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- FBI Director Louis Freeh admitted that Russia may yet
have stored weapons " including nuclear suitcase bombs " at secret
locations around the US.
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- The stunning revelations appeared in yesterday,s editions
of the New York Post. The paper quoted Congressman Curt Weldon (R-Pa.)
as having had a conversation with Freeh in the past two weeks.
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- Weldon said that Freeh "acknowledged the possibility
that hidden weapons caches exist in the United States . . . .
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- Weldon, a leading congressional expert on Russia and
chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Research
and Development, said, "There is no doubt that the Soviets stored
material in this country. The question is what and where.
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- Congressional scrutiny has focused on dozens of nuclear
suitcase bombs that have disappeared from Russian,s nuclear arsenal. According
to Russian sources, including Russian General Alexander Lebed, Russia produced
132 nuclear suitcase bombs, each carrying 10 kilotons of explosive material.
Only 48 remain in Russia,s inventory; the rest have disappeared.
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- The FBI has taken a nonchalant approach to locating the
secret caches.
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- Congressional sources indicate that the FBI scoured the
area around Brainerd, Minn. " one area Russian agents were believed
to have forward-deployed weapons in the event of a war.
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- But Weldon said the Clinton administration is not interested
in pressing the Yeltsin government for fear of destabilizing his shaky
position vis-à-vis the country,s military leadership.
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- Concerns about the secret stockpiles have been fueled
in recent years by revelations made by Russian defectors.
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- One KGB defector, Vasili Mitrokhin, provided information
to British intelligence that secret weapons stockpiles are scattered throughout
the US., including upstate New York, California, Texas, Montana and Minnesota.
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- Mitrokhin has also stated that such stockpiles were also
made throughout Europe. Some Russian weapons caches have been located in
Belgium and Switzerland.
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- Colonel Stanislav Lunev, the highest ranking military
spy ever to defect from Russia, has testified that the Soviet military
developed elaborate plans for the use of weapons during the outset of a
war with the US.
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- Lunev said Russian military plans include the destruction
of military bases, command and control centers, and the assassination of
top US. leaders, including the president and members of Congress.
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- Lunev has also told members of Congress that suitcase
nuclear devices may have already been forward-deployed into the US.
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- While the secret stockpiles appear to be remnants of
the Cold War period, Lunev, a NewsMax.com columnist and author of Through
the Eyes of the Enemy, has warned US. authorities that Soviet military
strategy continues under the guise of Russian "democracy.
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- Lunev has stated that Russian military leaders continue
to see a nuclear conflict between Russia and the United States as "inevitable.
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- In recent years, the Russian government has continued
to invest heavily in strategic weapons. Russia is currently mass producing
the Topol-M intercontinental missile " a weapon more sophisticated
than anything produced by the US. military.
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- Russia also continues to invest billions in building
large underground bunkers for use during a nuclear conflict. Last month,
the Yelstin government announced plans to increase military spending by
50 percent in next year's budget.
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