We have all been duped about this guy, Osama. If you have been reading Nyquist, you know he knows what he is talking about. The Spetsnaz commandos are here folks. Y2k is now a distraction to the real threat to America. Read it and weep.

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Is bin Laden a nuclear power?

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) 1999 WorldNetDaily.com

According to Yosef Bodansky, a researcher attached to the House counter-terrorism task force, a Middle East terrorist is now believed to have as many as 20 suitcase nuclear bombs. In addition, this same terrorist is alleged to possess biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction. Supposedly, Chechnyan rebels managed to steal nuclear suitcase bombs from the Russian military. These bombs were then smuggled out of Russia and sold to Osama bin Laden, an international fugitive and terrorist hiding in Afghanistan. Readers may recall that Osama bin Laden is a Saudi national accused of masterminding the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. These bombings killed 224 people and left over 5,000 injured.

Blaming Osama bin Laden for the African bombings, President Clinton launched an air strike against bin Laden's Afghan base camp. This air strike, as Clinton's luck would have it, came shortly after he publicly apologized for the Monica Lewinsky affair. Clinton also ordered an air strike against a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan, claiming it was a chemical weapons factory.

More recently, Clinton Administration officials have accused Osama bin Laden of plotting bomb attacks against the United States Embassy and two consulates in India. The U.S. government has offered five million dollars to anyone who provides information leading to bin Laden's arrest or conviction.

In Afghanistan bin Laden is considered a war hero for risking his life in the struggle against Moscow's client armies. Therefore, it is not surprising that many Afghans were dismayed at the idea that bin Laden was a threat to America. The pro-Taliban Shariat newspaper noted, "America is a superpower with a strong economy and a strong political system, so why does it have such an obsession for a person who is very weak?"

The Taliban judiciary began its own formal investigation into U.S. claims that bin Laden was waging a war of terror against the United States. The three-week inquiry was headed by Afghanistan's chief justice, Noor Muhammed Saqib. Chief Justice Saqib asked the U.S. government to provide evidence so that he could act, but the United States offered no evidence at all. "It is their shame that they have been silent," said an angry Saqib. "Anything that happens now anywhere in the world they blame Osama, but the reality is in the proof -- they have not given us any."

At his Friday press conference, Bodanksy cited Russian and Saudi intelligence sources to support his stunning allegations. He also said that Osama bin Laden was attempting to recruit "former Soviet special forces" to operate the bombs behind enemy lines.

Bodansky's sources, however, are suspect. One must always treat the claims of Russian officials with near-total skepticism. Can we really believe that the anti-Soviet bin Laden would work closely with former Soviet commandos who were his deadly enemies in the past? And what sort of Russian special forces soldier would assist an anti-Russian terrorist? It is doubtful that any such person has ever existed in the ranks of Soviet or Russian special forces. In the last analysis, it is more likely that Bodansky has been fed false information.

The same goes for the Saudis, who have probably been duped by Russian intelligence agents. The idea that a minor terrorist, confined to the wilds of Afghanistan, has obtained a nuclear arsenal that would be the envy of Libya or Iraq -- with their billions -- is absurd on its face. Besides this, the sophistication required to effectively handle weapons of mass destruction belongs only to governments that have billions of dollars and armies of dedicated technical specialists. The notion that a Saudi millionaire-terrorist -- not even a billionaire -- isolated by his enmity for American and Russia, could achieve so much with so little, is more than suspicious. It is ridiculous. That being said, Osama bin Laden is a convenient diversion for Bill Clinton and for Clinton's "friends" in the Kremlin.

The most alarming thing about the bin Laden story is the way it helps the nuclear war strategy of the Kremlin. According to the highest ranking defector from the Russian General Staff, Colonel Stanislav Lunev, a surprise Russian nuclear strike would begin with the deployment of 7,000 Spetsnaz commandos to the United States. These would enter the U.S. as civilians. At the same time, nuclear suitcase bombs together with biological and chemical weapons would be smuggled into the U.S. along the same routes used to smuggle narcotics.

