains of command, President, Supreme Commander in Chief, Vice President, Speaker of the House, military commanders, especially to cut the head from the American military chain of command," Lunev said.

He said that the Russians had a plan to sabotage industrial, communications and power targets as well.

Weldon said later the FBI discredited Lunev, saying that he exaggerated things, but another federal agency that Weldon declined to identify protects Lunev in an undisclosed location in the U.S. He said Lunev's credentials as a ranking GRU spy assigned to the U.S. have never been questioned.

Later Vasily Mitrokhin, a KGB official, disclosed in his best-selling book "The Sword and the Shield" that the Soviets had secreted weapons and explosives near NATO facilities throughout Europe for use in a war. Weldon said that Belgian officials located and dug up some caches near NATO's headquarters

The backpack nukes are part of some 12,000 tactical nuclear weapons that the Russians possessed in 1991 when they agreed to a unilateral arms reduction with the first Bush Administration. The Russians were to destroy 2,000 warheads a year from 1991, which would suggest there is only a handful left.

The U.S. destroyed the bulk of its weapons, but Weldon said that there is no evidence that the Russians have conducted such a program.

"That's part of the problem. I've continually called for a treaty with Russian and really a worldwide effort to ban or to limit tactical nukes," Weldon said.

"There has been no effort and we have had no success in getting Russia to decrease their tactical nukes. They feel they act as a buffer for Europe; the proximity of European countries. We just don't know whether they have total control of their atomic munitions."

And this would "wipe clean" computer chips covering how many miles? Would cars work without chips? Would airplanes fall out of the sky without chips? Nuclear power plants without control chips? Every Y2K nightmare in an instant?

My understanding is that you have to get the explosion much higher than airplane height before you'll get an EMP. Also, you need a big bomb, and it will only affect an area within line-of-sight. See here for a more detailed description.

In other news, while certain anti-Soviet journalists absolutely jackhammer the snot out of all possible sources to find a Soviet connection to terrorism, US troops continue detonating US machine guns, ammunition, rockets, grenades, and surface-to-air missiles seized from Al Queda, who they armed some 20 years ago. Reality bites both ways, son.

You are one sick puppy in total denial about the situation in Afghanistan: Soviet initiated, made and concluded. Obviously you belong to that sick cult of the miserable.

Why would he wait?

Many Americans have become complacent already. Think of the psychological impact of an attack now, during the Christmas Saeson. In all likelyhood, if he has these things, they have been hidden with the sleepers long before 911 to keep movement and detection to a minimum.

Look at it this way. Would you use a nuke first and then an airliner attack with when security is high? Would not a surprize airline attack be easier with your nukes already in place and at the standby for later use? Only time will tell.

The infamous hunt for the "Allah Suitcase" that Fusion mentioned a few times.

I see that Fusion has already posted and I'll take a look at that next but this is why all of Fusion's detractors have sounded more shrill than Fusion has sounded pompous. He may or many not be Greg Dority, but I don't think he's just dreaming this stuff up.

Smogger said . . . "OBL will use his nuclear capability on his time table because he is absolutely positively certain that his sleepers WILL NOT BE CAUGHT! OBL will entrust his nuclear capablility to his TOP sleeper agents."

Bin Laden most certainly would want to be alive to experience a nuclear attack that he planned on the US, Europe, or Israel. One only needs to recall his "video" while he relished the conversations with his henchman and compartiots as he enjoyed every minute of sharing the 9/11 horrors with them.

It is obvious that any day now could be his last on earth (if it hasn't happeded already). Sooooooooo, it only seeems logical that if he had the "bomb" he would have used it already.

However, if you have some info that the FBI could use go to >>>> http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/attack/attacks.htm

FReegards . . .

Frankly, I wish I had more confidence in the CIA and the FBI. The FBI has never been all that good. It gets almost all its information from informers, and there are not going to be a lot of informers in Bin Laden's sleeper cells.

