WASHINGTON Ñ The CIA has warned that more nuclear fuel could be stolen from
Russian facilities and diverted to organizations deemed as
terrorist.
A CIA report to Congress released last week cited several major thefts of nuclear fuel from Russia in the 1990s. In 1992,
1.5 kilograms of enriched uranium was taken from the Luch Production
Association. In 1994, another three kilograms of enriched uranium was stolen
from Moscow. In 1998, additional nuclear material was stolen from the
Chelyabinsk province.
"We are concerned about the total amount of material that could have
been diverted over the last 10 years," the National Intelligence Council
said in a 12-page report.
"Even with increased security, however, Russian nuclear power plants
almost certainly will remain vulnerable to a well-planned and executed
terrorist attack," the report said.
U.S. officials said Al Qaida has attempted to purchased stolen nuclear
weapons and fuel on the black market. But the officials said there is no
evidence that the organization headed by Saudi fugitive Osama Bin Laden has
assembled a nuclear weapon.
Bin Laden is said to have survived the U.S. military campaign and is probably in
Afghanistan in the border region close to Pakistan, according to the "Backgrounder" column in the current edition of Geostrategy-Direct.com.
On Sunday, the New York Times reported that Bin Laden is
probably hiding along the Afghan-Pakistan border.
"I think it's very reasonable," Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S.
Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a television interview hours later. "But
again, you know, given that we don't know where he is, any speculation
about where he might be would be somewhat foolish because we simply don't
know. He has been very quiet since early January."
