more on What would be an Appropriate Response?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Steven M. Bellovin" <smb () research att com>
Date: July 21, 2004 7:14:14 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: Ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
Subject: Re: [IP] What would be an Appropriate Response?

[For IP, if you wish.  I can summarize my technical objections in a
longer message if there's interest.]

In message <0809EA9B-DB69-11D8-B3C9-000393D166C6 () farber net>, David 
Farber writ
es:
>  Klayman
> alleges that it is an open secret in Washington, D.C. that there are
> some number of tactical suite case nukes already in America.  The rumor
> is that they will be used by Al-Qaida here and the only question is
> when and where.  Before the election?

You might also want to look at 
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/7/14/215350.shtml
for an interview with the author of a book that makes that claim.  I
don't know how much of it is true; I find some of the technical claims
in that interview to be dubious.  From a plausibility perspective, the
fact that the Chechen rebels haven't used any nuclear devices is
probably the strongest argument against it -- they have al Qaida
connections, and they've detonated anything and everything they can get
their hands on.

Another strong argument is the claim that these Soviet-era suitcase
bombs were designed to be detonated by one person.  Stein and Feaver's
"Assuring Control of Nuclear Weapons: The Evolution of Permissive
Action Links" describes a Soviet nuclear force that is much more
tightly controlled than the U.S. force -- they suggest, for example,
that a Soviet missile launch would have required "three-sevice rule",
compared with U.S. "two man [sic] rule": a KGB officer, uniformed
military personnel, and a political officer".  A regime that demands
controls like that is not going to turn over control of extremely
vulnerable weapons to any one person.

                --Steve Bellovin, http://www.research.att.com/~smb


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