If any terrorist organization ever gets their hands on plutonium or the means to produce a dirty bomb, you can rest assured the materials will come from the former Soviet Union. It's a Nuclear DisneyLand just waiting for the highest bidder. Most facilities are poorly guarded by underpaid or not paid at all soldiers who could use an extra couple of million to get a get out of Russia card without passing go.

It's been a major problem since the collapse of the Soviet Union. But it's been ignored like most serious problems the world faces. And now it's just a matter of time before the above story becomes a regular occurence.

These are the same people who want to spend billions sending a manned mission to mars. What a joke. They can't even afford to protect any of the nuclear, chemical & biological facilities they've created over the past 40 years.

An unnamed U. S. offical quoted in the Guardian story says:

"We should not just blame Russia. The US does not protect its materials better than anyone else."

Jesus, that's a pleasant thought for a beautiful Saturday morning!

The most disturbing aspect to potential nuclear theft in the territories of the former Soviet Union is the probability of coverup or denial that something happened.

Hope I'm wrong and that there isn't/aren't instances where some low to mid level management types have doctored over insider jobs that have diverted materials, either because they needed the cash or were covering their asses.

On the other hand, there is small comfort that if anyone ever created a hyper-paranoid security culture over sensitive materials (truly sensitive), it was the Soviets. This could be a good thing - because there really isn't an extreme position when it comes to hyper-paranoia over weapons grade nuclear material.

actually, i just saw this. baltimore gets blown up and morgan freeman dies, but ben affleck saves the world. relax.

Skippy,
Try reading the book, which is great. There it's Denver, with the nuke - which is a fizzle and fails to ignite the secondary thermonuclear bomb- blowing up in the parking lot outside the superbowl. And the plan was to destroy the Glasnost era improved relations between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R and start a global nuclear war, which it came close to doing (but for the heroic exploits of Jack Ryan).

The problem with all of Tom Clancy's subsequent books in the Jack Ryan series is that the world and the U.S. - after Denver getting nuked --is about the same as it was before. But no such event could occur without changing everything: society, politics, the economy, government, you name it. Look at how profound a change Septemebr 11th has wrought with only about 3000 killed.

On the other hand, the Septemebr 11th attacks were almost prophesized in "Debt of Honor" by Tom Clancy. For nightmare scenarios, nobody does it better than Tom Clancy.

Which is why President Bush should ask Clancy to serve as chairman of a small committee tasked with writing a classified report outlining for the government new and original potential Al Qaeda scenarios that need to be defended against. (Lest there be another "failure of imagination").

Mark A. - excellent suggestion.

While Clancy sometimes gets the minor details a bit fuzzy (most military readers of his books can tell where the briefings and research end and the speculation begins, or where he has simply extrapolated capabilities beyond actual doctrinal useage), the scenarios are totally plausible and chilling.

The original scenario in "Sum of all Fears", vis-a-vis the acquisition and construction of the device, were much more plausible, and a much greater danger of actually mirroring reality than the PC'd version of the movie.

The military has supported Clancy directly and indirectly for years - great idea, how about a bit of quid-pro-quo?

The Pentagon already has Hollywood screenwriters developing training scenarios for a massive command center simulator. Not sure that this ties into the strategy offices that much, though.

Story:
[Link: www.xent.com...]
Consultants:
[Link: www.ict.usc.edu...]

And anyway they have their own experts, like John Arquilla:
[Link: www.fathom.com...]

Not to mention the rest of RAND Corp.

But Clancy's on a first-name basis with half the Pentagon already -- and consider that half the ideas he writes about aren't his, but stuff that's circulating already.

It's disturbing that this materiel has fallen into the hands of Chechen rebels because most likely these rebels are Islamists. And you know what that means.....

The key line in this was - "The theft, which took place within the last 12 months...."

This could have taken place a YEAR AGO - as in pre 9/11 - and nobody knows jack about it.