This afternoon, the Military Research and Development Subcommittee meets in open session to receive testi-mony on nuclear terrorism and steps that the U.S. government has taken to guard against this threat. As we meet here today, the motion picture Peacemaker, that opened in hundreds of movie theaters across the nation last week, is raising the consciousness of Americans about the threat posed by Russia s deteriorating control over its nuclear arsenal, that could allow terrorists to acquire a nuclear weapon. In the movie Peacemaker, Russian organized crime penetrates the Russian military, corrupting key officers in charge of nuclear weapons security, who steal several nuclear weapons for sale to terrorists. One of the bombs ends up in New York City.
Peacemaker is entertaining fiction.
But it is also a disturbing case of art imitating life. Many of the premises of the motion picture are based on grim realities. Corruption and organized crime in the Russian military is a growing problem, and is reaching such proportions that the security of Russian nuclear weapons and materials could be threat-ened. Just yesterday, the Center for Strategic and International Studies released a substantial report concluding that the spread of organized crime into the military raises the prospect of strategic, nuclear armed missile systems in the hands of a disintegrating military subject to criminal control. Indeed, Aleksandr Lebed, former presidential candidate and Secretary of the Russian Security Council, recently alleged that terrorists may already be in possession of Russian nuclear weapons.