OPENING STATEMENT
REP. CURT WELDON
CHAIRMAN
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT SUBCOMMITTEE
HEARING ON NUCLEAR TERRORISM AND COUNTERMEASURES
October 1, 1997
This afternoon, the Military Research and Development Subcommittee meets in open session to receive testi-mony
on nuclear terrorism and steps that the U.S. government has taken to guard against this threat.
As we meet here today, the motion picture Peacemaker, that opened in hundreds of movie theaters across the
nation last week, is raising the consciousness of Americans about the threat posed by Russia's deteriorating control over
its nuclear arsenal, that could allow terrorists to acquire a nuclear weapon. In the movie Peacemaker, Russian organized
crime penetrates the Russian military, corrupting key officers in charge of nuclear weapons security, who steal several
nuclear weapons for sale to terrorists. One of the bombs ends up in New York City.
Peacemaker is entertaining fiction. But it is also a disturbing case of art imitating life. Many of the premises of
the motion picture are based on grim realities. Corruption and organized crime in the Russian military is a growing
problem, and is reaching such proportions that the security of Russian nuclear weapons and materials could be threat-ened.
Just yesterday, the Center for Strategic and International Studies released a substantial report concluding that the
spread of organized crime into the military raises "the prospect of strategic, nuclear armed missile systems in the hands of
a disintegrating military subject to criminal control."
Indeed, Aleksandr Lebed, former presidential candidate and Secretary of the Russian Security Council, recently
alleged that terrorists may already be in possession of Russian nuclear weapons. The first time that we learned about
these stray devices was on May 30, when Lebed met with the congressional delegation that I led to Russia. Lebed said
that, while still acting in his capacity as Secretary of the Russian Security Council, he had conducted a study of the
Russian military's accounting for its nuclear weapons, and found that the military had lost track of 84 suitcase-sized
nuclear bombs, any one of which could kill up to 100,000 people. In a U.S. television interview, aired on September 7,
Lebed said he now believes the number of missing nuclear weapons to be more than 100. He said the devices were the
perfect terrorist weapon, as the small nuclear bombs were made to look like suitcases and could be detonated by one
person with less than 30-minutes preparation.
Lebed's allegations have been vehemently denied by the Russian government. Moscow has even asserted that
nuclear weapons of the kind described by Lebed never existed, an erroneous claim that does not help the credibility of
Moscow's denials. Russian special forces are known to possess atomic demolition munitions (ADMs)-small, man-portable nuclear weapons that could be concealed in a backpack or suitcase. Nor is Moscow's credibility helped by its poor
record of veracity on other issues-such as the purpose of the vast underground complex currently being constructed under
Yamantau Mountain, and Moscow's dissembling on its assistance to Iran and Iraq's ballistic missile programs.
More credible Lebed critics are former Russian Defense Minister Igor Rodionov and Duma defense committee
chairman Lev Rohklin, who are no fans of the Yeltsin government and have been as vocal as Lebed about the nuclear security
risks that attend the disintegration of the Russian military. Rodionov and Rohklin deny that any Russian nuclear weapons are
missing. On the other hand, they are Lebed's political rivals and may hope that, by undermining Lebed's credibility, they will
injure the popular ex-general's chances to win the next presidential election.
Lebed's former deputy on the Russian Security Council, Vladimir Denisov, affirms Lebed's claims about missing
Russian nuclear weapons: "The leakage of nuclear materials and nuclear ammunition components is not a new theme but it
became especially topical during hostilities in Chechnya.there was no certainty.that no low-yield nuclear ammunition
remained on the territory of Ukraine, Georgia, or the Baltic countries or that such weapons had not appeared in Chechnya."
Dr. Alexei Yablokov, former environmental advisor to President Yeltsin and a respected member of the Russian Federation
Academy of Sciences, said he personally knew people who manufactured the suitcase nuclear bombs that Moscow claims do
not exist, and that Lebed says are missing. Dr. Yablokov will testify before the Subcommittee tomorrow.
So, the bottom-line is that no one in the West, and few in Russia, know whether Lebed is telling the truth. Dozens of
small nuclear weapons, ideal for terrorist use, may have fallen into the wrong hands. Or perhaps not. The important point is
that crime, corruption, incompetence, and institutional disintegration are so advanced in Russia that the theft of nuclear
weapons, unthinkable in the Soviet war machine of the Cold War, seems entirely plausible in the Russia of today. The mere
possibility that terrorists or rogue states may have acquired some Russian nuclear weapons should be a matter of the gravest
concern to the governments of the West.
Another reality captured in the movie Peacemaker is that we are not helpless in the face of nuclear terrorism. The
movie portrays Nuclear Emergency Search Teams springing into action to save New York from a terrorist nuclear weapon.
NEST teams prepared to combat nuclear terrorism actually exist, and we shall hear more about them today. Whether the happy
ending portrayed in Peacemaker would in fact be the likely outcome of an actual nuclear terrorist event is highly problemati-cal.
We can and should do more to combat the threat of nuclear terrorism.
Joining us today to provide their insights are three panels of expert witnesses. On our first panel are Jessica Stern,
former Director of Russian, Ukrainian, and Eurasian Affairs on the National Security Council; and Lisa Gordon-Hagerty,
Director of the Office of Emergency Response Defense Programs at the Department of Energy. Ms. Stern, who dealt with
issues of Russian nuclear security and proliferation while serving on the NSC, is the inspiration for the character played by
Nicole Kidman in Peacemaker. Today, if a terrorist event such as portrayed in Peacemaker were to actually occur, Ms.
Gordon-Hagerty would be doing Nicole Kidman's job, coordinating our response to the terrorist threat.
Our second group of panelists will discuss the effect of organized crime on Russian nuclear security and the problem
of nuclear proliferation. The panelists are JudgeWilliam Webster, former Director of the CIA and FBI, and Arnaud de
Borchgrave and Frank Cilluffo of the Center for Strategic and International Security, who have just completed a major study on
Russian organized crime.
Our third and final panelist will be Arnold Warshawsky of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, who will discuss
a promising new technology for detecting and thwarting a terrorist attempt to smuggle a nuclear weapon into a U.S. city.
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