The purpose of initiating a general nuclear war with suitcase nuclear bombs involves the need for "diversion" and "disruption" of U.S. command and control. According to former CIA analyst Peter Vincent Pry, "Strategic surprise would be achieved if the ... [Russians] could deprive the United States of strategic warning of their intention to attack."

The purpose of detonating nuclear suitcase bombs, and of unleashing biological and chemical weapons within the U.S., would be to simulate a terrorist campaign by non-Russian forces. The United States, assuming it was under attack from ordinary terrorists, would not suspect the true purpose. Russian Spetsnaz would target U.S. command and control and early warning systems, as well as other targets that would create maximum confusion.

The United States early warning network consists of three DSP launch detection satellites and six radars. The satellites are presently in geosynchronous orbit over the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. These satellites are able to detect Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) and Submarine Launch Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs) once their engines are ignited during a launch sequence. Each of the three DSP satellites has a ground station with uplinks. If these ground stations are destroyed by suitcase nukes, and if the early warning radars are damaged, the United States would be blinded.

If U.S. political and military leaders were killed or assassinated by Spetsnaz commandos, the result might be that nobody in authority would realize the strategic implications of the attacks on early warning systems. All that the Russian generals need to achieve surprise is 35 minutes of paralysis, blindness, and confusion. That is what the 7,000 Spetsnaz commandos would be aiming at.

Now that we've been told that any Spetsnaz commandos caught on American soil are probably working for bin Laden, we will be looking the wrong way.

Last May United States military intelligence detained a group of Russian tourists who were visiting all the dams along the Colorado River. It turns out that these "tourists" were suspected to be Russian Spetsnaz. They were visiting the sites they would attack in the event of war.

The Russian General Staff regards a future war with America as "inevitable." These are not my words, but the words of a colonel who served the Russian General Staff for nearly 35 years. In this context the news about bin Laden is more ominous than a small terrorist group with nuclear weapons. There has been a larger group of criminals and terrorists living in the Kremlin since 1917. And they have a lot more than 20 suitcase nuclear bombs.

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J.R. Nyquist is a WorldNetDaily contributing editor and author of 'Origins of the Fourth World War.'

-- BB (peace2u@bellatlantic.net), August 12, 1999

Answers

problem with this Nyquist guy is that he places all his faith in the testimony of ONE dude, Lunev. And Lunev, of course, could be KGB preaching his gospel of gloom in order to extort more money and invetment into failing Russian economy. Or he could just be a guy who's found a niche among very frightened, paranoid people like you and me, laughing all the way to the bank with his book sales. I really doubt this Nyquist guy is right, or at least i hope he's not. Maybe Nyquist has a bone to pick. Mabye he wants to see a return of the vast prestige and unbridled spending power of the 1988 US military, and hates to see the post cold war cutbacks.

-- coprolith (coprolith@rocketship.com), August 12, 1999.

Below is still another scenario, which makes a lot of sense to me.

Is a New Axis war machine threatening Washington's empire?

This fellow thinks so. An interesting read. ---------- selected exerpts from: Secret: The New Axis By Richard J. Maybury EARLY WARNING REPORT (from reprints of back issues)

I believe a secret alliance against the US has been formed by Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, North Korea, China, Pakistan, Chechnya, Serbia, Sudan and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Several hate each other, but they hate us more.

If I'm right that this secret alliance has been formed, we need a name for it. In World War II, the USG's enemies were the Axis, so I'll call this group the New Axis.

Mind you, I'm not saying I'm sure the New Axis has been formed, only that it seems logical - if I were them, this is what I'd be doing.

The March (1996) Taiwan crisis looked to me like a test, a New Axis experiment to see how easily Clinton could be suckered into moving the carrier Nimitz away from the Persian Gulf oil fields. If this is what it was, it worked. The Chinese fired their missiles, and like a guard dog abandoning his post to chase a rabbit, the Nimitz headed for Taiwan. At the same time, Iranian-backed rebels were threatening trouble in Bahrain, so the carrier George Washington, which was in the Mediterranean protecting US troops in Bosnia, had to leave its post to make a mad dash to the Persian Gulf.

Let me emphasize again that present US military forces are entirely adequate to protect America, if they were in America, and they are probably enough to fight two small foreign wars. But what if I am right about the New Axis?

