[IP] more on What would be an Appropriate Response?
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Steven M. Bellovin" <smb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: July 21, 2004 7:14:14 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Ip <ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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@xxxxxxxxxx>, 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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