The Hindu on indiaserver.com
Wednesday, April 12, 2000
By Sridhar Krishnaswamj
WASHINGTON, APRIL 11. Ten containers of highly radioactive material, allegedly on their way to Pakistan, seized recently by Customs officers in Uzbekistan may have the markings of a "radiation" bomb and not a nuclear weapon and one that could be used by terrorists in West Asia, says Mr.Stephen Bryen, columnist in The Washington Times.
The author argues that this bomb made of highly radioactive materials and conventional explosives was first assembled by Chechen rebels in 1995; and was planted in a place in Moscow only to be dug up by a highly trained Russian team. The damage caused by a radiation bomb buried under the ground would not be much compared to what would have happened had it exploded in the air.
"Pakistan does not need this type of material for its nuclear weapons programme, but Pakistan may be independently working on radiation-type weapons for itself or for others such as Iran... Because Islamic terrorists expect to become martyrs, carrying around a highly.radioactive weapon in a suitcase is not a factor of importance in the calculation of these terrorists," said Mr. Bryen, former head of the Defence Technology Security Administration.
Analysts like Mr. Bryen stress that the United States needs to step up its cooperation with countries such as Uzbekistan to counter terrorists rather than worrying about extraneous human rights issues; for, terrorists who get support from Iran and Afghanistan threaten Uzbekistan.
The argument is there is a clear link between terrorists and nuclear smuggling operations and that these operations are run by well-disciplined intelligence services of Iran and Afghanistan and, "quite possibly'', Pakistan.
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