Under clinton it spent almost all its energy on politically correct investigations, while virtually ignoring threats from Chinese spying (on direct orders from on high) and from Muslim terrorists, who were almost certainly involved in OKC and TWA 800.

I'm sure the clinton-reno FBI spent many more man-hours--black helicopters and all--looking for one suspected abortion-clinic bomber than they spent investigating Chinese theft of nuclear secrets. Even after clinton left office, there are signs that many of the top people in the agency continue to worry (and leak to the press) more about Christian fundamentalists than CBR attacks.

There is little doubt that the Islamic entente has acquired nuclear capability and soon plans to use it. "Allah's Suitcase" to remake the world in a blinding flash of light that delivers mankind toward the new Dark Ages...

Fusion, What ever happened to the attack on US military installation in Bosnia you predicted last fall???

Bunker will take a dump in Allah's suitcase

I would hope that the site administrators have reported you to the authorities. You sound like one of UBL's buddies.

Alas, Albania Briefings (AB) has no web presence so I am hesitant to post these pieces so as not to offend the internet sourcing purists.

Oh c'mon Fusion. Don't let Hoplite get you down. You can see we're all interested otherwise you wouldn't get the type of attention you get! You can always create an anonymous web presence at Tripod or Geocities. Though Yahoo (the owner of Geocities) has made some odd copyright claims to materials posted there.

Or just keep using that North Carolina site. They don't force advertising on your page (like the others above will) and they don't censor you so keep it up. I for one am interested. Your status as an enigma naturally draws the curious and the suspicious (I'm just curious).

Tell Mr. D that John Ashcroft can torture me all he wants. I'll never reveal his true identity.

Amen, worth repeating:

Frankly, I wish I had more confidence in the CIA and the FBI. The FBI has never been all that good. It gets almost all its informationcfrom informers, and there are not going to be a lot of informers in Bin Laden's sleeper cells.

It is obvious that any day now could be his last on earth (if it hasn't happeded already). Sooooooooo, it only seeems logical that if he had the "bomb" he would have used it already.

I seriously doubt OBL's last days on earth are coming any time soon. He is long gone people. Along with the top Al Qaeda leadership. We haven't a clue where he is. As someone posted on another thread while we don't know where OBL is you can be sure of one thing: wherever OBL is he is feverishly planning our demise

Sooooooooo, it only seeems logical that if he had the "bomb" he would have used it already.

It's funny.. So many people say this over and over. As though if you believe it hard enough it will make it so. I hope at least some of you are making preperations for the FINANCIAL devastation and chaos that would ensue following ANY nuclear strike on the US.

Another thing. I was watching FOX news and they were interviewing a member of SyOP's and showing some of the leaflets they dropped in Afghanistan. One of the leaflets had a picture of an Afghani playing chess (was it OBL? I can't remember) but the point is this. The SyOP's guy said that they chose the image because chess is a very popular game in that region of the world. Now I know a lot of FREEpers think that Al Qaeda is an organization of stupid people and incapable of formenting any sort of strategy, but I am sorry to say they are not stupid. Al Qaeda is engaged in what amounts to a highstakes game of chess against the US. So any of you that play chess. You tell me? Were the September 11th hijackers pawns or his queen? Do you use your queen first or do you move it into position while attacking with your smaller pieces?

Does anyone know if the stadium does sit above the city and if there is much wind there in December? Apparently this site is also close to the Mexican border. Is this accurate?

Yes to all three. The stadium is on a mesa several hundred feet higher than the river and downtown, but lower than many residental areas to the west. December can be windy if low pressure areas approach from the west (today wind advisories are out for southern NM for 40-50 mph gusts). And the distance to the border? Just a few hundred yards. If such a device was to be detonated, the majority casualties would to be the Mexican population of Juarez, a city of over 1 million.

Spesnatz anti-bump.

I've never seen it refuted.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.