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Nuke
attack on US now in process?

 

By ALEJANDRO LICHAUCO

 

 

 

If you think that September 11 was
terror, then you should pick up the November 26 issue of Newsweek to get
an idea of what horror – as it is now presumably being planned by bin Laden’s
al-Qaeda for America – could be. It is nothing less than a nuclear attack on
America, not through missiles launched thousands of miles away from the shores
of some rogue state, but through “suitcases” of portable nuclear bombs acquired
by al-Qaeda from Russia and which conceivably have been smuggled to the US over
the years.

 

            Smuggling
mininuke bombs installed in suitcases apparently was how the former Soviet
Union during the Cold War intended to penetrate and destroy Fortress America
whose invulnerability  to invasion,
whether by land, sea or air, was unquestionably acknowledge. Recognizing that
invulnerability, Soviet military scientists, it now appears, invented mininuke
bombs portable enough to be sneaked into the American mainland and there to be
detonated or exploded whenever the Cold War with America demanded it.

 

            Apparently,
since the end of the Cold War, at least 30 of those suitcases have been missing
from Russia’s nuclear arsenal. The source of this is bin Laden’s chief
strategist, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who alludes to reports of the prestigious BBC.
“If you go to BBC reports, you will find that 30 nuclear weapons are missing
from Russia’s nuclear arsenal,” Zawahiri was quoted as saying.

 

            Moscow
denies that there are suitcase bombs missing from its arsenal, but Newsweek attests
that “there have been persistent reports…that Russia cannot account for all of
its so-called suitcase nuclear weapons.” The magazine quotes an official of the
International Atomic Energy Agency as saying, “The Russians are now admitting things
are not perfect in their own backyard.” The official reportedly added: “The
Russians just threw a lot of stuff away and now we’re flying over to find it.
Imagine how easy it would be for some of that to get out.”

 

            In light of
bin Laden’s claim that he now has the nuclear bomb which he could use against
the US, one must assume that the American branch of al-Qaeda has managed to
park some of those suitcases in the American mainland, presumably in the cities
of New York and Washington, D.C.

 

            The Newsweek
story “Can We Find bin Laden?” not only quotes him as claiming that he has
the bomb but also (and this is the more ominous) quotes Taliban leader Mullah
Mohammed Omar for the “apocalyptic warning” that the “destruction of America”
is under way. “It is a huge task which is beyond the will and comprehension of
human beings,” the Taliban head is quoted to have said. “If God’s help is with
us, this will happen in a short period of time. Keep in mind this prediction.”

            How could
bin Laden and company have acquired some of those deadly suitcases? Newsweek
quotes bin Laden as saying that “it’s not difficult, not if you have
contacts in Russia and with other militant groups.” His chief strategist,
al-Zawahiri, then admitted, “We have links with Russian underworld channels.”
That’s as good as claiming that al-Qaeda has a good number of those
“suitcases.”

 

            The cost of
each suitcase is appallingly cheap: between $10 million and $20 million,
according to bin Laden himself. So he knows, and that’s a sum he can certainly
afford.

 

            If the
“destruction of America” is about to take place, and that destruction is going
to be beyond “the comprehension of human beings” – according to no less than
the head of Taliban – this piece can only infer that the “destruction intended and
planned is going to be accomplished through the simultaneous detonation of
several suitcases parked in strategic locations in strategic cities of the
United States. As Newsweek  puts
it, while one bomb would kill far fewer than a nuclear blast… its psychological
impact would be severe and it might render its target – say, the area
surrounding the White House or Manhattan’s financial district – uninhabitable
for decades.”

 

            That’s one
“dirty bomb.” But we must assume several, if not many, “dirty bombs.”

 

            The Newsweek
story admittedly doesn’t make cheerful reading for this Christmas season.
But after September 11, one must assume that the al-Qaeda network – against
whom our government has formally declared war – has what it takes to deliver on
its promise to destroy America through means that will defy human comprehension
and that the destruction will come “in a short period of time.”

 

            More
ominously, Newsweek further quotes Omar as saying that the plan “is
being implemented.”

 

            The Newsweek
 story is more than a wake- up call.
It should shake this government into the horrendous realities of global
high-tech terrorism and the equally horrendous thought that a nuclear war might
now actually be in the making, for the horrendous consequences of which we should
now be preparing with grim earnestness.

 

            American
cities devastated by suitcase nuke bombs are a nightmare that could come upon
us as swiftly and as unexpectedly as did the destruction of the World Trade
Center. And when that happens, there will only be one organization that we can
depend on to take charge. And that’s the armed forces.

 

            But do the
armed forces have any contingency plans?

 

            While US
intelligence officials refuse to take bin Laden’s threat of a nuclear attack
seriously, Peter Bergen, a CNN commentator and author maintains that the
Islamic warrior should be taken seriously because he intends to go out “in a
blaze of nuclear glory.”

 

            The next,
and most critical, battlefield then could be not Iraq or any rogue state, as US
strategic planners are reported to be considering, but the American mainland
itself.

 

            The
conclusion of this piece is that, in light of September 11 and the Newsweek story,
this country’s national security, diplomatic and economic policies must now
assume that the possibility of a nuclear attack on the US through hand-placed
suitcase bombs is very real and could be but a matter of time. If it doesn’t
come, well and good. But if it does, we can at least say that we prepared for
it and weren’t caught flatfooted.

 

            With horrendous
uncertainties facing the US, the Arroyo government might as well forget linking
this nation’s future with the US and start exploring ways of constructively
linking up with China, which is the one nation that will surely emerge winner
in this war against terror.