-
- Before the crisis in Kosovo put U-S Russian
relations back into the deep freeze, many Americans were starting to get
used to the idea of Russia as more of partner in world affairs. But have
we been kidding ourselves? There is ample evidence that Russia remains
the most dangerous nation on earth.
-
- During the Cold War, it seemed that the
world was just a moment away from nuclear annihilation. But its actually
in the post cold war world that the real dangers have been unleashed, from
a Russia that has lost control of its weapons stockpile...a stockpile that
includes deadly biological agents; a weapon so tiny, just grams of it
have he killing power of a nuclear bomb.
-
- Ken Alibek knows the danger of the Russian
program. Before he changed his name, Kanatjan Alibekov was the number two
man in the Soviet Union's Biological Warfare program. Alibek directed the
research that perfected an anthrax agent four times more deadly than before"genetically
altered, antibiotic resistant. Alibek defected in 1992, and is the author
of the book, Biohazard.!"
-
- "We were told that the United States
was developing such weapons and Great Britain," says Alibek, "and
that our weapons were a response to the United States threat." But
the Soviet program dwarfed anything in the west. The Russians developed
the capacity to produce hundreds of tons of anthrax, plague, and smallpox--More
than enough to kill everyone on the planet.!" Alibek explains the
destructive power of just "a medium range plane with two spray tanks;
each spray tank, a 2- ton capacity. And just this two tank, medium range
plane could cover from 4 to 5 thousand square kilometers. You would never
find a nuclear bomb with such capability."
-
- And Alibek alleges that despite Moscow's
denials, Russia,s Biological Weapons program is still going.!" "When
we are talking about the Ministry of Defense, it still has 4 top secret
facilities. All of them were involved in developing and manufacturing biological
weapons. It seems to me they are trying just to maintain this program in
any form. What form? Of course, we cannot answer this question until we
see these facilities opened."
-
- Alibek also says that, during the Cold
War, Mikhail Gorbachev ordered preparations for the arming of SS-18 intercontinental
ballistic missiles with biological weapons, to be aimed at American cities.
Today the danger is not what the Russians have pointed at us, but what
they have likely already sold to some of the most dangerous states in the
world.
-
- The Russian Army used to be a fearsome,
well-oiled fighting machine. Today it's closer to a rusted out piece of
junk. But the disintegration of the Russian Army has not made the world
a safer place, because this former military superpower is so broke it can't
even make the interest payments on its debt. And when your best export
products are dangerous low cost weapons, the solution to your economic
problem is, at least for Russian leaders, a no-brainer. !"
-
- "There's a tremendous spring-loaded
incentive for anyone running Russia to export lots of risky technology,"
says Henry Sokolski, weapons proliferation expert in the Bush administration.
"Given that militarization, it,s been very, very hard to change to
new types of work. And to keep people employed, there has been a tendency
to simply tell these industries: find customers. Sell and export."
-
- At the end of the Cold War, the Soviets
were transferring abroad over 20-billion dollars in arms a year. After
the Soviet crack-up, Russian transfers dropped to only a couple billion
a year, but have since rebounded to around 6-billion annually.
-
- And for Moscow, arms sales serve both
economic and strategic interests. Radio Liberty Russian analyst Paul Goble:
"When you are a power that has lost, you don't have a lot of good
choices, if you want to rebuild your power, especially if you don't have
many resources. And the first way you can rebuild power internationally
is take advantage of all the other countries who don't like the dominant
power. Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya; if you're an anti-American state, you
can be pretty sure the Russians will be trying to form a relationship with
you.
-
- Russia has offered sensitive technology
to China and Iran, and is secretly working on a multi-billion dollar deal
with Syria. Never before see satellite imagery of a chemical weapons plant
in Syria, obtained by CBN News, shows the kind of facility that rogue states
rely on Russian material and know-how to build. In the signature Russian
manner, the CW production facility is right next to a petrol-chemical plant.!"
-
- What kinds of dangerous weapons and technology
have already been transferred out of or stolen from Russia? Russian expert
Dr. Ariel Cohen at the Heritage Foundation says there is the possibility
that enriched uranium, nuclear warheads, and biological agents such as
Anthrax, have already been transferred out.. Cohen says, "The Iranians
figured it out a long time ago--if they pay off the Russians in Swiss bank
accounts, several millions of dollars, for this relatively small bribe,
they can buy the crown jewels of the old Soviet military industrial complex,
and the Russians will sell."
-
- And not just weapons, but weapons-building
know-how. At least 12 nations are suspected of having biological weapons
programs, at least some of them, thanks to Russian help. Iran has been
recruiting Russian Biological weapons scientists, offering them 5-thousand
dollars a month. That's more than some might be paid in a year in Russia.
The recruiting has worked. "The odds increase with each passing day
that a weaponwill reach the wrong hands and will ultimately be used against
the United States or its friends," according to Goble. "The largest
reason for that is the disintegration of Moscow's control over the Russian
Federation.
-
- For decades, we hoped the Soviets would
lose the cold war. But in geopolitics, sometimes you have to be careful
what you wish for.
|
