#5512
[Second Issue of the Day]
#7
BBC Monitoring
Russian experts discuss Bin-Ladin's possible nuclear
plot
Source: Centre TV, Moscow, in Russian 1600 gmt 27 Oct 01
[Presenter Aleksey Pushkov] As you see, Bin-Ladin could obtain a nuclear charge from many sources [reference to the previous item about nuclear potential of Pakistan, India, Iran and Israel]. However, the Western press is given to think that, in case Bin-Ladin really possesses nuclear weapons, he got them from Russia rather than from Islamic countries. See Aleksey Dubnov video report for details.
[Correspondent] While, according to some information, the Pentagon does not rule out precise nuclear strikes on Bin-Ladin's bases, press articles began to appear more and more often saying that the Terrorist Number One already has a nuclear device, at least a primitive one.
US intelligence says that Bin-Ladin and his people have been hunting for a nuclear bomb for a long time. They said more than once that the search for weapons of mass destruction was their duty. Moreover, experts say that it is not so difficult to produce a home-made nuclear device.
[Vladimir Belous, captioned as leading research worker of the Institute of International Economy and International Relations under the Russian Academy of Sciences and Doctor of Military Sciences] I would give just one simple example. In 1975 a university student in America assembled a nuclear device using only information from open sources. Experts examined it and said that, if the device was staffed with a fissile material, it could explode and cause serious damage.
Now foreign press is trying to prove that, if Al-Quidah really possesses a nuclear device, it must be of Soviet origin. In particular, `The Times' has said that Bin-Ladin's accomplices are trying to buy a portable nuclear device, namely a so-called nuclear rucksack allegedly created by Soviet specialists in the 1970s. It weighs just 30 kg and consists of silver-zinc accumulators, a nuclear charge and a starting source of neutrons.
[Well-known Russian military commander and politician, now Krasnoyarsk Territory governor] Aleksandr Lebed was the first to say that such rucksacks could exist. In 1997, being a secretary of the [Russian] Security Council, he claimed that dozens or even hundreds of portable A-bombs had gone missing in early 1990s. The newspaper [`The Times'] said that Gen Lebed had even named the weapon systems: RA-115 and RA-115-01.
Meanwhile, all this was refuted long ago not only by Russian but also by foreign experts. Even [well-known Russian environmentalist] academician [Aleksey] Yablokov, who once supported Lebed, later acknowledged that this was impossible.
Another source of nuclear terrorism might be illegal purchase of radioactive materials. `The Times' says that the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna confirmed hundreds of cases of nuclear smuggling after the collapse of the USSR and draws a conclusion that, if a nuclear black market really existed in the Soviet Union and in Russia, than radioactive materials could have been bought by Bin-Ladin. However, such market could exist in Iran, Iraq or some other country.
There are even more audacious theories. The Arab magazine Al-Watan joins in the hysteria. It went as far that said that Bin-Ladin had struck a big deal in the beginning of 1999. The Chechen mafia allegedly obtained for him no less than 20 nuclear warheads for 30m dollars and two tonnes of opium.
However, it appears that foreign media that accuse us are guided by a simple assumption: if somebody has something and somebody else wants this, that second one always gets what he wants. Experts are laughing at this, because in early 1990s all [Russian] tactical nuclear weapons were evacuated deep inside Russia and placed to storage dumps managed by the Russian Defence Ministry.
[Belous] When this procedure was over, it was clearly and officially stated that no nuclear charges had been stolen, lost anywhere or sold, as some politicians claimed. If this had happened, today we would be well aware of this. It could not lay somewhere for such a long time not being used. In this case it would lose its combat capabilities. It must be stored under certain strictly determined conditions.
[Correspondent] Meanwhile, no complex nuclear device is necessary to disseminate panic, fear and chaos.
[Ivan Safranchuk, captioned as head of the Russian bureau of the centre for military information, interviewed in his office] An explosion of some usual explosive substance mixed with radioactive materials would be enough. There would be no chain reaction. There would be no A-bomb or H-bomb, just a conventional bomb in which some radioactive materials are used, but for the public opinion, for the population this would be a nuclear explosion.
[Pavel Felgengauer, captioned as independent military expert] If this had happened in Manhattan, a certain part of Manhattan would become a deserted area for 1,000 years, like the town of Pripyat in the Chernobyl zone [in Ukraine]. We tried to clean up Pripyat, but it is practically impossible to clean up a modern city from radioactive dust. It is impossible to find all grains of sand hidden somewhere. It would be impossible to live there.
[Correspondent] Finally, experts say that another hijacked plane may be targeted at a nuclear facility. In this case the consequences would be even more tragic than those of the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York.
[broadcast at 1613 gmt; video shows archive footage of Islamic fighters; the interior of physics labs; experts commenting]
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