Suppose that, all on the same day:

Libya annexes the Gulf of Sidra, Sudan mines the Red Sea, Serbs hit Kosovo and attack US troops in Bosnia, Iran launches revolts in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Iraq takes Kuwait, North Korea invades South Korea, China fires missiles at Taiwan and takes the oil-rich Spratly Islands, and Syrian, Algerian and Chechen guerrillas smuggle nuclear, chemical or biological weapons into Moscow, Washington and Paris. Are these regimes smart enough to coordinate their moves this way?

What do you think?

Could US forces handle it?

No chance, they are spread way too thin. Outgoing defense secretary William Perry admitted to ARMY TIMES, "Our force structure is stretched pretty close to the limit in carrying out the missions and tasks that we have." If you and I know about this, so do the regimes of the New Axis.

Why would the New Axis do it?

Revenge.

Read the complete article at: http://www.chaostan.com/newaxis.html

-- Danny (dcox@ix.netcom.com), August 12, 1999.

coprolith -

Unfortunately, there is a good deal of fact underlying this story, even if it is more "what if" than "what is" (or will be).

A high-level Russian official DID come forward several years ago and admit that many (about 75?) of these small "suitcase" style a-bombs had gone missing from old Soviet era military/spook facilities. Presumably, as bad as things have gotten over there, the bombs were sold on the black market to the highest bidder.

BTW - does anyone has some facts on just how powerful these portable a-bomb devices are? I seem to recollect about 1 megaton yields (similar to the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombs, but much less powerful than those mounted on today's ICBM warheads... which can go up 100 megatons or more).

Also, the Spetsnaz -- the Russian version of U.S. military's special forces -- are very real, very capable, and extremely dangerous individuals. I read an article earlier this year about their training, which is beyond brutal. Since the Spetsnaz originated during the Soviet era as an elite patriotic group, it is likely that its leaders maintain a strong sense of loyalty to the traditional communist ways and long for a return to "tradition."

So, it's not much of an intellectual leap to believe that that the Russian economic chaos of this decade has created an ideal atmosphere for recruiting just the sort of individual ready, willing, and able to put this type of plan into effect.

*shudder*

-- M.C. Hicks (mhicks@greenwich.com), August 12, 1999.

I'm not too big of a fan of WorldNetDaily, but Jeff Nyquist is an excellent speaker and author. And his sources go far beyond Stanislav Lunev, who is but one former Soviet who is trying to warn the rest of the world.

The bin Laden family, by the way, are key players in Iridium. That's a scary thought when one considers that if Iridium has indeed crafted a Y2K-failsafe communication network, then a large segment of all future banking and telecommunications will be riding on the backbone of folks that may not be very friendly if Y2K pans out along doomer scenarios.

-- Zach Anderson (zlau@figure.8m.com), August 12, 1999.

Yes, Nyquist uses more than one source. It is obvious to those who read his writings. The man has read over 800 books on Russia, political science, and Russian military strategy. Lunev and Golitsyn are credible defectors, although other sourcess should be used to confirm their information.

Another good source for Soviet strategy is CSIS, Frank Gaffney, and Chris Story who publishes The Soviet Intelligence Analyst.

If you are interested in Nyquist's credentials, pick up his "Origins of the Fourth War".

-- BB (peace2u@bellatlantic.net), August 12, 1999.

Hey, I can tell you from bitter personal experience, our military is like a peanut butter sandwhich that somebody scraped the peanut butter from (never end a sentence with a preposition, yeah, I know what Churchill said...). We are way too thin for ONE semi-war. Amateurs talk strategy...professionals talk logistics. We haven't got what we need for a serious conflict. I'd write more, but it is too depressing. I came in just after South East Asia, did my very small part in building us back to the ass-kickin' Army we were a decade ago, and I'm ripping my hair out trying to get my little part of the Army that I love (and curse!) so much back to where we should be...so powerful no one dares to F--- with us! And in a just and righteous cause, may God grant us victory...FOREVER! Can EVERYBODY say AIRBORNE?!?

-- Mr. Mike (mikeabn@aol.com), August 12, 1999.