Nightmare scenario

Sydney

Al Qaida claims to have purchased small, portable nuclear bombs, a Pakistani journalist told Australian television this week. Hamid Mir, who is writing a biography of Osama bin Laden, said that bin Laden deputy Ayman al-Zawahri bragged about al Qaida’s nuclear capability in a 2001 interview. “If you have $30 million, go to the black market in Central Asia and contact any disgruntled ex–Soviet scientist,” al-Zawahri told Mir. “Dozens of smart briefcase bombs are available.” Just one of the “suitcase nukes,” which the Soviets built in the 1960s, could kill tens of thousands of people. But Russian officials said al Qaida was either bluffing or had been duped, because the bombs had a life span of only a few years.

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