Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Nucleari portatili

 
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040321/D81F0G2G0.html
Al-Qaida No. 2: We Have Briefcase Nukes
Mar 21, 4:24 PM (ET)
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Osama bin Laden's terror network claims to have
bought ready-made nuclear weapons on the black market in central Asia, the
biographer of al-Qaida's No. 2 leader was quoted as telling an Australian
television station.
In an interview scheduled to be televised on Monday, Pakistani journalist
Hamid Mir said Ayman al-Zawahri claimed that "smart briefcase bombs" were
available on the black market. It was not clear when the interview between
Mir and al-Zawahri took place.
U.S. intelligence agencies have long believed that al-Qaida attempted to
acquire a nuclear device on the black market, but say there is no evidence
it was successful.
In the interview with Australian Broadcasting Corp. television, parts of
which were released Sunday, Mir recalled telling al-Zawahri it was difficult
to believe that al-Qaida had nuclear weapons when the terror network didn't
have the equipment to maintain or use them.
"Dr Ayman al-Zawahri laughed and he said 'Mr. Mir, if you have $30 million,
go to the black market in central Asia, contact any disgruntled Soviet
scientist, and a lot of ... smart briefcase bombs are available,'" Mir said
in the interview.
"They have contacted us, we sent our people to Moscow, to Tashkent, to other
central Asian states and they negotiated, and we purchased some suitcase
bombs," Mir quoted al-Zawahri as saying.
Al-Qaida has never hidden its interest in acquiring nuclear weapons.
The U.S. federal indictment of bin Laden charges that as far back as 1992 he
"and others known and unknown, made efforts to obtain the components of
nuclear weapons."
Bin Laden, in a November 2001 interview with a Pakistani journalist, boasted
having hidden such components "as a deterrent." And in 1998, a Russian
nuclear weapons design expert was investigated for allegedly working with
bin Laden's Taliban allies.
It was revealed last month that Pakistan's top nuclear scientist had sold
sensitive equipment and nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea,
fueling fears the information could have also fallen into the hands of
terrorists.
Earlier, Mir told Australian media that al-Zawahri also claimed to have
visited Australia to recruit militants and collect funds.
"In those days, in early 1996, he was on a mission to organize his network
all over the world," Mir was quoted as saying. "He told me he stopped for a
while in Darwin (in northern Australia), he was ... looking for help and
collecting funds."
Australia's Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said the government could not
rule out the possibility that al-Zawahri visited Australia in the 1990s
under a different name.
"Under his own name or any known alias he hasn't traveled to Australia,"
Ruddock told reporters Saturday. "That doesn't mean to say that he may not
have come under some other false documentation, or some other alias that's
not known to us."
Mir describe al-Zawahri as "the real brain behind Osama bin Laden."
"He is the real strategist, Osama bin Laden is only a front man," Mir was
quoted as saying during the interview. "I think he is more dangerous than
bin Laden."
Al-Zawahri - an Egyptian surgeon - is believed to be hiding in the rugged
region around the Pakistan-Afghan border where U.S. and Pakistani troops are
conducting a major operation against Taliban and al-Qaida forces.
He is said to have played a leading role in orchestrating the Sept. 11,
2001, attacks on the United States.

Il famoso fumo nero ?
Pare che i servizi segreti francesi pensino ad'un attentato sul suolo
europeo per Pasqua. Forse Roma, forse Londra
PS. oggi francesi e tedeschi avevano ripristinato i controlli alla frontiera
di Strasburgo/kehl am rhein.
si parla di sospendere schenghien ...

 europeo per Pasqua. Forse Roma, forse Londra
Un'atomica in Europa?? Se le hanno le coservano per gli states, ma io la
farei esplodere in India, scoppierebbe una rappresaglia nucleare contro il
Pakistan e tutta l'Asia centrale precipiterebbe nel baratro del
fondamentalismo.